The Etruscans

Although historians, both ancient and modem, agree on the uniqueness of the Etruscan civilisation, the origins of the Etruscan people has been a matter of a long-standing controversy.

According to the Greek historian Herodotus (fifth century BC), the Etruscans immigrated to Italy from Lydia in Asia Minor by sea in the early Iron Age (tenth or ninth century BC). Herodotus's account was accepted by most Roman writers, as well as by the Etruscans themselves, and provided the basis for the so called 'Asianic theory'. But Dionysius of Halicarnassus, writing in the first century BC, drew attention to the important differences between the Etruscan and Lydian languages and institutions of his day and concluded that the Etruscans must have been of Italian origin. A theory which has gained ground in recent years claims that the Etruscans were either immigrants from the Danube basin, or a fusion of continental, eastern and indigenous races.^{^[105]} Archaeological evidence suggests that the Etruscan civilisation grew out of the earlier Villanovan culture of central Italy. This early Iron Age culture took its name from the village of Villanova, in the district of Bologna, where its remains were first discovered.^{^[106]}

The Etruscans, unlike the Latins and the Sabines, were a citydwelling people. Their fortified cities, which were situated on hilltops and other easy to defend positions, formed strong political and commercial centres. Each city was politically independent and, until the sixth or early fifth century BC, was governed by a king who was chosen from among a small number of noble families. Although the kings were in later years replaced by annually elected magistrates, the Etruscans' social and political organisation remained predominantly aristocratic in character.

Economic life was based on agriculture and cattle-rearing, as well as on industry and commerce.^{^[107]} The Etruscans were also a powerful maritime people and their involvement in sea-trade brought them into contact with other Mediterranean peoples, such as the Greeks and the Phoenicians. The Greek influence on their culture is reflected in their art and architecture and is evidenced by the thousands of tomb-inscriptions which they left behind. These inscriptions indicate that the Etruscans had adopted a Greek alphabet (probably from the Greek city of Cumae in Campania) before the end of the seventh century BC.

In the closing years of the seventh century BC the Etruscans began their territorial expansion in Italy by conquering neighbouring Latium. With the occupation of Latium began the move towards the urbanisation of the rural communities in the area around the river Tiber that was later to become the city of Rome. By the middle of the sixth century BC, the Etruscans had gained control over a large territory extending from the Adriatic coast in the east to the Alps in the north, and from the Amo river to the bay of Naples on Italy's western coast. But the Estruscans' domination over Italy was short-lived, largely due to the rigidity of their aristocratic system of government, which did not permit the peaceful assimilation of subject populations, and the lack of an effective political alliance between the Etruscan city-states that could secure their territorial gains.^{^[108]} In the late sixth century BC the Etruscan power declined rapidly following a series of military setbacks and armed uprisings of subject populations. But, despite the decline of Etruscan power, the Etruscan culture continued to progress and remained productive and influential for several centuries.

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Source: Mousourakis George. The Historical and Institutional Context of Roman Law. Routledge,2003. — 480 p.. 2003

The Etruscans

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