The Etruscans
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The origin of the Etruscans
The Greeks called the Etruscans Tursenoi; the Romans called them Etrusci or Tusci, and they called themselves Rasenna. The epic poet Hesiod refers to the Etruscans, calling them Tyrrhenians. The Etruscans culture first appeared in the lands between the Arno and the Tiber around 800 BC. The language of the Etruscans is not Indo-European and has not been fully deciphered. There is a debate as to whether the Etruscans were an autochthonous people or were immigrants from Asia. The debate began in ancient times! Herodotus (c. 450 BC) maintained that the Etruscans derived from Lydians of western Asia Minor who had migrated as a result of a famine, and this was the view held by the Etruscans themselves and by later Roman writers. On the other hand, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, commenting on the differences between the Etruscan and Lydian languages, concluded that the Etruscans were auto-chthonous. However, their language is generally agreed to have not been an Indo-European one, and on the island of Lemnos in the Aegean a tomb inscription has been discovered in a language akin to Etruscan. The Greek historian Thucydides stated that the pre-Greek population of Lemnos was Tyrrhenian. It is possible that the Etruscans were originally an Aegean peoples who migrated to Tuscany and established themselves as a warrior class and gradually assimilated the Villanovan chthonous culture. The Etruscans lived primarily in cities, and this points again to immigration from the east. One speculation concerns the attack of the "Peoples of the Sea" which is recorded in c12th BC Egypt records; these people are believed to have been of Achaean Greeks and other peoples of the Aegean. Egyptian records indicate that two attacks by Sea Raiders in 1221 BC and 1190 BC were repulsed. It is possible that some of the repulsed peoples migrated to Italy. In the Mycenaean Age of 1,400 to 1,200 BC there was frequent trade and intercourse between the Aegean and the Western Mediterranean. Peoples migrating from the Aegean region could have had some knowledge of Italy. Whilst the early c12th BC is well before the noted rise of the Etruscan culture, this adds credence to the idea that the Etruscans were immigrants that arrived by sea and imposed themselves as a conquering aristocracy on the earlier people with their Villanovan culture. On this theory, after a period of time, the Etruscan culture absorbed the Villanovan culture and the original language of the Villanovans ceased to be used.
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Contents of
The Etruscans
1 The Villanovan culture
2 The origin of the Etruscans
3 Etruscan economy and culture
4 Etruscan cities
5 Etruscan art and philosophy
6 Etruscan haruspicy
7 Greek colonization in Italy
8 Foundation of Cumae
9 International relations of Etruria
10 Internal politics of Etruscan cities
11 Etruscan monarchy in Rome
12 Rome and the Etruscans
13 The effect of Etruscan rule on Rome
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