965 



ETRITRIA. 



ETRURIA. 



Sutrium submitted ; Cerse and Tarquinii became the allies of Rome ; 

 and the Ciminus ridge with its haunted forests formed the boundary 

 between Rome and Etruria. The Roman arms halted nearly a century 

 longer before they passed that boundary. The total defeat of the 

 confederated Etruscan forces at the lake Vadimonis, in the year 444 

 of Rome, opened to the Romans the access into the Etruria Trans- 

 cimina. Vulsinii and Vulcia fell before the slow but sure progress of 

 their arms ; the other cities, such as Arretium, Perusia, Volaterrae, 

 Populonium, disguised their submission under the name of alliance, 

 but Etruscan independence was gone. This appears to have been a 

 period of general corruption of manners, when all national spirit and 

 independence became extinct, but wealth, luxury, and internal peace 

 remained, and sensual pleasures were the chief occupation of the 

 people ; and this was also the time when the earlier Roman writers 

 who speak of the Etruscans, such as Plautus, Cato, and Varro, became 

 acquainted with that people. The wars and proscriptions of Sulla 

 gave a final blow to the existence of the Etruscans as a nation ; their 

 towns were destroyed, and their lands were given to military colonists. 

 The proscriptions of Octavianus after the battle of Perusia, completed 

 the desolation of Etruria. The language itself gradually became 

 obliterated among the people, and was only known to the priests, 

 with whom it became finally extinct, probably by the spreading of 

 Christianity in the 4th century of our era. 



With regard to the political and social institutions of the Etruscans, 

 we ought to bear in mind that all the accounts we have of them were 

 written after their subjugation to Rome, and that a nation which had 

 a political existence of eight or ten centuries must have undergone 

 considerable changes in its manners and institutions. All the accounts 

 are agreed in representing the Etruscans as forming a confederacy of 

 twelve principal cities, each of which was a sovereign state, and ruled 

 over the population of its respective district. Mention is made of a 

 general annual assembly of deputies from the cities ; but the ordinary 

 meetings appear to have been rather for religious than political 

 purposes, though they were made available for discussing measures 

 which concerned the general welfare ; yet it appears certain that the 

 decisions of the assembly were not binding on the respective cities. 

 In the city itself were two orders, the hereditary families of patricians, 

 or senators, and the commonalty. Political and religious power were 

 in the hands of the former, who elected from their own body the 

 annual magistrate called ' lucumo,' or ' lauchme.' We know that the 

 lucumo occasionally contrived, especially in times of war, to protract his 

 term of office, and sometimes to retain it for life ; but all attempts to 

 make it hereditary appear to have failed. The patrician and hierar- 

 chical order appears to have maintained to the last its sway among the 

 Etruscans, the arts of divination, of which it was in exclusive 

 possession, being a powerful instrument in its hands, among a people 

 go much fashioned to religious observances and rites, for repressing 

 all attempts of the commonalty. Accordingly, we hear of no struggles 

 of the kind in Etruria, as at Rome ; but we hear of revolts of slaves 

 gainst their masters, as in the case of the Vulsinii, for the Etruscans 

 had numerous slaves. The country people were mostly serfs, 

 probably the descendants of the conquered Umbri and Pelasgi. The 

 sway of the Etruscans over the people whom they conquered appears 

 to have been mild : they did not destroy their towns, but surrounded 

 them with walls, or built new ones ; they taught them agriculture 

 and other arts, and they instructed them in religion. 



The Etruscans were celebrated among ancient nations for their 

 strong attachment to their national religion, which was bound up with 

 all their institutions and habits. It was partly of native, partly of 

 oriental invention. They believed in two principles, a good and an 

 evil one, each having its respective agents or genii, and their paintings 

 and sculptures are often representative of the perpetual struggle 

 between the two. Their three chief deities, whose temples were in 

 every Etruscan city, were Tinia (Jupiter), Cupra (Hera, or Juno), and 

 Menvra (Minerva). Twelve gods, six male and six female, formed the 

 upper hierarchy. Nine great gods (Dii Novensiles) had the power of 

 hurling the thunderbolts. The most awful and mysterious of then- 

 deities were the shrouded gods (Dii Involuti), whese behests, gods as 

 well as men were forced to obey. Other inferior divinities presided over 

 the various elements and phenomena of this earth, as well as over the 

 occupations and domestic comforts of man. Among the most charac- 

 teristic features of the Etruscan mythology were the female deity 

 Lasa, or Mean, the goddess of Fate, so frequently represented in 

 Etruscan painting, winged, and with a hammer in her hand ; the more 

 awful deities of the lower world, Mantus and Mania (the Etruscan 

 Pluto and Proserpine), with Charon, the messenger of death ; and the 

 Genii, the tutelary spirits of every individual, with the Lares, or 

 presiding spirits of families. Their religion was distinguished by the 

 fulness and minuteness of its ceremonial observances, and especially 

 by their attention to divination and augury. From some sculptures 

 found on their monuments it appears that the offering of human 

 sacrifices was at one time in practice among them. The Romans 

 regarded the Etruscan religion, in all its parts, with great veneration, 

 and borrowed largely from it. Cicero speaks very favourably of 

 Etruscan theosophy, saying that they referred everything to Qod, and 

 that all their religious institutions were studiously calculated for the 

 prosperity and security of the state. 



