Page:Early Man in Britain and His Place in the Tertiary Period.djvu/499

] a thin edge of iron let into it. It may therefore be inferred that they imported articles of bronze long before articles of iron in their traffic with the peoples to their north. What then was their position in relation to the Bronze and Iron ages north of the Alps? It may be concluded from the distribution of their weapons and designs, and copies of their designs, through France and Germany, that they carried on a commerce with those countries during the late Bronze age, while their influence in Britain is only clearly marked in the Iron or the late Celtic age. In Scandinavia their influence was felt during the greater portion of the Bronze age.

From the facts recorded in the previous pages it is clear that the Etruskans in remote times were a highly civilised and powerful confederation, sweeping the Mediterranean with their fleets, having free intercourse with all the civilised peoples of the south, and exercising a great influence on the barbarians on their northern frontiers. From their commanding position, it was inevitable that they should be the principal means of spreading the Mediterranean civilisation in Germany, France, and the regions of the north. This position was lost by the attack of the Romans on the one hand, and of the Gauls on the other. The rise of the Roman power corresponds with the decay of Etruria, and is to be looked upon as the natural growth of the one people out of the other. It is clear from the history of the struggles carried on between Rome and the Etruskan cities, that the Etruskan peoples lived on as Romans, and contributed, in no small degree, the qualities which made