The Etruscans: summary of the origins, history, culture, influence on the Romans and the decline of this population.
Origin of the Etruscans: summary
Among the pre-Roman Italic populations, the Etruscans developed a flourishing and refined civilization that significantly influenced the first centuries of Roman history . The origins of the Etruscans are still uncertain. Some ancient sources claim that this people came from Lydia, a region of Asia Minor; other sources claim that the Etruscans were an indigenous Italic population, while some modern scholars hypothesize that this people arrived in Italy from the regions of northern Europe.
The Etruscan population was probably the result of a slow fusion between elements of some culturally and technologically advanced eastern tribes, who arrived in Italy around the second millennium BC, and elements of the pre-existing Villanovan populations. The Etruscan civilization began to assert itself at the beginning of the 9th century BC in the area of northern Lazio.
The Etruscan Civilization
The Etruscans never formed a unitary state, the Etruscan nation was made up of a confederation of twelve autonomous and conflicting city states . In ancient times each city was governed by a king called lucumone , starting from the end of the sixth century BC the city government passed into the hands of the aristocrats who owned most of the agricultural land. The population of the Etruscan city states was made up of very active traders, skilled craftsmen and a large number of farmers who, living in very miserable conditions, worked as employees or servants on the large properties of the aristocrats.
In the most ancient period, the Etruscan economy was based mainly on livestock breeding and a flourishing agriculture. Also important were the crafts and the exploitation of the iron, copper and lead mines of the Tuscan Metalliferous Hills and the island of Elba. Commercial activity, especially maritime, also developed greatly; in a short time the Etruscans controlled all the commercial routes of the north-western Mediterranean .
In the 7th and 6th centuries the Etruscan cities undertook a decisive expansionist policy and conquered a large part of central Italy: they extended their dominions into Campania, into the Lazio area beyond the Tiber, and into the Po Valley.
The Decline of the Etruscans
The unstoppable decline of Etruscan power began in the 5th century BC. The Celts invaded and conquered the Po Valley, the Greeks of Syracuse defeated the Etruscan troops at Cumae, depriving the Etruscan cities of their dominance over maritime trade in the north-western Mediterranean, and over the course of two centuries the Samnites and the Romans conquered all the areas of Lazio and Campania that were under Etruscan control. After losing all political and economic weight, between the end of the 4th century and the beginning of the 3rd century BC the Etruscan cities all fell into the Roman sphere of influence.
