PTER XVII

ROME

ANCIENT PEOPLES OF ITALY

THE ETRUSCANS

=Etruria.=--The word Italy never signified for the ancients the same
as for us: the Po Valley (Piedmont and Lombardy) was a part of Gaul.
The frontier country at the north was Tuscany. The Etruscans who dwelt
there have left it their name (Tusci).

Etruria was a country at once warm and humid; the atmosphere hung
heavily over the inhabitants. The region on the shore of the sea where
the Etruscans had most of their cities is the famous Maremma, a
wonderfully fertile area, covered with beautiful forests, but where
the water having no outlet forms marshes that poison the air. "In the
Maremma," says an Italian proverb, "one gets rich in a year, but dies
in six months."

=The Etruscan People.=--The Etruscans were for the ancients, and are
still for us, a mysterious people. They had no resemblance to their
neighbor's, and doubtless they came from a distance--from Germany,
Asia, or from Egypt; all these opinions have been maintained, but no
one of them is demonstrated.

We are ignorant even of the language that they spoke. Their alphabet
resembles that of the Greeks, but the Etruscan inscriptions present
only proper names, and these are too short to furnish a key to the
language.

The Etruscans established twelve cities in Tuscany, united in a
confederation, each with its own fortress, its king, and its
government. They had colonies on both coasts, twelve in Campania in
the vicinity of Naples, and twelve more in the valley of the Po.

=Etruscan Tombs.=--There remain to us from the Etruscans only city
walls and tombs.

When an Etruscan tomb is opened, one perceives a porch supported by
columns and behind this chambers with couches, and bodies laid on
these. Round about are ornaments of gold, ivory, and amber; purple
cloths, utensils, and especially large painted vases. On the walls are
paintings of combats, games, banquets, and fantastic scenes.

=Industry and Commerce.=--The Etruscans knew how to turn their fertile
soil to some account, but they were for the most part mariners and
traders. Like the Phoenicians they made long journeys to seek the ivory
of India, amber from the Baltic, tin, the Phoenician purple, Egyptian
jewels adorned with hieroglyphics, and even ostrich eggs. All these
objects are found in their tombs. Their navies sailed to the south as
far as Sicily. The Greeks hated them and called them "savage
Tyrrhenians" or "Etruscan pirates." A