History of Etruscan civilization

Vulci or Volci was a rich and important Etruscan city.

The Proto-Villanovan culture was a late Bronze Age culture that appeared in Italy in the first half of the 12th century BC and lasted until the 10th century BC, part of the central European Urnfield culture system.

The Etruscan civilization begins with the Villanovan culture, regarded as the oldest phase. The Etruscans themselves dated the origin of the Etruscan nation to a date corresponding to the 11th or 10th century BC.

Veii was an important ancient Etruscan city situated on the southern limits of Etruria and only 16 km (9.9 mi) north-northwest of Rome, Italy. It now lies in Isola Farnese, in the comune of Rome.

The Villanovan culture (c. 900–700 BC), regarded as the earliest phase of the Etruscan civilization, was the earliest Iron Age culture of Central Italy and Northern Italy. It directly followed the Bronze Age Proto-Villanovan culture which branched off from the Urnfield culture of Central Europe.

Etruscan art was produced by the Etruscan civilization between the 9th and 2nd centuries BC.

Etruscan architecture was created between about 900 BC and 27 BC when the expanding civilization of ancient Rome finally absorbed Etruscan civilization.

The area around Bologna has been inhabited since the 9th century BC, as evidenced by the archeological digs in the 19th century in nearby Villanova.

The Villanovans introduced iron-working to the Italian Peninsula. They practiced cremation and buried the ashes of their dead in pottery urns of distinctive double-cone shape.

The Villanovan culture (c. 900–700 BC), regarded as the earliest phase of the Etruscan civilization, was the earliest Iron Age culture of Central Italy and Northern Italy.

Etruscan expansion was focused both to the north beyond the Apennines and south into Campania.

The earliest evidence of a culture that is identifiably Etruscan dates from about 900 BC. Etruscan history is the written record of Etruscan civilization compiled mainly by Greek and Roman authors. Apart from their inscriptions, from which information mainly of a sociological character can be extracted, the Etruscans left no surviving history of their own, nor is there any mention in the Roman authors that any was ever written. Remnants of Etruscan writings are almost exclusively concerned with religion.

The first Greek author to mention the Etruscans, whom the Ancient Greeks called Tyrrhenians, was the 8th-century BC poet Hesiod, in his work, the Theogony.

In the 8th century BC, the orientalizing period began, a time of influx of luxuriously living Greeks. They brought their elegant pottery styles and architectural methods with them.

Clusium was an ancient city in Italy, one of several found at the site. The current municipality of Chiusi (Tuscany) partly overlaps this Roman walled city. The Roman city remodeled an earlier Etruscan city, Clevsin, found in the territory of a prehistoric culture, possibly also Etruscan or proto-Etruscan.

Etruscans founded Etruscan dominions that are modernly known under the names of Padanian Etruria and Campanian Etruria. Moving from the northern city-states of the Etruscan Dodecapolis they swept into the Po valley through the Apennine passes.

Etruria was a region of Central Italy, located in an area that covered part of what are now Tuscany, Lazio, and Umbria.

The Etruscan culture was influenced by Ancient Greek culture, beginning around 750 BC, during the last phase of the Villanovan period, when the Greeks, who were at this time in their Archaic Orientalizing period, started founding colonies in southern Italy.

In the Archaic phase of ancient Greek art, the Orientalizing period or Orientalizing revolution is the cultural and art historical period that began during the later part of the 8th century BC.

The Etruscans established relations of a certain consistency with the first Greek immigrants in southern Italy in Pithecusa.

The Etruscan alphabet was the alphabet used by the Etruscans, an ancient civilization of central and northern Italy, to write their language, from about 700 BC to sometime around 100 AD.

The earliest known examples of Etruscan writing are inscriptions found in southern Etruria that date to around 700 BC.

The Etruscans were a dominant culture in Italy by 650 BC, surpassing other ancient Italic peoples such as the Ligures. Their influence may be seen beyond Etruria's confines in the Po River Valley and Latium, as well as in Campania and through their contact with the Greek colonies in Southern Italy (including Sicily).

From about 630 BC, Etruscan architecture was heavily influenced by Greek architecture, which was itself developing through the same period.

The estimates for the populations of the largest cities (Veii, Volsinii, Caere, Vulci, Tarquinia, Populonia) range between 25,000 and 40,000 each in the 6th century BC.

The Tomb of the Augurs is an Etruscan burial chamber so-called because of a misinterpretation of one of the fresco figures on the right wall thought to be a Roman priest known as an augur.

The Etruscan government style changed from total monarchy to oligarchic democracy (as the Roman Republic) in the 6th century BC. It is important to note this did not happen to all the city-states.

There was a period between 600 BC and 500 BC, during which twelve Etruscan city-states formed a loose confederation known as the Etruscan League.

