Ever since the early renaissance, people have been amazed by the Roman civilization, the achievements and the empire that they came to create around the Mediteerenian sea, as well as the cultural aspect of Rome, an aspect which we still today can trace in our own culture. But as all history also has a history, this amazing civilization came into existance trough a heterogenic influence on the civilization's early history. One of the greatest influences came from the Etruscans, an ancient Italic people whose civilization streached from the Po river in the north to the Tiber and further south by the city of Cumae. The study of Etruscan history has not been done in any large quantity, much because of the fact that that there is not a large amount of resources containing usefull information, contrary to the case with Greek and Roman civilizations not many texts has survived from antiquity. And if there would been written materials, there would have been a lingual problem to bare in mind, since linguists have established that the Etruscan language is not an Indo - European language and have because of that caused translational problems.
However, there is a large amount of archeological findings which can tell us a lot about the Etruscan culture and society which had such a large impact on Rome.
The Political Relation
In order to understand why such a large cultural exchange occured, one must study the political relationship between Rome and the Etruscan city - states. The Etruscan civilization is considered to have developed from an early iron age culture called Villa Nova. Almost all of the Etruscan cities have ground layers wich are dated back to this time period. In Rome the first village to evolve was a Villa Novan village on the Palatine and so these two cultures shared a cultural background. The people living in Rome by that time were Latins, an Italic people with whom the Romans shared both language and religion, although these would be largely affected by the Etruscans. By the 7th century B.C, Rome had started to grow into a small town as a result of Sabine, also an Italic people living in Latium during this time, and Latin villages on the different hills merging into one single town. This happened during the same time that the Greeks started to colonize the south of Italy, the contact between the Italic and the Greek people grew and trade became important between these civilizations. Some historians have claimed that it was the trade with the Greek colonies during the 7th century that led to the development of the Etruscan culture of the "golden age " ( 7th century - 5th century B.C ). One might argue wether this is true or not, but certainly during this time the Etruscan cities started to grow and the culture gained from the contact with the Greeks. But it was not only the Etruscan culture that started to grow during this time, but also the Etruscan power in the Appenine peninsula. During the 7th century the Etruscans held most of Eturia and as the cities grew the need for expansion came. The Etruscans began to occupy areas of the Po River valley and started a series of military campaigns against the Umbrians, and they also gained control over the Latin cities in Latium and would also occupy areas in Campania in southern Italy.
As mentioned above trade with the Greek colonies and also the Greek city of Corinth became important during this period. Rome would grow to become an important city because of its location as a central trading post in Italy. Any Greek trading with Eturia would often go through Rome and the city gained wealth because of this. The one to rule Rome would be able to tax an important part of Italian trade and thus the Etruscan interest in the city grew.
According to Roman traditions, Rome was from its founding ( about 753 B.C ) until the Republic ( 509 B.C ) ruled by absolut Kings. The first ones were of Latin descent but during the 6th century there was a line of Etruscan kings, known as the Tarquins, in Rome. Even though much of this is myth archeological and historical sources show that Rome was most probably ruled by Etruscan kings during this time, and Etruscan influence reached Rome from itīs earliest stage. Even though the stories about the Etruscan kings are to a large part legend they still are of interest to us. The first Etruscan king to rule was a man by the name of Tarquinius Priscus. He was the son of a Greek merchant from Corinth who had settled in Tarquini to escape the tyranny of Cypselus. He married an Etruscan woman who gave birth to a son who was named Lucumon. According to the legend Lucumon migrated into Rome together with his wife Tanaquil during the time of the king Ancus Martius. The legend says that when the couple entered Rome on the Janiculum an eagle swooped down and took Lucumons hat and then circled around the charriot of Lucumon and his wife before putting the hat back on Lucumonīs head. Tanaquil saw this omen as a sign from the Goods and decided that this was an evidence that they placed the highest hopes in her husband. Lucumon was later proclaimed King and took the name Tarquinius Priscus. This myth is very interesting when studied carefully because of its clear Etruscan relation. To begin with, the name Lucumon was after Lucumon the first used as a title for the kings which ruled the Etruscan cities, each of the twelve Eturian citys had its own Lucumon, and the name was probably used in the legend to define the kingship of the Etruscan ruler. The story of the eagle is also interesting in the same perspective as the Etruscan religion, which had a great impact on the Roman ( see Religion ), as symbolism and sign interpretation was an important step in the divine interpretation. The eagle is according to both Roman and Etruscan traditions the king of birds in the same way as Jupiter, Tin in Etruscan, is the king of the Gods and so Jupiter is resembeled as an eagle giving his favour to Lucumon , the ruler.
