Pelasgic cities a t the era of the subjugation of Etruria by the
Romans. The cities said to be founded by the Pelasgi were
mostly near the coast, but some of them in the interior ; and
the story that these towns were built by a different people
from the Etruscans who afterwards possessfed them, derives
some confirmation from the fact, of which we are assured by
Dionysius, that they bore afterwards double names. The
conquests of the Etruscans were, however, chiefly made upon
th e Umbrians.
The Etruscans possessed twelve confederated cities in Tuscany
on the Lower or Tyrrhene sea, and as manÿ , in »the
Northern or Circumpadane territory, termed by. Servius,,Nova
Etruria.* There was also a third Etruria, according lo Strabo*
containing twelve cities, among which were Capua and Nola.
So powerful were the Etruscans at the period when their
nation was most extensively spread, that alt Italy, from the
Alps to the Sicilian straits, has been said to have beéri subject
to their government.
Paragraph ll|||E x te n t of the three Etrurias.
I. Lower Etruria. |
Niebuhr has found some difficulty in determining precisely
which were the twelve Etrurian cities in Tuscany or Lofàer
Etruria. He observes that Livy has mentioned hutieight in
a place where a full enumeration would have been expected ;
these are Cære, which from the Pelasgi had the hame of
Agylla, Tarquinii, Populonia, Volaterræ, Aretium, Perusia,
Clusium, Ruselïæ, Veii, and Yolsinii, which must havé been
included among the towns that had been destroyed* The two
still wanting cannot be fixed upon with certainty : Capena,
Cosa, and Fæsulæ may appear to have a claim.
The Tiber seems to have been in general the boundary of
the Lower Etruria towards the southj but this limit was passed
in some notable instances, and it appears that the luscan
confederacy at different periods held a predominant sway over
* Serving ad Géorgie, ii. v. 533. “ Constat Tuscos usquead mare Siculum
omnia possëdisse.”—“ Notizia,” says Lanzi, “ che attinse da Catone.” (Lanzi,
■ Saggio, iii.582.)
the nations of Latium and of Opika. It is proved by passages
from Cato, which Servius and Macrobius have preserved, that
.the Yolsci and Rutuli were subject to the Etrurians.* On
the right bank, of the Tiber the population was of the genuine
Tuscan race, .and th e . territory of the Yeientes reached near
to Rome. It, is more difficult tb 'ascertain.the northern limit
.of. Lower Etruria. It seems to have, varied with the encroachments,
qf the Ligurians, which-began about the period of the
Galiiciinvasion of Italyii - For some centuries before Augustus
it, appears .that Pisa had been the lipiit between that barbarous
people and the.Tuscans,! but it has been proved from Poly-
lbjusfand, Eijvy, that a considerable part of the territory occm-.
pied by $h.e -Ligurians in Italy to the northward-/of, Pisa,, had
.previously Jqrmed a part of Etruria. xSpylax alone seems t©
haypmadedhé.EtruscansT’each northward even onihe:western
Itsjy as, ffir, as the foot of the Afp&l^but the territory
,the Macra and the Arnus belonged to them, Recording
ta;many testimonies, as well as an extensive tract of the
Apemhinte which, formed the communication between. Lower
and thp ».Circumpadane Etruria, and which was afterwards
occupied .by the Ligurians.|uJ
I I .— Circumpadane E truria.
Thé rich plains on both sides the’‘river Po wöre occupied,
when the now lost race of Rasena was at the zenith of its
pbwer, by twelve flourishing cities. Among the twelve cities of
Tipper Etruria none of those towns caü be èdmprised which were
situated1 on the Lower SeR/between the Macra and the Amus,
since it was asserted by Csecina that all the Etruscan states
. of this confederation were beyond the Apennines.)] Many of
these cities seem to have been utterly destroyed at the irruption
* Servius ad ASneid. xi. 567. Maerob, iii. 5. Muller’s Etrusker, EinL 5.
J, -j* Polybius says : ?VThe Lngurians live on the Apennines, and.those mountains
towards Marseilles which join with 'the Alps, possessing likewise the other two
^dës.ylhieh front the great plains and the Tuscan S e a : but towards the west they
spread themselves as far as Pisa, which is the first town in Tuscany, and on the
inland side as far as Arezzo.SlVLih. ii,y ,
$ Mullets Etrusker, Einl. s. 1-Op.
§ This seems to have been made out, by a comparison of various passages in
,Polybius, Strabo, and other writers, by Müller. See page 106, Einl.
, || Livy coincides with this statement. Lib. v, 5,.