Spina was an Etruscan port city on the Adriatic at the ancient mouth of the Po, south of the lagoon which would become the site of Venice. Spina may have had a Hellenised indigenous population.

Around 540 BC, the Battle of Alalia led to a new distribution of power in the western Mediterranean. Though the battle had no clear winner, Carthage managed to expand its sphere of influence at the expense of the Greeks, and Etruria saw itself relegated to the northern Tyrrhenian Sea with full ownership of Corsica.

Around 540 BC, the Battle of Alalia led to a new distribution of power in the western Mediterranean.

Originally Etruscan, the city has been one of the most important urban centers for centuries, first under the Etruscans (who called it Felsina).

The Romans attacked between 510 and 290 BC. This apparent disunity of the Etruscans was probably regarded as internal dissent by the Etruscans themselves.

The Battle of Silva Arsia was a battle in 509 BC between the republican forces of ancient Rome and the Etruscan forces of Tarquinii and Veii led by the deposed Roman king Lucius Tarquinius Superbus.

The armies of the two cities followed Tarquin to battle but were defeated by the Roman army at the Battle of Silva Arsia. The consul Valerius collected the spoils of the routed Etruscans and returned to Rome to celebrate a triumph on 1 March 509 BC.

The war between Clusium and Aricia was a military conflict in central Italy that took place around 508 BC.

The 5th-century BC historians Thucydides and Herodotus, and the 1st-century BC historian Strabo, did seem to suggest that the Tyrrhenians were originally Pelasgians who migrated to Italy from Lydia by way of the Greek island of Lemnos.

The reduction in the Etruscan territory was gradual, but after 500 BC, the political balance of power on the Italian peninsula shifted away from the Etruscans in favor of the rising Roman Republic.

It was only in the 5th century BC, when the Etruscan civilization had been established for several centuries, that Greek writers started associating the name "Tyrrhenians" with the "Pelasgians", and even then, some did so in a way that suggests they were meant only as generic, descriptive labels for "non-Greek" and "indigenous ancestors of Greeks".

In 480 BC, Etruria's ally Carthage was defeated by a coalition of Magna Graecia cities led by Syracuse, Sicily.

The Battle of the Cremera was fought between the Roman Republic and the Etruscan city of Veii, in 477 BC.

In 475 BC the Veientes together with Sabines commenced hostilities against Rome, only a year after the defeat of Veii in the previous war.

In 474 BC, Syracuse's tyrant Hiero defeated the Etruscans at the Battle of Cumae. Etruria's influence over the cities of Latium and Campania weakened, and the area was taken over by Romans and Samnites.

The Tomb of the Triclinium is an Etruscan tomb in the Necropolis of Monterozzi (near Tarquinia, Italy) dated to approximately 470 BC.

As the Etruscan civilization was gradually assimilated into the Roman Republic from the 4th century BC, the Etruscan religion and mythology were partially incorporated into ancient Roman culture, following the Roman tendency to absorb some of the local gods and customs of conquered lands.

The Mars of Todi is a nearly life-sized bronze warrior, dating from the late 5th or early 4th century BC, produced in Etruria for the Umbrian market. It was found at Todi (ancient Tuder), on the slope of Mount Santo.

The Battle of the Allia was a battle fought between the Senones – a Gallic tribe led by Brennus, who had invaded northern Italy – and the Roman Republic.

Livy writes that in 358 BC, Rome declared war on Tarquinii after forces from that city had raided Roman territory.

The first Battle of Lake Vadimo was fought in 310 BC between Rome and the Etruscans and ended up being the largest battle between these nations. The Romans were victorious, gaining land and influence in the region. The Etruscans sustained heavy losses in the battle and would never again reclaim their previous glory.

Menrva was an Etruscan goddess of war, art, wisdom, and medicine. She contributed much of her character to the Roman Minerva. She was the child of Uni and Tinia.

Etruscan civilization endured until it was assimilated into Roman society. Assimilation began in the late 4th century BC as a result of the Roman–Etruscan Wars.

The second Battle of Lake Vadimo was fought in 283 BC between Rome and the combined forces of the Etruscans and the Gallic tribes of the Boii and the Senones. The Roman army was led by consul Publius Cornelius Dolabella. The result of the battle was a Roman victory.

The Roman–Etruscan Wars were a series of wars fought between ancient Rome (in both the regal and the republican periods) and the Etruscans. Information about many of the wars is limited, particularly those in the early parts of Rome's history, and in large part is known from ancient texts alone. The conquest of Etruria was completed in 265–264 BC.

The Sarcophagus of Seianti Hanunia Tlesnasa is the life-size sarcophagus of an Etruscan noblewoman dating from between 150–140 BC.