CHAP, xiii.] THE ETRUSKANS AND THEIR INFLUENCE. 463 



^Egean and on the coasts of Asia Minor. They prob- 

 ably entered Italy by way of the valley of the Danube, 

 and over the Alpine passes. To them Castellani refers 

 the beautiful work in gold and silver as yet unrivalled 

 by the jeweller of modern times. 



The second element in the Etruskan population is 

 that known to foreigners as the Tyrrheni, or Tyrrseni, 

 Etruski, Tusci, to themselves as the Rasena, who estab- 

 lished themselves in Italy, according to Otfried Miiller, 

 about 290 years before the foundation of Rome, or in 

 B.C. 1044. Their date is carried by Niebuhr as far 

 back as B.C. 1188. Long before this, however, they are 

 proved to have been a naval a.nd a military power in the 

 Mediterranean, by their invasion of Egypt in the fifteenth 

 century. They are universally considered to have come 

 from Asia Minor, most probably from Lydia, and their 

 Asiatic origin is proved by their manners and customs, 

 their religion and their art. According to Niebuhr and 

 Mommsen, they arrived in Italy from the direction of 

 Rhsetia, according to Dennis they occupied southern 

 Italy first, and gradually pushed their way northwards. 

 The precise relation of the Pelasgi to the Rasena and to 

 the Umbrians is uncertain, and at this distance of time 

 it is impossible to define with accuracy all the ethnical 

 elements in the Etruskan people. 



The Etruskan civilisation was largely influenced by 

 the art of Egypt and Assyria. Sphinxes, gryphons, 

 chimseras, scarabaei, four- winged demons, and the like, 

 show its eastern lineage. The tombs cut in the rock, 

 and the habit of depicting various scenes in them, 

 reminds us of the banks of the Nile, and the rock-hewn 

 sepulchres of Lykia ; and the Egyptian influence is felt 

 in such minute details as the dressing of the hair in curls, 



