ITALY. 
448 
Bans in the my fieri ous ceremonies connected with the fa- 
crifices and worfhip of the gods. 
The power of the Tyrrhenians continued undiminifhed 
as long as they formed but one nation ; but declined 
when the country which they inhabited was divided into 
feveral independent republics. The denomination of 
Etrufcans, orTufcans, given them by the Romans, then 
began to prevail over that of Tyrrhenians. 
Thofe who maintain that the eftablifhment of the Etruf¬ 
cans in Italy does not date from fuch high antiquity, ob- 
ferve that, if the precife period of the foundation of the 
Tyrrhenian cities is not known, a paffage of Varro, quoted 
by Cenforinus, removes the uncertainty. Varro informs 
us, that the Tufcans gave the name of ages to fpaces of 
time whofe unequal duration was determined by the lives 
of certain perfons. The firll of thefe ages was reckoned 
from the day of the foundation of cities, or the efta- 
blifhment of Hates. It terminated with the life of the 
citizen who furvived all thofe who were born on that 
day ; at his death commenced a new age, the duration of 
which was likewife meafured by the longelt life of one of 
the perfons born upon that day, and fo on with the red; 
but, as it was difficult to fix thefe intervals with precifion, 
the gods took care to announce by prodigies the moment 
when a new age was to commence. The Tufcan hifto- 
rians living in the eighth age of their nation, computed, 
according to the account of Varro, quoted by Velleius 
Paterculus, the duration of the feven ages which had then 
elapfed at 781 years. They added, that the eighth age 
would be fucceeded by a ninth, and that by a tenth, af¬ 
ter which the Tufcan name would be extimff. The an¬ 
cients have not informed us with what period this eighth 
age of the Tufcan mra correfponds; but Freret, in his 
Differtation on the Ancient Hiffory of the People of Italy, 
inferted in the 19th volume of the Memoirs of the French 
Academy of Belles Lettres, has found means to fupply 
this deficiency. This fcholar obferves, that the Etrufcan 
aftrologers, being confulted refpefting various prodigies 
which had happened in the firft confulate of Sylla, replied, 
that they announced the termination of a revolution of 
the world, and the commencement of a new age ; that 
eight ages, different in manners and in the duration of 
human life, had already elapfed ; that each of thefe ages 
formed a great year, and that the gods gave the fignal for 
the end of each period by certain prodigies in the hea¬ 
vens and on the earth. Suidas fays nearly the fame thing, 
and quotes Livy and Diodorus Siculus. He (peaks, as 
well as Plutarch, of eighteen Tufcan ages that had elapfed, 
and gives to thefe ages the name of periods, or revolutions 
ef the great year. Hence Freret concludes that this eighth 
age of the Tufcans finifhed in the firll confulate of Sylla, 
eighty-eight years anterior to the Chriftian sera. Suppof- 
ing this eighth age to have been equal in duration to the 
longeft of the preceding, it muff have been 115 years, 
which, added to the 781 years of the feven preceding ages, 
will give the year 991 before the vulgar ama as the epoch 
of the eftablifhment of the Tufcans in Etruria. This 
epoch is only 240 years anterior to the foundation of 
Rome. 
The public is in pofTeffion of a great number of Etruf- 
can inferiptions publifned by the lcholars of Italy. Some 
of thefe are in Latin charafters, and others in Etrufcan, 
that is, in the ancient characters which the Phoenicians 
carried from Greece into Spain. Thefe letters bear a great 
refemblance to the Samaritan ; but are not much like 
thofe which are to be feen on the medals of Tyre, Sidon, 
Gades, and other ancient maritime cities. The Etrufcan 
inferiptions in Latin characters are likewife almoft unin¬ 
telligible, though disfigured Latin words are met with 
among them. The interpretations which fome men of 
fcience have pretended to give, are mere guefs-work. 
The only conclufion we can draw from them is, that the 
Latin language, before it attained that perfection which 
we admit in the works of Cicero and Virgil, underwent 
great variations. It is however poffible that thefe mo¬ 
numents may not be of high antiquity ; to judge from 
the figure of thefe Latin characters they muff be pofterior 
to the conqueft of Etruria by the Romans, and date back 
at fartheft from the time of the firft Punic war. 
