Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/128

 ETRUBIA. the BouUi of Italy, and l^cilj, as wdl as in Greece itself; and by the fiict that they uniformly represent subjects taken from the Gredc mythology or heroic legends, and bear, inscribed on them, Greek names and words as well as in several instances the names of Greek artists : bat while it is now generally ad- mitted that this branch of art was a foreign import- ation, it is a still & disputed question whether the vases themselves were of foreign manufacture, or were made in Etrniia by Greek artists settled there. The Utter opinion has been maintained by Millingen and Gerhard ; the former by Miiller, Bunsen, Kra- mer, and Thiersch. (Miiller, Areh, d. Kunst § 177, KL Schriften, vol. iL pp. 692^708 ; Ger- liard, Rapporto mi Vasi VolcenHt in the Atm, d, IfuL Ardi. 1831; Bunsen, in the same AnnaU^ for 1834; Millingen, On the late Diacoverie* in Etru- riOf in the Trans, of Roy. Soe, of Lit 1830 and 1834; Kramer, uber den Styl u. die Herhmfi der bemahUm Griechuchen Thongef&tsen, Berlin, 1837; Thiersch, tifter die HeUenxMchen bemahUen Vaten, 1841; Abeken, Mittel-ItaUen, pp. 289— 300.) 3. Of the skill of the Etrascans in PakUtng we can judge only from the specimois remaining in their sepulchres, the walls of many of which, espe- cially at Tarquinii, Caere, and Clusinm, are decorated with paintings. These are of very unequal merit: some of very rude design, and fiuitastic in their co- louring; others showing much more progress in the art, ti^ongh retaining a stiffness and formali^ of character akin to the style of the earliest Greek works, the influence of which is as unquestionable upon this as upon other branches of Etruscan art. The custom of thus adorning the interior of their sepulchres appears, however, to have continued down to a late period, and some of the painted tombs found at Tarquuui belong, without doubt, to the period of the Roman dominion. (Dennis, vol. i. pp. 303 — 306.) The character of Etruscan art in general is well summed up by K. 0. Miiller in the remark that it was rather receptive than creative, and that it always retained the marks of a plant of exotic growth, whidi, not being indigenous to the soil, b^an to fade and decline as soon as the vivifying rays of Greek influence were withdrawn from it (Miiller, KL Sch, vol. i. p. 208; Arch, d, KuntL § 178.) Of the proficiency of the Etruscans in the more useful arts appertaming to ordinary life, there can be no doubt. They were noted for their skill in agri- culture; and not only knew how to turn to the best account the natural fertility of the soil, but, by great works of drainage, and regulating the course of rivers, to bring uoder profitable cultivation tracts like those at the mouths of the Padus and the Amus, which would otherwise have been marshy and pesti> lentiaL The Etruscans are also generally regarded as the parents, or first inventors, of the peculiar modes of limitation and division of land in use among the Romans: an art which was indeed closely connected with the rules of the " disciplina Etrusca*' appertaining to augury. (Hygin. de Limit, p. 166, Fragm. de LimiL p. 350.) The iron mines of Ilva, as well as the copper mines of the interior of Etmria itself, woe worked by them from a very early period; and their skill in metallurgy was ob- viously connected with their proficiency in the more ornamental arts of wwking in bronze, gold, &c. Arretinm, especially, seems to have been the seat of ooDsiderable manu&ctming mdostry, and» at the time ETRURIA. 869 of the Second Punic War, was capable of fumidiing a vast quantity of arms and armour to the fleet 5. Scipio. (Liv. xzviii. 45.) The abundance of copper, probably, also gave rise to the peculiar system of coinage in use among the Etruscans, as well as the other nations of Central Italy, and which must cer- tainly have been of native origin, being wholly op- posed to that in use among the Greeks. The Etruscan coinage, like the early Roman, was exclu- sively of copper, (NT rather bronze; and the coIds themselves, which were of & large size, were cast in moulds instead of being struck with a die. (Miiller, Etnuher, vol. i. pp. 303 — 308; Eckhel, vol L pp. 85 — 89.) This early introduction of coined money, as well as tlie accounts of their naval power, sufi!- ciently proves that the Etruscans must have carried on an extensive commerce, but we have very little account of its details. Their luxurious habits of life would necessarily conduce to the same result, and we learn that they maintained close relations oif amity with the Sybarites in Southern Italy, as well as with the Carthaginians. (Arist Pol. iii. 5; Athen. xiL p. 519, b.) The art of writing was represented by the tra- ditimis of the Etruscans themselves as introduced from Greece, and recent researches have led to the same result, — that the Etruscan alphabet was re- ceived by them directly from the Greeks, and not, as has been contended by some modem writes, from a common Oriental source. (Miiller, Etr. vol. ii. pp. 290 — 309 ; Mommsen, Unt. Ital JDiaL pp. 3 — 7, 40.) But the Etruscans introduced, in the course of time, some changes in the forms and values of the letters; while, on the other hand, they retained down to the Litest period the mode of writing from right to left, which had been early abandoned by the Greeks. Hence, even in the days o£ Cicero, their books were, as Lucretius phrases it, read bachoanU. C' Tyrrhena retro volventem carmina firustia," Lucr. vL 381.) Of their literature we have no remains, and it may well be doubted whether they ever had anything worthy of the name. Besides their ritual books of various kinds, the " Libri Fulgurales " (al- luded to by Lucretius in the above passage), " Libri Augurales," &c., the only works of which we find any mention are Histories or Annals (cited by Varro and by the emperor Claudius), but which appear to have been compiled as late as the aecaod century B. c; and Tragedies written by one Volnius, a na- tive Etruscan, who scans to have flourished not long before the time of Varro, so that his literary attempts were evidently not of a truly national charactw. (Varr. L.L. v. 55; Id. ap. Centorin, 17. § 6.) The scientific attainments of the Etruscans appear to have been almost confined to those branches of study directly connected with tiieir religious rites and ceremonies, such as the observance of astrono- mical and meteorokjgical phenomena, the calculatior of eclipses, the regulation of the calendar, &c. Their doctrine of Saecula, or ages of varying length, was very peculiar (Ccnsorin. 17. §§ 6, 6; Pint SuU. 7): ten of these ages they regarded as the period allotted to the duration of their nation; and they even went so fiur as to assign a limit (like the Sciudinavians) to the existence of the world, and of the gods them* selves. (Varro, ap. Amob, iii. 40.) It was firom the Etruscans that the Romans derived their pecu- liar mode of dividing the mouths by the Ides, Nones, &0. (Macrob. Sat. i. 15 ; Varr. L. L. vl 28.) Of unquestionable Etruscan origin was also the Roman system of numerals, which has been transmitted ^' 3«:3