Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/312

 280 ETRUSCAN ARCHITECTURE. Part I. robber horde on the banks of the Tiber till she became the arbiter of the destinies of the ancient world, is little beyond the record of con- tinuous wars. From the possession of the seven hills, Rome gradually carried her sway at the edge of the sword to the dominion of the whole of Italy and of all the then known world, destroying every- thing that stood in the way of her ambition, and seeking only the acquisition of wealth and power. Greece, in the midst of her successful cultivation of the arts of commerce and of peace, stimulated by the wholesome rivalry of the dif- ferent States of which she was composed, was awakened by the Persian invasion to a struggle for existence. The result was one of the most brilliant passages in the world's history, and no. nation was ever more justified in the jubilant outburst of enthusiastic patriotism that fol- lowed the repulse of the invader, than was Greece in that with which she commenced her short but brilliant career. A triumph so gained by a people so constituted led to results at which we still wonder, though they cause us no surprise. If Greece attained her manhood on the battle-fields of Marathon and Salamis, Rome equally reached the maturity of her career when she cruelly and criminally destroyed Corinth and Carthage, and the sequel was such as might be expected from such a difference of education. Rome had no time for the culti- vation of the arts of peace, and as little sympathy for their gentler influences. Conquest, wealth, and consequent power, were the objects of her ambition — for these she sacrificed everything, and by their means she attained a pinnacle of greatness that no nation had reached before or has since. Her arts have all the impress of this greatness, and are characterized by the same vulgar grandeur which marks everything she did. Very different are they from the intellectual beauty found in the works of the Greeks, but in some respects they , are as interesting to those who can read the character of nations in their artistic productions. In the earlier part of her career Rome was an Etruscan city under Etruscan kings and institutions. After she had emancipated herself from their yoke, Etruria long remained her equal and her rival in political ])ower, and her instructress in religion and the arts of peace. This continued so long, and the architectural remains of that people are so numerous, and have been so thoroughly investigated, that we have no difficulty in ascertaining the extent of influence the older nation had on the nascent empire. It is more difficult to ascertain exactly who the Etruscans themselves were, or whence they came. But on the whole there seems every reason to believe they migrated from Asia Minor some twelve or thirteen centuries before the Christian era, and fixed themselves in Italy, most probably among the ITmbrians, or some people of cognate i-ace, who had settled there before — so long before,