The Etruscans were fond of good living and of sumptuous 



banquets, and they are called gluttons, fat, and corpulent by the 

 Roman satirists. Virgil (xi. 735) accuses them of being given to all 

 kinds of sensual pleasures. Their women seem to have had no great 

 reputation for chastity (Plautus, ' Cistell." 2, 3, 20 ; and Horace, iii., 

 ' Ode ' x. 11 ; and see Dennis, v. i., Int. p. xlii. note 9) ; yet wo find 

 the female sex in higher honour among them than among most 

 nations of antiquity. The women reclined at table on the same 

 triclinia with the men, as appears by their monuments. Their funerals 

 were pompous, and accompanied by athletic games, but the combats 

 of gladiators appear to have been of late introduction'. 



Although there may in recent times have been often entertained a 

 somewhat exaggerated notion of Etruscan civilisation, there can be 

 no doubt that Etruria was by far the most cultivated and refined 

 nation of ancient Italy. Rome, as well as a great part of Italy, is 

 acknowledged to have derived its earlier civilisation from Etruria. 

 No Etruscan writings have come down to us, yet there is ample 

 evidence that Etruria possessed a national literature ; not only are her 

 sacred books, histories, and poems spoken of by ancient writers, but 

 the names of many of her authors are mentioned; indeed, it was 

 customary for the Romans to send their sons to Etruria to be instructed 

 in her higher learning. In the arts the Etruscans had made great 

 progress. Aa Miiller however very justly observes, Etruscan art in 

 general was imitative rather than creative, and at every period it bore 

 the marks of a foreign influence. And, accordingly, Dennis, whilst 

 asserting that a distinct national character is generally preserved, 

 admits that Etruscan art is most properly divided into three styles, 

 distinguished by the predominant foreign influence : " 1st, the 

 Egyptian, which has also Babylonian analogies ; 2nd, the Etruscan, 

 or Tyrrhenian, as it is sometimes called, perhaps in compliment to its 

 more than doubtful Greek character; 3rd, the Hellenic, when, in 

 the meridian of Greek art, the Etruscan was an almost servile 

 copyist of the Greek artist ; 4th, the period of decadence." 



The existing monuments of Etruscan architecture are merely such 

 rude and massive structures as the walls of cities, sewers, vaults and 

 bridges, and subterranean tombs, which, though they afford evidence 

 of the power, wealth, and constructive skill of the people, are quite 

 insufficient as examples of their architectural ability. Of their 

 temples, the works on which their highest art would be exercised, 

 not a vestige is extant beyond some doubtful foundations. We know 

 however from ancient authorities that their architects were of eminent 

 merit, and that their public and private edifices were richly adorned. 

 But they seem to have turned their attention particularly to works of 

 a practically useful kind, and they were renowned for their success in 

 the art of fortifying walls, the laying out of streets and roads, and 

 the construction of sewers. The Cloaca Maxima at Rome was an 

 Etruscan work ; and it shows that they were early acquainted with 

 the use of the arch, though it is not correct to assert, as is often done, 

 that the arch was an Etruscan invention. The walls, which still exist 

 on the site of the ancient cities, are formed in the southern parts of 

 Etruria of large irregular blocks, not fastened by cement, but rudely 

 squared and laid in horizontal courses ; in the northern parts they 

 are more massive and rude, having a general resemblance to the 

 Cyclopean walls of Central Italy. The best preserved and most 

 interesting of the monuments of Etruria are the cemeteries ; which, 

 though presenting many varieties, are all subterranean. Where the 

 site admits they are hollowed out of the solid rock, which, in the 

 better class, has received some architectural decoration. Where the 

 rock is friable the tomb is constructed with masonry, on which loose 

 stones and earth are heaped so as to form a tumulus. In general th<> 

 interior is made to resemble an abode of the living. The walls are 

 often painted with mythic or festive scenes. " The ceilings are some- 

 times adorned with coffers, and the walls with panelling ; benches 

 and stools surround the chambers; weapons and other furniture are 

 suspended from the walls ; and easy arm-chairs, with foot-stools 

 attached, all hewn from the living rock, are found in the subterranean 

 houses of these Etruscan ' cities of the dead.' " (Dennis.) 



Of Etr iscan painting we can now best judge by the examples ou 

 the walls of the painted tombs of Tarquinii and Clusium. They 

 are of very different dates and style, but generally display rude and 

 conventional design, inaccurate and archaic outlines, and unnatural, 

 or rather fantastic colouring. The earlier examples are decidedly 

 Egyptian in manner; the later are of Aeginetau type. Copies of 

 some of these paintings may be seen on the walls of the Etruscan 

 room in the British Museum. The paintings on the vases are often 

 of a much superior order, but it is probable that they are the work 

 of Grecian artists. 



The sculpture and carving of the Etruscans in marble and wood 

 was not greatly celebrated by ancient writers, and the specimens of it 

 discovered in the tombs, though very numerous, are not of a superior 

 order. But the bronze statues of Etruria were very famous ; they 

 filled the temples of Rome, and were sought after all over Italy. 

 The Etruscans themselves seem to have greatly delighted in exhibiting 

 them. The city of Volsinii alone is said to have contained two 

 thousand bronze statues. Some of them were of great size ; that of 

 Apollo, on the Palatine, is said by Pliny to have been 50 feet in height, 

 and as wonderful for its beauty as for its weight of metal. Several 

 of the existing specimens of bronze statuary are of superior design 

 and execution. Smaller works in bronze, lares, penates, and figures 



