Etruscans

Etruscans Latest News

A rare, untouched tomb from the Etruscans, a civilization that predated the Roman Republic, has been recently discovered in central Italy.

About Etruscans

• The Etruscans were a Mediterranean civilization that flourished between the 8th and 3rd centuries BCE.
• The Etruscans, also known as the Tyrrhenians, inhabited the area that is now Italy.
• Their country was called Tuscia, or Etruria. 
• Etruria was located in the central part of the Italian peninsula. 
• Etruria was bounded on the west by the Tyrrhenian Sea, on the north by the Arno River, and on the east and south by the Tiber River.
• They had a strong navy and dominated the seas on the western coast of Italy.
• The Etruscans possessed the biggest iron reserves in the whole of the western Mediterranean.
• Many features of Etruscan culture were adopted by the Romans, their successors to power in the peninsula.
• Etruscans were the first in the Mediterranean region to construct a city on the basis of a grid plan. 
  • In this plan, most of the streets were laid in a north-south direction with a few streets crossing them from the east-west direction. 
  • Romans later followed this plan while laying out military camps and new cities.

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Etruscans Social Classes

• Scholars believe that there were three social classes in ancient Etruria. 
• On the top was a powerful aristocratic, or noble class. 
• Below them was a middle class that consisted of craftsmen, merchants, and sailors. 
• Finally, there was a class of enslaved people. 
• Unlike ancient Greece and Rome, women were considered equal in status to men. 
• Etruscan women were often able to read and were educated. 

Etruscans Religion

• Etruscans believed in a universe controlled by gods. For them, the gods existed in nature as well as in all objects made by humans.
• Etruscans thought that the gods revealed their presence through natural phenomena such as lightning. 
• Their mythology was different from the Greeks and Romans. 
• However, the gods that they worshiped became similar to important Greek and Roman gods such as Zeus, Hermes, and Athena.

Etruscans Decline

• The decline of the Etruscan civilization began toward the end of the 6th century and the beginning of the 5th century BCE. 
• In 509 BCE the Etruscan kings were forced out of Rome. 
• Their naval superiority ended when the Greeks destroyed their fleet in 474 BCE. 
• By the middle of the 3rd century BCE, Etruscans were taken over by the Romans. 
• Latin, the language of the Romans, replaced Etruscan.
• By the 1st century BCE, the Etruscan people were completely absorbed by the Roman Empire, and Etruscan culture ceased to exist as a distinct civilization.

Source: LS