Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/119

 «oo ETRUBIA. Jiutiiiy irlio add that th« Bhaetianfl were driven into the moantains when the plains of Northern Italj were invaded hj the Gauls. (Plin. iii. 20. s. 24 ; Justin, xx. 5.) A modem author has attempted (not altogether without success) to prove the same thing bj an ex- amination of the local names and appellations still existing in the country of the Grisons and the TjnlL {£teub, lifter die UrbeiDokner JRhSiiefUy Munich, 1843), and several philologers consider the names JBhaeti and Basena to be connected with one another. Assuming the correctness of Liv/s statement, on a point with which, as a native of Patavium, he was likely to be well acquainted, that the Bhaetians really spoke a language closely akin to that of the Etruscans, it is certainly most probable that the jrelation bietween them was the converse of that etated by Pliny and Justin, and that it was from the Rhaetian Alps that the Basenic invaders (de- scended into the plains of Northern Italy, and from thence advanced into Etruria properly so called. This hypothesis, however, by no means renders it jiecessary to assume that the Rhaetian Alps were their origmal abode, but merely that it was from thenoe they fiist invsuded Italy. IV. HiSTOBT OF EtRUBIA, 1, Earig kiitorf and grmtnut of Etruria.-^ Our knowlodge of the history of Etruria, during the most flourishing period of the nation, is extremely vague and impeiftct ; and the few facto recorded to us, with the exception of the wars of the Etruscans with the Bomans, are almost wholly devoid of chronological data. But the general fact of their early power and prosperity, and the extent of their anpire, ia sufficiently attested. Livy tells us that before the period of Uie Boman dominion the power of the Etruscans was widely extended both by sea and land: the amount of their influence both on the shores of the Upper and Lower Sea was sufficiently proved by the name of Tyrrhenian or Tuscan given to the latter, and that of Adriatic to the former, from the Tuscan colony of Adria. They are said to have formed two principal states or communities^ the one on the S. side of the Apennines, in the country commonly known as Etruria, the other on the N. of those mountains, in the great plains of the Padus, where we are told that they extended their dominion quite to the foot of the Alps, with the exception of the territory of the Veneti. (Liv. V. 33; StraK v. p. 219; Schol. Veron. ad Aen, x. 200.) Each of these states was composed of twelve principal cities, of which those on the N. of the Apennmes were regarded as colonies of those in Etruria Proper (Liv. L c), though others considered them as Pelasgian settlemenU, emanating from the city of Spina near the mouth of the Padus (Died, xiv. U3). The existence of this Etruscan stote in the country N. of the Apennines may be regarded as an unquestionable historical fact, though we are wholly unable to determine the period of its establishment. But those writers who adopt the hypothesis of the Bhaetian or northern origin of the Etruscans na- turally r^aid these settlements in the plains of the Padus as prior in date, instead of subsequent, to their establishment S. of the Apennines. The Etrus- cans muntained their ground in this part of Italy until they were expelled or subdued by the invading Gauls; but though their national existence was at thiii time broken up, it is probable that in many other caties of Cisalpine GatU, as we are told waa ETBUBIA. the case in Mantua (Vii^g. Atm. z. 208; Plin. iii. 19. 8. 23), they continued to form no incaDsidefmb]» part of the population. The only cities, however^ in this part tk Italy which are expressly noticed aa of Tuscan origin are FeLrina, afterwards called Bononia, Mantua, and Adria, to which may doubilesa be added Melpum, a dty known to us only by the notice of ite destruction. Bavenna also appears to hav* been at one period a Tuscan dty. (For a further account of the Etruscan settlements in this part of Italy and the history of their subjugation, see Gaixi a. CisAtPUiA). There is reason to believe that durinf^ the same period the Etruscans had extended their power along the coast of the Adriatic, and occupied, or at least established odonies in, the ooontry after- wards known as Picenum. Here the seoond AdriA was in all probability a Tuscan foundation, as weU aa the city of the same name already mentioned [Adria] : both the name and arigm of Cupra in the same region, are designated as Etruscan. (Strab. v» p. 241 ; MUller, Einuker, vd. i. p. 145> At the same time as the Etruscan power was thus extended towards the N» so for beyond the limits within which it was afterwards confined, it appears to have attained a corresponding extension on the & also. Though our aocounto of the Etruscan settle mente in this direction are still more vague and indefinite than those of their dominion in the north, there is no doubt of the fact that they had at ooe period established themsdves in the possession of th» greater part of Campania, where, according to Stiabo^ they founded twelve cities in imitataon of the confe- deracy of Central Etruria. (Strab. v. p. 242 ; PoL iu 1 7.) It is impossible to determine the names of all these; Cspna, called by the Tuscans Vultumum, was the chief among them : NoU also is referred by several authorities to a Tuscan origin, and several minor dties in the plain must certainly have been occupied, if not founded, by the same peojde. T» these may be probably added the maritime towns «xf Pompeii, Herculaneum, Surrvntum, Mardna, and Salemum, all of which are described as at one period or other Tyrrhenian towns, though it is possible that in some of these cases Tyrrhenian Pelasgiamt, rather than Etruscans, are meant. (Strab. v. pp. 247, 251 ; Mfiller, Etr. voL L p. 168.) The Etruscans, however, never made themsdves masters of the Gredc dties on the coast, Cumae, Dicaeardiia, and Neapolis, though they continued to occupy the rest of Campania till they were themselves reduced by the Samnitea. [Campaitia.] The period of thdr first estabUah- ment in theee countries is very uncertain, the data asdgned by Cato for the foundation or occupation vf Capua difl^ng by more than three centuries from that adopted by other authors. (VelL Pat I 7.) Mfiller follows the view of these last authorities, and refers the first establishment of the Etruscans ia Campania to a period as early as B. o. 800 : Niebuhr, on the contraiy, adopto the sUtement of Cato, and condders the Etruscan dominion in Campania as of brief duration and bdonging to a comparatively lata period. The account preserved by Dionydns of tha attack on Cumae, about B.a 525, by a great host of barbarians, among whom the Tyrrfaenians(Etru6can8) took the lead, may in this case be regarded a* marking the first appearance of that pe(qple in this part of Italy. (Dionys. viL 3 ; Niebuhr, voL i pp. 75, 76; Muller, Etr. vol. i. pp. 166, 172.) Contemporary with tiiis great extendon of tha Etruscan power by land was the period of their maritime and uaval supremaq^. Kumeroua states