49() Tin: PKE-HISTORIC RACES OF ITALY. 



one survived to tlic iron age, which probably commenced in Italy in the 

 ninth or tenth eentnry B. c On other grounds it is believed that the 

 Etruscan invasion was not later than the eleventh century IJ. c. We 

 learn from Varro that the Etruscan era began 291 years before the 

 Roman. The Roman era began iu 753 b. c, and therefore the Etruscan 

 era dates from 104-4 B. c. But it is not likely that the Etruscan era began 

 before the conquerors had settled down into an organized state — duo- 

 (lirim lyopuli Etriirkv, or confederation of the twelve Etruscan tribes. 

 \N'e may therefore, with some [)robability, place the Etruscan invasion 

 of Italy in the twelfth century B. c. It may not improbably be con- 

 nected with the great movement of races about this period, which began 

 with the conquest of Syria by the Hittites, and of Egypt by the Hyksos, 

 and ended with the Thessalian and Dorian invasions of Greece, and 

 that consequent emigration of the older Greek tribes to Asia Minor which 

 lies at the base of the Homeric Epos. It is possible that the Etruscans 

 may themselves have been an Asiatic people, akin to the Khetaand the 

 llyksos. This supposition derives support from the similarity in the 

 appearance of the Hittites and the Etruscans as portrayed on their 

 resix'ctive monuments, from the old tradition which connects the Etrus- 

 cans with Asia Minor, and also from the recent discovery in Lemnos of 

 inscriptions believed to be in a language of the Etruscan type. 



After over^vhelming the Umbrian settlements in the valley of the Po, 

 the I^truscans extended their dominion across the Apennines to the 

 Arno and the Tiber. It seems probable that the foundation of Rome 

 was due to the Umbro-Latin fugitives, who placed the Tiber as a barrier 

 between themselves and the invaders, establishing themselves on the 

 Palatine, as their Etruscan foes did at Veil, 11 miles north of Rome. 

 Just as the foundation of Venice is attributed to the fugitives from the 

 invasion of Attila and the Huns, so the foundation of Rome maybe due 

 to fugitives from the invasion of the Etruscans. This is supported by 

 the fact that the terra mare and the palajitte, which are believed to 

 constitute the primitive settlements of the Umbro-Latin Aryan race, are 

 not found south of the Apennines beyond the Emilia and the valley of 

 the Po. The Etruscan dominion and civilization endured for some 700 

 years. At length it fell before the invasion of the Gaals in 400 b. c, 

 just as the iMiibrian civilization had fallen before the inroad of the 

 lOtruscan hordes. And thus EtruriaCircumpadana, the former Umbrian 

 land, became cisalpine Gaul, its possession reverting t() a people who 

 in race and language were nearly akin to its former inhabitants. 



The settlements of the Gauls are recognized by the tort[ues and the 

 long iron swords which are found in their graves. At Bologna, in the 

 cemeteries of the Certosa and Marzabotto, we have tiie tombs of the 

 thri'e successive races, Umbrians, Etruscans, and Gauls, all ditierent in 

 character, and easily to be distinguished. 



Thus it appears that the fertile idaiu of the Po was occui)ied l>y many 

 successive races, whose descendants may, with greater or less certainty, 



