Etruscan history

The third hypotheses was reported by Livy and Pliny the Elder, and puts the Etruscans in the context of the Rhaetian people to the north and other populations living in the Alps.

According to prehistoric and protohistoric archaeologists, anthropologists, etruscologists, geneticists, linguists, all the evidence gathered so far fits the autochthonous origin of the Etruscans.

The mining and commerce of metal, especially copper and iron, led to an enrichment of the Etruscans and to the expansion of their influence in the Italian peninsula and the western Mediterranean sea.

Here, their interests collided with those of the Greeks, especially in the 6th century BC, when Phoceans of Italy founded colonies along the coast of France, Catalonia and Corsica.

In the 4th century BC, Padanian Etruria saw a Gallic invasion end its influence over the Po valley and the Adriatic coast.

The paraphernalia of Etruscan kingship is familiar because it was inherited by Rome; they adopted the symbols of the republican authority wielded by the consuls: the purple robe, the staff or scepter topped with an eagle, the folding cross-framed "curule seat", the sella curulis, and most prominent of all, the fasces carried by a magistrate, which preceded the king in public appearances.

[24] The Etruscan cities would come together under a single leader at a traditional annual council held at the sacred grove of the Fanum Voltumnae.

In times of no emergency, the position of praetor Etruriae, as Roman inscriptions express it, was no doubt largely ceremonial and concerned with cultus.

A map showing the extent of Etruria and the Etruscan civilization ; the map includes the 12 cities of the Etruscan League and notable cities founded by the Etruscans
The Mars of Todi , a life-sized bronze sculpture of a soldier making a votive offering , late 5th to early 4th century BC
Painted terracotta Sarcophagus of Seianti Hanunia Tlesnasa , about 150–130 BC
The Orator , c. 100 BC, an Etrusco-Roman bronze statue depicting Aule Metele (Latin: Aulus Metellus), an Etruscan man wearing a Roman toga while engaged in rhetoric ; the statue features an inscription in the Etruscan alphabet
Ancient Etruscan " aryballoi " terracotta vessels unearthed in the 1860s at Bolzhaya Bliznitsa tumulus near Phanagoria , South Russia (then part of the Bosporan Kingdom of Cimmerian Bosporus ); on exhibit at the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg .