of tire Gauls. By them Felsima, afterwards Bononia, was com
quered. That city is termed By Pliny “ Princeps Etruriæ.”
Melpum, an opulent city in the Milapese,was destroyed by the
Senones, Boii, and Insubres. Adria, which gave name.Jip the
Adriatic, is supposed to have been one of the twelve cities. A
few of these towns of ; N ortherp. Etruria withstood the Gauls>
and maintained themselves until Italy yielded to the Romans.
Among1 these, were Verona and Mantua j Ravenna, which
afterwards fell into thé possession, of the . Umbrians, is supposed
to have been at one period an Etrusqan city.
Northern Etruri% according to Plutarch,* was very fer'tilq,
and contained eighteen cities. Lanzi - observes thatj'npne of
the ancient writers has left us any very definite idea of, its
limits, though Livy, Strabo, Diodorus, Polybius, and Dionysius
have described it."f" Niebuhr has expressed an opinion
that Northern Etruria reached not further westward than the
Ticinus'r Perhaps it is impossible to ascertain the earliest limits
between the Tuscans and Ligurians. Wenugt%^perh^bSo
reckon as a part of Northern Etruria the country of the Rhaeti
aind other Alpine nations said to have been of the(paeefef the
Rasena. According to Strabo the Lepontii and Camu li \\«.n' of
the same lineage as the .^Rhaeti. Mount Brenner \yas dheir
boundary towards the north, and consequently the northern
limit of the Tuscan race. If we believe Livy,_ the Rhætian
Alps were the refuge of Etrurian fugitives whç> escaped from
the destructive invasion of the Cisalpine Ga u l sMo d e n a
writers, Frèret, Gibbon, Hey ne* Niebuhr, and Otfried Mull eu,
suppose this Alpine region to have been the cradle pf the Tuscan
race, whence they issued, as so many other barbarian hordes
have done through the same passage, to conquer for themselves
a dwelling-place in the happiestcountries of Italy. The Cisal-
* Plut, in Vita Camilli.
-(• Polyl>- ii. cap. 17- See Lanzi, Saggio, tom. Hi. p/58,3.1
t Liviiiib. v. e. 35. Pliny has the same story : “ Rhaetos, Thuscorum prolem,
arb itran t« a Gallis pulsos, duce Rhæto.” (Hist. Nat. lib. iii. cap. 20.) And Justin
repeats it: ;*f Tusci duce Rhæto, a vit is sedibus amissis, Alpes occupavêre, et ex
ducis nomine gentem Rhætorum condiderunt.” (Lib, xx. c. 5,)1
We have seen, however, that the Rhæti are proved, by--tbè names of places
throughout the country occupied by them when conquered by the Romans, to have
been Celts. Probably the mountainous country-occupied by the Tuscans was dflly a
border of Rhætia. M. Zeuss conjectures that it was the tract of the Euganian hills.
pmfef was,a?éë<3tdinf Hb'this tWedfy, the first of these’settlements,
and -the Wèlvë; fiifies W Tuscany^wteVe of later ddté. This, as
wfe shall findf*iVMntMr^wl®kmteraeht‘s of all the ancients,
who uniformly^supjJoked'the ^ïimi'tfve'land tof tbe Etruscans to
n av#$èè ii
Pilyoius declares fhal îwëTus^Tra had formerly possessed
tlie-sü-ufrmeu Phl;coræan plains borderingrai Capua and Nola,
v eflèhis PdftStrams informs us that aVcord fn g to souije apeounts
Capua w'as^puilSy tne Tyrrneni forty-seven years before the
to^MfaînonWr Rome.' Pompomul>'Mela likewise says that it
1 was Toundea b y f h V TuwraifsV *
In th^s^poTOïrÿ/^He niosf part of which had previpiMy be-
::|ragea to 'frî olsPoir the'Opic nation, and whicn was afterwards
'^hqWe'reo! Dy'llu?nauimfesra^TOople speakihg’the same Opic
frr O'scan lapguagu-.aiii:! ,-prung from anptneubranch of the Opib
Taee,,tWTu^arLs duringThe ihiermepfate^^
iovrns,%rind1rMea'ovet^iAgréât andropulent population.' ' Ac-
„TOrdmgTct) Strabo they had in- Campynia twèîyë’ principal
ciries.v CJtifried Miiller has^olioctptl the name®'of several
Itowns wBich'-mmp probably'-have belonged, to the number:
Fn’ the* first placé* .wère*’ Capua an&'NPola,' then Nuceria on
th f^ a rn u f^ rq b a b ly ' also Herculaneutn and Pompeii,^ places
which, a.Qcording1’ to Strabo, belonged at first to( the Oscaps,
then to'*thé Tyrrhéni and Pelasgians,.,and afterwards,to the
Samrufjés. Further inlandjl&pr rentum is said? to have bepn ; a
Tuscan city, as well as Marcina. , Salérnupi is cpnjectured by
Muller to- have been the.metropolis in, this Southern Etruria.
Suessa in the northern part m Campania, and the Circæan
Âëa, arAmentionëd” as placés; built by the Tyrrhéni ; but it
would appear that in this instance the term must mean Pe-
lasgic, and not properly Etrusèan; and this, is' orié*exàmple
among many of that ambiguity ip the meaning of these names
which puzzles, those , who attempt, researches into the early
eth nograph y-ofItaly.
The great population,’wëàlth, arid luxury for which Capua
an a CaPmapia ip general, fvejre, famed,, pjust bp considered as
of Tuscan, growth, for the,bld Qscans were a rude people, arid
Strabo, lib. v. p. 247.