Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/658

Rh G34 ETRURIA The probability is that in process of time this or that city fell out of the league, and was replaced by towns of more recent growth, till in the end there were at least seventeen presumable claimants for the title of one of the twelve. This is the case as regards Etruria proper, but there was a time when similar leagues appear to have existed among the Etruscan cities in the neighbourhood of the Po (Etruria Circumpadana), and again among those of Campania. As to the confederation of twelve cities in Etruria proper, and the political principles on which it was founded, nothing is positively known, except that the principles were essen tially aristocratic, much as in early Rome under the kings. The kings were elective for life, and were held in check by the principes or Lucumos who represented the real power of each state. In national enterprises one of the kings was chosen for supreme command, having a lictor from each city. The surroundings of official dignity found after wards in Rome, the purple robe, the prsetexta, the twelve lictors and fasces, the apparitores, the curule chair, and triumphal processions, were derived from Etruria, and in dicate the nature of her constitution. The representatives met at the temple of Voltumna, the locality of which is not known (Livy, iv. 23), apparently in spring; but it would seem that, in fact, the confederation was far from strictly maintained, at any rate in the matter of external policy. For internal affairs they had certain books (libri disciplinoe Etruscce) in which they were instructed as to the founding and consecration of public or religious build ings, the distribution of the people into tribes, curioe and centuriae, the constitution of armies, and the management of everything pertaining to peace or war (Festus, s. v. &quot; Rituales &quot;). These books were divided into three sections, the third, libri rituales, being those to which reference has just been made. The other two were devoted to divina tion, an ar.t in which the Etruscans surpassed all other nations. The first part was the libri haruspicini, contain ing instructions for divining the will of the gods from abnormal conditions observed in the entrails of animals slain in sacrifice, or from unusual natural phenomena. The second part was the libri fulgurales, treating of divina tion from lightning. By such means the gods were believed to indicate their wishes towards men, and, indeed, had declared so much through the divine seer, Tages, a miracu lous dwarf whom a labourer ploughing one day found in his furrow. Though then but a boy, Tages had grey hair, and was wise as if of a great age. His sayings, delivered always in verss, like oracles, were taken down by Tarchon, and formed the books in question. Tarchon was the founder of Tarquinii, and from this town proceeded the other cities and their organization. Such is the legend, and in the early history of Etruria we have, as elsewhere, only legend, known mainly through the annals of Rome, which, when they go back to a period before the introduc tion of writing (apparently in the 7th century. B.C.) must be largely imaginary, and even long after this, are highly coloured. First in importance among the Etruscan cities was Veii, the site of which has been identified at Isola Far- nese, about 11 miles from Rome, its great rival and ultimate victor. Strong by its natural position on a high cliff, and fortified with massive walls, rich in its own territory, and commanding the assistance of its subject towns, Sabata, Sutrium, Nepete, and Capena, it maintained an almost constant state of war with Rome from the, legendary times of Romulus down to its capture by Camillas, 396 B.C., after which, by a decree of the Roman senate, it was forbidden to be inhabited (Livy, v. 6). The spoils then carried away indicated its wealth, and doubt less this, together with other measures then taken, led to the desolation which now reigns on the site. Of the 14 re corded wars with Rome, the most memorable were the 7th (509 B.C.), in which, to replace Tarquinius Superbus on the throne of that city, Porsena of Clusium marched to its gates, though in a previous battle the Etruscans had been declared vanquished by a mysterious voice in the night, because they had lost one man more than the Romans ; the 9th and 10th (482-476 B.C.), in which occurred the treacherous massacre of the Fabii, who, with their clients, to the number, it is said, of 4000, had voluntered to hold Yeii in check from their camp on the Cremera ; the 12th, in which their king Tolumnius was slain, and the 14th, in which the Romans, to whose gates the Veientes had so often carried terror, laid seige to Veii, and in the tenth year took it, as is said by the stratagem of a cuniculus or mine up through the rock of the citadel. Those who believe this story, point out that Camillus may have obtained his idea from the cunicnhis or outlet of the waters of the Alban lake, which also at this time was made to play a miraculous part. The waters of the lake were observed with alarm to be rising and threatening to overflow. The oracle at Delphi was consulted, and in consequence of its advice this outlet was made by the Romans in the space of a year (Livy, v. 15, 16). Scarcely less important than Veii, and like it also Tarqi undoubtedly one of the twelve cities, was Tarquinii, l - now Corneto, the queen of the Maromma, towards which Graviscrc seems to have served as the port by which its great trade was carried on. The story runs that among those who preferred exile to the tyranny of Cypselus in Corinth in the early part of the 7th century B.C. was a wealthy merchant, Demaratus, who, accompanied by certain artists with mythical names (Eucheir, Diopus, and Eugrammus), settled in Tarquinii, which it is to be presumed was then sufficiently advanced in civilization to offer prospects of comfort, and to have been known to the traders of Corinth at least. Demaratus married a lady of Tarquinii, and had a son Lucumo or Lucius, who, though rich, suffered from being looked down on as a foreigner, and, to escape this, migrated to Rome, where in time he rose to the highest office of king, under the title of Tarquinius Priscus, and compelled the submission of the whole of Etruria, the token of which was the insignia of the twelve fasces, repre senting the twelve cities. He was succeeded by Servius Tulliu?, or Mastarna, as the Etruscans called him, under whose rule Etruria revolted, but without final success. Then came Tarquinius Superbus and his expulsion from Rome, on which occasion Tarquinii and Veii sent an army to endeavour to reinstate him. In the battle which fol lowed, Aruns Tarquinius and Junius Brutus the first consul fell by each other s hands. From this time Tar quinii was quiet for a century, till 397 B.C., when it joined Veii against Rome unsuccessfully, and thus revived a series of wars, in which, though generally worsted with severe loss, she yet maintained her independence down to the defeat at the Vadimonian lake, 283 B.C. Towards the close of the second Punic war, when the Etruscan cities had to furnish Scipio s fleet each with its staple commodity, Tar quinii supplied sail-cloth. Corn and other provisions were supplied by Caere, Ore a town which, if less famous in war than the two al ready described, was better known in the arts of peace. No doubt, in the legendary age, when it was ruled by the cruel Mezentius (jEneid, viii. 482), it was sufficiently warlike, but in later times it rarely joined in the struggles against Rome, where, indeed, its people stood in high favour for having sheltered the Roman vestals and the Flamen Quirinalis from the Gauls (389 B.C.). From the privileges enjoyed by the Cserites in Rome arose, it was said, the word &quot; caerimonia.&quot; It is recorded to the honour of Csere that she abstained from the piracy