heir tombs and the influence of Greece
upon their civilization in general. But they, as well as the
Carthaginians, were jealous of Greek expansion in the western
Mediterranean, and in 536 a combined fleet of these two peoples forced the
Phoceans to abandon their settlement on the island of Corsica. For the
Greeks their name came to be synonymous with pirates, on account of their
depredations which extended even as far as the Aegean.

*Government.* In Etruria there existed a league of twelve Etruscan cities.
However, as we know of as many as seventeen towns in this region, it is
probable that several cities were not independent members of the league.
This league was a very loose organization, religious rather than political
in its character, which did not impair the sovereignty of its individual
members. Only occasionally do several cities seem to have joined forces
for the conduct of military enterprises. The cities at an early period
were ruled by kings, but later were under the control of powerful
aristocratic families, each backed by numerous retainers.

*Expansion north of the Apennines, in Latium and in Campania.* In the
course of the sixth century the Etruscans crossed the Apennines and
occupied territory in the Po valley northwards to the Alps and eastwards
to the Adriatic. Somewhat earlier, towards the end of the seventh century,
they forced their way through Latium, established themselves in Campania,
where they founded the cities of Capua and Nola, and gradually completed
the subjugation of Latium itself. This marks the extreme limits of their
expansion in Italy, and before the opening of the fifth century their
power was already on the wane.

*The decline of the Etruscan power.* It was about this time that Rome
freed itself from Etruscan domination, while the other Latins, aided by
Aristodemus, the Greek tyrant of Cyme, inflicted a severe defeat upon the
Etruscans at Aricia (505 B. C.). A land and sea attack upon Cyme itself,
in 474, resulted in the destruction of the Etruscan fleet by Hieron,
tyrant of Syracuse. The year 438 B. C. saw the end of the Etruscan power
in Campania with the fall of Capua before a Samnite invasion. Not long
afterwards, as we shall see, a Celtic invasion drove them from the valley
of the Po. The explanation of this rapid collapse of the Etruscan power
outside Etruria proper is that, owing to the lack of political unity,
these conquests were not national efforts but were made by ind