abellians as well as to the Greeks.
Their language is radically different from the other languages of Italy;
and their manners and customs clearly prove them to be a people
originally quite distinct from the Greek and Italian races. Their
religion was of a gloomy character, delighting in mysteries and in wild
and horrible rites. Their origin is unknown. Most ancient writers relate
that the Etruscans were Lydians who had migrated by sea from Asia to
Italy; but this is very improbable, and it is now more generally
believed that the Etruscans descended into Italy from, the Rhaetian Alps.
It is expressly stated by ancient writers that the Rhaetians were
Etruscans, and that they spoke the same language; while their name is
perhaps the same as that of Rasena, the native name of the Etruscans. In
more ancient times, before the Roman dominion, the Etruscans inhabited
not only the country called Etruria, but also the great plain of the Po,
as far as the foot of the Alps. Here they maintained their ground till
they were expelled or subdued by the invading Gauls. The Etruscans, both
in the north of Italy and to the south of the Apennines, consisted of a
confederacy of twelve cities, each of which was independent, possessing
the power of even making war and peace on its own account. In Etruria
proper Volsinii was regarded as the metropolis.

Besides these three races, two foreign races also settled in the
peninsula in historical times. These are the _Greeks_ and the Gauls.

(4.) The _Greeks_ planted so many colonies upon the coasts of southern
Italy that they gave to that district the name of Magna Graecia. The most
ancient, and, at the same time, the most northerly Greek city in Italy,
was Cumae in Campania. Most of the other Greek colonies were situated
farther to the south, where many of them attained to great power and
opulence. Of these, some of the most distinguished were Tarentum,
Sybaris, Croton, and Metapontum.

(5.) The _Gauls_, as we have already said, occupied the greater part of
northern Italy, and were so numerous and important as to give to the
whole basin of the Po the name of Gallia Cisalpina. They were of the
same race with the Gauls who inhabited the country beyond the Alps, and
their migration and settlement in Italy were referred by the Roman
historian to the time of the Tarquins.

[Illustration: Gate of Arpinum.]

[Footnote 1: The description which follows in the text must be compared
with the map of Ital