Etruscans
Etruscans: The Building Block of Rome
"The dominant early settlers on the Italian peninsula were a non-Indo-European-speaking people known as the Etruscans" (Coffin & Stacey 168). The Etruscans were among three groups of people from the East that entered Italy as colonists and later as rulers of various segments of the peninsula. The Etruscans came into Italy about 800 B.C.E. following the Adriatic Sea. Although our knowledge of the Etruscans is severely limited by the fact that their language, although written in a Greek alphabet, has not been fully deciphered, traces remain that they left significant evidence of their effect and influence on Rome. The Etruscans left evidence throughout nearly every aspect of Rome including their traditions and culture. Without their influence, the Rome that everyone in the world knows today might have been very different. "In the beginning of the first century after death, Livy and Virgil believed that the migration of the Etruscans to central Italy was the resultant of the fall of Troy and flight of Aeneas" (http://www.crystalinks.com/etruscians.html). The leader of the Etruscans, Tyrrhenos, from whom they adopted the name the Tyrrhenian, convinced the Etruscan people to travel from Lydia to Italy due to a famine outbreak. The Etruscans first established a series of small city-states in the northern and central areas of the Italian peninsula, ruling the native Italic people by virtue of their superior weaponry and organization. Then the Etruscans came to Rome in force-as craftsmen, merchants, builders, religious experts, doctors, and rulers. The Etruscans began to form Rome into an architectural city, with streets, public buildings, markets, shops, temples, and domestic houses, that the world knows it as now. They began to form a new Rome by fusing the Etruscan people with the natives throughout the country. "Rome became recognizable a city; it also acquired some of the features which characterized Greek
"The dominant early settlers on the Italian peninsula were a non-Indo-European-speaking people known as the Etruscans" (Coffin & Stacey 168). The Etruscans were among three groups of people from the East that entered Italy as colonists and later as rulers of various segments of the peninsula. The Etruscans came into Italy about 800 B.C.E. following the Adriatic Sea. Although our knowledge of the Etruscans is severely limited by the fact that their language, although written in a Greek alphabet, has not been fully deciphered, traces remain that they left significant evidence of their effect and influence on Rome. The Etruscans left evidence throughout nearly every aspect of Rome including their traditions and culture. Without their influence, the Rome that everyone in the world knows today might have been very different. "In the beginning of the first century after death, Livy and Virgil believed that the migration of the Etruscans to central Italy was the resultant of the fall of Troy and flight of Aeneas" (http://www.crystalinks.com/etruscians.html). The leader of the Etruscans, Tyrrhenos, from whom they adopted the name the Tyrrhenian, convinced the Etruscan people to travel from Lydia to Italy due to a famine outbreak. The Etruscans first established a series of small city-states in the northern and central areas of the Italian peninsula, ruling the native Italic people by virtue of their superior weaponry and organization. Then the Etruscans came to Rome in force-as craftsmen, merchants, builders, religious experts, doctors, and rulers. The Etruscans began to form Rome into an architectural city, with streets, public buildings, markets, shops, temples, and domestic houses, that the world knows it as now. They began to form a new Rome by fusing the Etruscan people with the natives throughout the country. "Rome became recognizable a city; it also acquired some of the features which characterized Greek
Cited: Adler, Philip J., and Randall L. Pouwels. World Civilizations. 4th ed. Vol. 1. Belmont CA: Thomson Wadsworth, 2006. 117-118. Bonamici, Marisa, Riccardo Francovich, Renata G. Cremonesi, Andreina Ricci, and Leonardo Rombai. The Land of the Etruscans. Milan: Scala, 1985. Coffin, Judith G., and Robert C. Stacey. Western Civilizations. 15th ed. Vol. 1. New York: Norton, 2005. 168-170. Crystal, Ellie. "Etruscans." Ellie Crystal 's Metaphysical and Science Website. Oct.-Nov. 2005 . Ogilvie, R M. Early Rome And The Etruscans. Vol. 1. Hassocks, Sussex: Harvester P, 1976. 30-91.