Page:The history of Rome. Translated with the author's sanction and additions.djvu/153

Rh can see, during the whole regal period exercised no influence of any essential moment on either the language or customs of Rome, and did not at all interrupt the regular development of the Roman state or of the Latin league.

The cause of this comparatively passive attitude of Etruria towards the neighbouring land of Latium is probably to be sought partly in the struggles of the Etruscans with the Celts on the Po (which it is probable that the Celts did not cross until after the expulsion of the kings from Rome), and partly in the inclination of the Etruscan people towards navigation and the acquisition of supremacy on the sea and seaboard, a tendency decidedly exhibited in their settlements in Campania, and of which we shall speak more fully in the next chapter.

The Tuscan constitution, like the Greek and Latin, was based on the gradual transition of the community to an urban life. The early direction of the national energies towards navigation, trade, and industry, appears to have called into existence urban commonwealths, in the strict sense of the term, earlier in Etruria than elsewhere in Italy. Cære is the first of all the Italian towns that is mentioned in Greek records. On the other hand we find that the Etruscans had, on the whole, less of the ability and the disposition for war than the Romans and Sabellians. The un-Italian custom of employing mercenaries to fight for them occurs among the Etruscans at a very early period. The oldest constitution of the communities must, in its general outlines, have resembled the Roman. Kings or Lucumones ruled, possessing similar insignia, and probably therefore a similar plenitude of power with the Roman kings. A strict line of demarcation separated the nobles from the common people. The resemblance in the clan-organization is attested by the analogy of the systems of names; only, among the Etruscans, descent on the mother's side received much more consideration than in Roman law. The constitution of their league appears to have been very lax. It did not embrace the whole nation, but the northern and the Campanian Etruscans were associated in confederacies of their own in the same way as the communities of Etruria proper. Each of these leagues consisted of twelve communities, which recognized a metropolis, especially for purposes of worship, and a federal head or rather high priest, but appear to have been substantially on a level in respect of