Rome proved to be an important city for the Etruscans since it was a border line between Eturia and southern Italy. From Rome the Etruscans could without any major difficulties occupie Campania. Of course one must remember that the Etruscans cities were not unified into a single kingdom but that each city had its own ruler and ally, and would fight against each other as well as against non Etruscan states. Rome under its Etruscan rule became an ally of the Etruscan city of Clusium, one of the most powerful Etruscan cities at the time.
According to the legend the last Etruscan king in Rome was a man called Tarquinius Superbus, the grand son of Tarquinius Priscus. He had seized the throne in 534 B.C after having murdered Servius Tullius and picked up a harsh, absolute rule. The harsh rule led to a succsesful revolt led by the latin Brutus Junius, and in 510 B.C the Roman republic was proclaimed. Tarquin was sent in exile from Rome together with his family.
But efforts was made to reinstall Tarquins power in Rome with the help of the king of Clusium, Lars Porsenna. The army of Clusium attacted Rome and probably conquered it, although legends only state that the Janiculum was conquered and that Roman heroism drove the invaders from Rome. The real event is probably more complicated than that of the legend but we do know that king Porsenna did not manage to hold the city for long, probably because of civil problems in Clusium. However, the Roman republic would continue for several centuries as the power of the city of Rome grew. One should still not view the revolution against Tarquin as a revolution against Etruscan rule over Rome(please se note on the essay page about this), and the Etruscans still had influence over Rome until the late 5th century when the Etruscan power in Italy started to decline as the Roman power continued to grow.
The first Etruscan city to be conquered by the Romans was Veii in 396 B.C. and by the end of the 3rd century B.C Rome had conquered all of the Etruscan cities. The culture in its "pure" form would still live on until the 1st century B.C.
Religion
The Etruscans believed in a religion filled with spirits of nature and those of the ancestors.
They saw the world as a place that was controlled by several Gods and spirits wich humans served under and would have to fear. Humans could try to understand the Gods and their will, but that demanded specific training and wisdom. Interpreting signs became an important feature of Etruscan religion, which was inherited by the Romans. Since the Gods spoke with mystic signs that occured in nature, a priesthood developed who could interprate the signs of the Gods.
The priest would look at the stars, which were mapped out on the sky into four different sectors were two were good and two were of bad origin and one would combine it with the study of things that would occure around you in the environment. A good example of the interpretations made from thing occuring in nature is the story of Tarquinius Priscus (see Political Relation) where the eagle is defined as a symbol of Tin or Jupiter and how its behavior makes a sign. The Etruscan priest also saw lightning as an instrument by which the Gods used to communicate with the humans , but in difference to the Greeks the Etruscans saw lightning as a positive and good sign from the Gods. Another way of interpreting the will of the Gods was to study the liver of a dead animal and the priests known as the Haruspices would look closely at the shape, color and appearance of the animals organ. This became an important part of the Etruscan faith. One thing we also should remember is that the animals used for this purpose were not sacrified animals since animal sacrifice was not practised by the Etruscans. It was the Romans who would start to interpret organs of sacrified animals. The priests would make sacrifices of flowers, bread and wine to the Gods in their tempels or in the nature. There was also a vital cult of house Gods and spirits. Families keept shrines to their own Gods in their homes and would conduct ceremonies to the Gods of their choice. There was also an important death cult within the Etruscan faith, people built tombs were the ashes of the dead would be stored. These tombs were often painted and filled with objects of art and have been a vital source in the study of Etruscan history. By these tombs there would be ceromonies conducted by family members to honor the spirits of the dead.
The Romans would inherit much of this in their religion. The Romans adopted the way of looking at nature which brought signs from the Gods. And there is much of this in the Roman mythology. The Romans adopted the practise of the Haruspices which was used in combination with sacrifies, often to tell the future. Many of these ceremonies were held in Etruscan which became a sacred language to the Roman Haruspices. They were the only priests in Rome which had the knowledge of how to perform the study of animal organs.Many of the religious texts which the priests used was often of Etruscan origin which might explain the use of Etruscan in Roman ceremonies. The Romans also keept house gods which had been a part of the Roman religion since the kingdom and was out of clear Etruscan origin. The house Gods were known as Lares, who were spirits of ancestors, and Penates, who were spirits of home and heart. Just like the Etruscans the Roman familys would keep shrines to these Gods and would make sacrifices to them. The Romans also inherited certain aspects of the death cult from the Etruscans. During the time of the Republic cremation was more often used than inhumation and although the Romans did not bury their dead in large tombs they would put the ashes into urns, similar to the ones used by the Etruscans.
The Romans also inherited their Gods from the Etruscans who had been influenced by the Greeks. Tin would become Jupiter, Uni in its Latin form would be Juno, Turan became Venus, Turms became Mercurius, Velchans became Vulcanus, Menerva became Minerva, Nethuns became Neptunus, Apulu became Apollo and Aritimi was the Greek Artemis who was named Diana in the Roman pantheon. The Gods keept their Etruscan attributes until the Hellinistic influence during the 3rd century B.C when the Romans conquered Greek cities and would bring Greek statues of the Gods to Rome.
