308 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



that they were not numerous during their occupation 

 of the present Lombardy ; for they withdrew to make 

 room for the Ligurians and Heneti, and were driven 

 off still further by the Gauls, their strong walled cities 

 being all on the Mediterranean side of Upper Italy. 

 Rome itself was partly an Etruscan colony, and owed 

 most of the elements of its greatness to the institutions 

 and example of that people. It is to be regretted, that 

 these tribes, ruled by independent Lucumons,* wanted 

 national unity when they were strong; for what the 

 barbarians had begun on the north-west, the Romans 

 -finished from the south-east, the whole nation being 

 gradually absorbed by the conquering republic. They 

 were manufacturers, merchants, and navigators, till 

 they were worsted by Greek assailants, coming from 

 Sicily, and by the Phocian colony of Massilia. Yet it 

 is to the objects of barter which they themselves, or 

 the friendly Yenetic traders, or subsequent rival Car- 

 thaginians, Greeks, Romans, and Gauls, carried down 

 the Loire, or across the German territory to the Baltic, 

 that we must refer the bronze effigies, heads of stand- 

 ards (?), helmets, shields, arms, and even coins, often 

 containing Greek mythological subjects, but bearing 

 scarcely any tokens of Greek skill ; for all these have 

 been found in Gaul, Britain, the Tyrol, in the waters 

 of the Baltic, and even in the bogs of Ireland, t 



* Lucumon, Teutonic Lachman, man of law, judge. 



t Such is the bronze group, eight inches high, represent- 

 ing the Centaur Chiron, with young Achilles on his back, 

 in the act of drawing his bow, and a dog leaping against 





