II.

History

From very early times Etruscan society was dominated by a firmly entrenched aristocracy that exercised strict control over the political, military, economic, and religious aspects of the people’s lives. By the 6th century bc, several city states, including Tarquinii and Veii, dominated their respective geographic regions and sent colonists to adjacent areas. Some of their leaders, including the semi-legendary Etruscan kings of Rome such as the Tarquins Lucius Priscus and Lucius Superbus, may have achieved their positions because they were accomplished warriors. Their independent city states were continually forming alliances with one another for economic and political gain. Warrior-kings also forged economic ties through marriage.

In response to the threat that these alliances posed, the Romans, Greeks, and Carthaginians also united occasionally against the Etruscans. In the 5th century bc, Etruscan power was challenged and severely curtailed. The navy from the city of Syracuse defeated an allied Etruscan fleet in a naval battle off the coast of Cumae in 474 bc. In an effort to regain control over the seas, an Etruscan confederacy allied itself with Athens in the ill-fated assault on Syracuse in 413 bc. After a siege of about ten years, the city of Veii was defeated (396 bc) by Rome in its struggle to control the overland routes north. This victory marked the beginning of Rome’s gradual conquest of Etruria, which was not completed until 283 bc.

In the 3rd century bc the Etruscans began to lose their unique cultural identity as they increasingly came under the control of Rome. The Etruscan cities of Caere, Tarquinia, and Vulci were forced to pay tribute and to cede some of their territories. Dissension among the aristocracy and insurrections by the lower classes followed, resulting in the collapse of the urban social structure, as in Volsinii. Consequently, Etruscan cities entered into alliances with Rome.

As a result of these alliances Roman law began to affect the Etruscan people. Attempts to rebel against Roman rule, with the help of the Umbrians and Gauls on one occasion, were defeated. The ties between Rome and Etruria were further strengthened in the 1st century bc, when the Etruscans accepted the offer of Roman citizenship. Their newly gained status was soon eroded, however, when they supported the losing side in the Roman civil wars (88-86 bc; 83 bc). The victor, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, took extreme vengeance, razing cities, seizing land, and imposing restrictions on Etruscan civil rights.

The brutality of Sulla so devastated the Etruscans that their subsequent attempts at revolt came to nothing. Over a century later, the Roman emperor Augustus sent new colonists to Etruria. These people worked with, not against, the Etruscans, and succeeded in accelerating the Romanization of the region.