ETRURIA. 



103 



temple of Volturna, where they deliberated together 

 on the general affairs of the country. Porsenna, 

 celebrated in Roman history, was a lucumo. 



Etruria was at the height of its glory at the time 

 of the building of Rome, and served for a model to 

 the new government. Surpassed only by the Greeks 

 in their highest splendour, the Etruscans excelled in 

 architecture, ship-building, medicine, the art of mak- 

 ing arms and fortifications, building dykes, and in 

 tactics; they were distinguished particularly for 

 their ingenuity and skill in the construction of all 

 articles of comfort and of luxury. They carried on 

 a considerable commerce in Italy and Greece with 

 their works of art, and founded many important 

 colonies. Their commercial intercourse with the 

 Greeks soon made them their rivals in refinement. 

 The progress made by the Etruscans of that age in 

 painting and the plastic arts is peculiarly interesting 

 to archaeologists, as the study of their remains (sculp- 

 tured gems, sarcophagi, vases, &c.) leads to the 

 explanation of their mythology. (See Inghirami's 

 Monum. Etruschi, Fiesole, 1826, 6 vols. 4to, more 

 accurate than Gori's Museum Etruscum.) They are 

 supposed to have received the germs of their art, 

 which had in itself sufficient charms to create a new 

 epoch in modern taste, from Greece and Egypt, but 

 on this point there is much difference of opinion. 

 What are called the Etruscan vases, with their 

 peculiar bass-reliefs and paintings, have been care- 

 fully examined by Millin, and in Boettiger's Treatise 

 on Pictured Vases. 



In Plate XXXVI.. the reader will find eight re- 

 presentations of Ancient Vases, usually denominated 

 Etruscan vases. See the article Vase. 



Fig. 1. represents a very large vase, being two 

 feet three inches in height. The neck represents the 

 hunting of a stag, in which five figures are engaged, 

 two of whom run it through with spears. The man- 

 ner of their hunting is remarkable ; each of the two 

 figures immediately engaged has a pallium extended, 

 as if to cheat the animal, and lead it to aim its blows in 

 the wrong direction. On the body of the vase is a bat- 

 tle, wherein one man, armed with a crested helmet 

 and cuirass, his only weapon being a sword, fights 

 against two who attack him with lances. Behind the 

 single combatant advances Victory, holding a laurel 

 bough in her hand for the conqueror ; her head is 

 covered by a hat closely resembling that of the mo- 

 derns, except that the brim is broader and raised 

 before. This form of hat appears elsewhere on 

 the vase, on one of the combatants, and also flying 

 oft" the heads of the hunters, in the speed of their run- 

 ning. It is most likely that this head-dress was 

 what the ancients called <rx;iS<v, Umbella, (Um- 

 brello). Albericus, in his Images of the Gods, speak- 

 ing of Mercury's Petasus, which is very similar, calls 

 it (jalerus seu Umbella. 



On fig. 2 we see the Egyptian symbol of the cross, 

 which is very rare on Etruscan works. 



Fig. 3. represents a goblet of a description fre- 

 quently used by the Etruscans. It has no means of 

 standing, but terminates in the head of an ox. 

 Round the goblet is a running figure, holding in one 

 hand a disli filled with apples, and in the other a 

 bucket. 



Fig. 4. is a vase of a fine full form, with short 

 handles of swans' heads ; the sides covered with a pic- 

 ture. On the neck is the bust of a man having the 

 horns of an ox, (possibly the horned Bacchus men- 

 tioned by Montfaucon in the first vol. of his Anti- 

 onity) ; on each side of it is a lion laying its paw on a 

 laurel bow, which terminates in a flower. The body 

 of the vase exhibits, on the upper part,Cupid address- 

 ing his mother Venus, in the lower two figures, 

 that appear to be husband and wife, beside whom 



stands a tall personage, dressed in a very peculiar 

 manner ; round his neck is something like a ruff, his 

 head-dress terminates in points, and in his hand 

 is a long pike or sceptre, on the top of which is a 

 bird like an eagle. He may be a king, or perhaps 

 he is Jupiter, but the size of the engraving is not 

 competent to render the particulars of his dress. 



Fig. 5. is a very extraordinary description of a 

 vase, two different stories being represented, a divi- 

 sion between them being formed by a river, or more 

 properly the sea, if we may judge from the strange 

 figures of the fishes. The picture above the stream 

 is the sacrifice of a bull ; a priestess places a chaplet 

 on its head, and fastens it on the horns. Below 

 are two winged figures, one of them flying ; between 

 them is seated a woman ; each of the three figures 

 have chaplets in their hands. 



In Fig. 6. are represented Bacchantes. The male 

 holds a cup in his hand, and the female an instru- 

 ment which resembles a cymbal ; between them 

 stands an altar, over which, at some distance, is an 

 instrument with three raised points. 



Fig. 7. is a bowl having a lid upon it; the handles 

 are remarkably graceful in their twisting. 



The remaining fig. 8. has nothing very particular 

 about it ; the reason of its choice having been its 

 variety from the others. The figures on the side are 

 Bacchus and his train. 



The Etruscan painters were unacquainted with 

 the mixture of colours, and the distribution of light 

 and shade : their common colours were black and 

 brownish red. Theatrical entertainments, music and 

 poetry, were not unknown to them. Before they 

 had reached that degree of refinement to which the 

 Greeks had arrived, this people and their arts sunk 

 together under the political storms of the age, partly 

 through internal dissensions, and partly by the op- 

 pression of foreign nations. The Romans received 

 their religious usages, their primitive architecture, 

 &c., from the Etruscans. 



At the end of their most flourishing period, the 

 Gauls drove them from their settlements in Upper 

 Italy, and some of them fled to the Alps; from 

 whom the Rhcetians derived their origin. They 

 finally became the victims of Roman ambition. The 

 Romans sent them governors, but allowed them to 

 retain their own manners and laws, the choice of 

 their consuls, and, in general, a reasonable degree 

 of freedom. They afterwards fell, with Rome, 

 under the power of foreign conquerors. From this 

 time the history of "Etruria, or Tuscany, as it has 

 since been called, has become interwoven with that 

 of Italy and Germany. Tuscans and Etruscans, 

 however, were names as foreign to the people as 

 Tyrrhenians. They called themselves Rasena. The 

 ancient Latin term was Etruria for the country, 

 Tusci for the people. Etruscans did not come into 

 use till after Cato's time. Under the later empe- 

 rors, the country was called Tuscia ; hence Toscana 

 in the middle ages. 



The origin of the Etruscans is extremely doubtful. 

 Ancient writers, misconstruing early traditions, re- 

 presented them as descendants of the Greeks an 

 opinion which was long received. Niebuhr, how 

 ever, thinks there is no foundation for this opinion, 

 and, from many circumstances, ingeniously attempts 

 to prove that they originated from the northern moun- 

 tains, the Alps. We must refer the reader to his 

 learned disquisition on this point in his History of 

 Rome, division Tuscans and Etruscans. The discov- 

 ery of a great number of vases, in 1830, on the 

 estate of the prince of Canino, not far from the 

 north-western coast of Italy, nearly opposite Elba, 

 seems to corroborate this opinion. Besides the vases 

 which contained Greek inscriptions; and which are 



