THE ETRUSCAN QUESTION. 103 



will at once show their similarity with that earliest Greek alphabet. 

 The Etruscan, the Umbrian and the Oscan of the Italian dialects 

 ai^proach most nearly in their alphabets to the Ghalcidian, and the 

 Latin is the farthest removed. The Etruscan rejects the soft mutes 

 B, G-, D, and retains the aspirates th, ph, ch. The Latin on the other 

 hand retains the soft mutes and rejects the aspirates. The Etruscan 

 and the Umbrian alike retain the Sam and the Sigma, the Zain and 

 Samekh of the Phoenicians. At that early period we [lerhaps cannot 

 expect exact fixity in the alphabet, and while all the Etruscan inscrip- 

 tions are of the same type, there are yet some minor differences, as 

 we may see by comparing the pure Etruscan alphabet with the Eti-us- 

 can alphabet of Campania. This last lying close to the Oscan, see;iis 

 to have been affected by it. The influence of the Etruscans was very 

 great in the South, but especially so in the north of Italy, and even 

 in the districts still further north. They carried on commerce with 

 central Europe, and apparently with the counti-ies around the Baltic. 

 Northern wares are frequently found in the tombs, and were also 

 exported from Tarquinii, a seaport which rivalled Massilia in the 

 amount of its exports. The result was that the Etruscan alphabet 

 extended far into Europe, and from the Romana Provincia on the 

 west to the Tyrol and Carinthia on the east. Throughout this ex- 

 tended district the Etruscan alpliabet prevailed. But in the north- 

 eastern corner of Italy another element was introduced and another 

 Greek alphabet. That movement which drove the Dorians^out of 

 Thessaly to the south seems to have compelled the migration of an- 

 other tribe into north Italy, and this tinbe settled about the mouths 

 of the Po and the Adige. Whether these were Veneti or the Euganei, 

 we are not prepared to say. The inscriptions in this alphabet ai'e 

 found principally at Este. With which of the Greek alphabets we 

 are to connect it is still uncertain. Berndorf believes it to be Ionic; 

 Kirchhoff regards it as Locrian ; while the Bronze of Tegea would 

 seem to connect it with the Arcadian or the Elean. 



And now, before we close, a few words regarding the origin of the 

 Etruscans. Herodotus tells us that the Lydian nation having, from 

 internal difiiculties, become divided, one portion emigrated from 

 Lydia under Tyrrhenus, or, as he is some times called, Tarchon, and 

 that after a time these emigrants settled in Umbria," and by Umbria 

 Herodotus means North Italy. Whatever importance we may 

 attach to this story it must be admitted that there are some 