When the Tufcans ceafed to form a fingle nation, they 
feparated into a great number of independent political al- 
fociations, each governed by an elective chief. About 
the period of the foundation of Rome, this people formed 
twelve cities, united in a federative compaCt. Their depu¬ 
ties affembled to deliberate together on the general in- 
terefts of the nation. Their troops fometimes compofed 
one army, but were more commonly kept in diftinct bo¬ 
dies. This want of concord, which almoft always fubfiits 
among federative ftates, threw Etruria into the power of 
the Romans. The ancients have mentioned thefe twelve 
diftriCts, but without giving any enumeration of them ; 
and the moderns by whom it has been attempted are far 
from agreeing on the fubjeCt. 
Diodorus, Athenaeus, Plato, Theophraftus, and other 
Greek and Latin writers, fpeak ot the exceffive opulence 
which plunged the Etrufcans into luxury and effeminacy; 
and Timaeus relates, that the Tyrrhenians had naked fe¬ 
males to wait upon them. 
The Etrufcan language furvived the deftruCtion of the 
Tyrrhenian republic. Livy relates, that the Romans 
fent to the Coerites fuch youths as they wifhed to be in- 
ftrudted in the fciences of the Tufcans. At the time of 
Strabo, Care was only a hamlet. It appears, however, 
from fome inferiptions, that the people of this diftriCt 
ftili formed in 1 rajan’s reign a community governed by 
its own magiftrates, and having the title of municipium. 
It is ftated by Herodotus, that the Tyrrhenians formed 
their firft fettlement in Umbria; which feems to infer, 
that the Umbrians inhabited the country which the Etruf¬ 
cans came to occupy. On this fubjett nothing but con¬ 
jecture can be advanced. The name of Umbri, by which 
Pliny and other writers denoted the people who in an¬ 
cient times relided in Upper Italy, was in their language 
an honourable epithet, fignifying noble, valiant; the lin¬ 
gular of which, ombra, is ltill commonly uled in Irifli. 
Pliny gives a confiderabie extent to the country occupied 
by the ancient Umbri. According to that author, they 
were mailers of all the provinces to the north and fouth 
of the Po. Ariminium and Ravenna were two of their 
colonies. That part of Umbria fituated between the Pi- 
cenum and Etruria bore the name of the ancient Celts, 
whom thefe Umbri acknowledged for their anceftors. 
According to this pofition, the Celts muft have penetrated 
into Italy by the defiles of the Tyrol, or by the way of 
Mount Cenis. Pliny adds, that they were driven out by 
the Tufcans, as the latter were in their turn by the Gauls, 
under Bellovefus, in Upper Italy ; whence it might be 
concluded that the Umbri poffelfed all that portion of 
Italy afterwards known by the name of Gallia Cifalpina, 
and that the Gauls under Bellovefus merely made them- 
felves matters of provinces formerly occupied by their 
anceftors. Such of thefe Umbri as were fettled to the 
north of the Po repelled the attacks of the Tufcans, and 
maintained themfelves in their poffeffions. By the Ro¬ 
mans they were named Infubri ; and Polybius gives them 
the appellation of IJ'ombri, which, purely Celtic, fignifies 
Lower Umbri. They occupied the Milanefe and the 
neighbouring country; their capital was Mediolanum, a 
name common to feveral cities of the Gauls. 
The denomination of Umbri or Ambri feems to have 
belonged to all the people living to the eaft or weft of the 
Alps from the Rhine to the Mediterranean : it was alike 
afl'umed by the Helvetians on the one fide, and the inha¬ 
bitants of the coaft of the Mediterranean on the other. 
Being afterwards divided into a great number of ftates, 
this nation loft its ancient name. 
One of thefe ftates was that of the Ligures, or Ligu¬ 
rians. The Romans gave this name to the Allobroges, 
the Voconcians, and other nations contiguous to the Col- 
tian Alps; but, inThe Celtic language, the word Ligures, 
3 Lygour, 