Art and Architecture
The Romans adopted much of the Etruscan Art and Architecture and developed it together with Hellenic influence into a unice, Roman type. Letīs begin with architecture. The buildings where the Etruscan influence is most obvious were the early temples. The Etruscans built large, square temples with one entrance gate, which faced the altar. On the outside the fronts of the temples often were heavely ornamented with columns and terracotta faces of spirits and Gods placed above the temple gate. This is the same form that the Jupiter Maximus temple on the Capitolian Hill was given, and the Temple form differ much from the Greek tradition. The Greekīs also built their temples in a square form, but with columns leaping around every side and there was not any concentrated front of the temple. There were enterance gates around the whole temple, and the altar stood in the center of the temple, facing all of the entrances. The building of the Capitoline Temple was initiated by the Etruscan king Tarquinius Priscus and it became a model for other tempels built during the early Roman period. After the conquering of the Greek cities Rome became more influenced by the Hellenistic type and the temples acquiered a lot of the Greek form. Still, one can note a continuation of Etruscan temples during the Imperial time, for example: many of the Temples built during this time still only had one row of columns on the front of the temple building, and have only one entrance like the Capitoline temple. But it was not only in temple building that the Romanīs received architectural influence.
The Etruscan kings were the first ones to build a sewer in Rome, the Cloaca Maxima.
The sewer was copied for future ones and the building type was applied in both Rome and later in colonies as well as in provincial cities during the Imperial time.
Road building was also developed by the Etruscans, much more than the Greeks had been able to. The Etruscans used similar technics to the ones the Romans used by putting layers of stone and mud to form a road. These technics were adopted by the Romans who developed it by adding cobble stone to the road. The Romans also made the roads larger for the purpose of transporting the army on them. The Etruscan also gave the base of future Roman bridge building. The bridges were often built in wood - in difference to the Roman tradition who perfected them by building them in stone. But the technics were similar.
But the area were one can see the most heavy influence on early Rome is in Art. Let us begin with the Etruscan painting. The sources we use to observe the paintings of the Etruscans are the many tomb paintings which have been found in Eturia. These are quite different in some aspects depending on when they were made. The earliest ones had a clear oriental influence,the positions of the characters are often painted in the Egyptian style were the face is always painted in profile while the body could be in any position. The color pattern is similar to the ones used by the Aegaean cultures in early Greek history. But the closer you get to the classical period ( 6th - 3rd century B.C ) the pictures get more influenced by Hellenic paintings.
There is still one common attribute to these paintings and that is the faces of the characters in the pictures. In all Etruscan art human faces are painted very realisticly and life-like. This is something that the Romans adopted and came to use in its art even during imperial times. This differ from the Greek art, where faces and often the whole figure itself is beautified in the sense that it follows an ideal. This is applied also within sculpturing. The Etruscans made exact portraits of the model and used life-like attributes to the actual statue. This was also used by the Romans, and Etruscan sculptures are very similar to the Roman republican statues and marble busts. During imperial time portraits would still be made this way but generally there is more of a hellenic influence.
Fig.1 Example of an Etruscan bust.
Vases and vase paintings were often pure copies of the Greek but the Etruscans developed an unique type of pottery, the Bucchero vases.
The Bucchero pottery often has the same shape as the Hellenic pottery, but was burnt to reach a deep, black colour which almost gives a metallic appereance ( see fig.2). The Bucchero vases were important for Etruscan trade and many have beeen found in Rome both copies of real Etruscan Bucchero vases as well as importade Bucchero vases from Eturia.
Fig 2 Example of a Bucchero vase
The Army and the Games
When we talk of the early Roman army we are often looking at an army copied from the Etruscan army. The Etruscanīs used an army which was gathered from the citizens who were not paid and did not consist of "professional" warriors apart from some basic millitary training that often only the rich received. The people who was a part of the army was often responsible for their own equipment and the nobles would make the ranks of heavily armoured infantry indentical to the Greek hoplites. They would use spears, large round shields and heavy Greek bronze helmets.The lower classes received weapons and shields, but they were not as heavily armed and would often use thick cloths as a protection.The Roman army developed in the same way, but started to change during the 3rd century B.C when longer and harder campains were fought. The ordinary citizen soldier would now receive a small wage and better armour. However, the base for the Roman army was the Etruscan model which had many similarities to the Greek army during the Archaic time.
The games was introduced to the Romans in combination with religion. The games as in many other ancient cultures started off as a religous ceremony. It was often in combination with funerals that people held games in order to honor the dead person. These games could often consist of a combat with sword and shield and was eventually a major influence in the development of the Gladiator fights in Rome. The first funeral games was introduced in Rome in the 2nd century B.C. But it was not only in combination with funerals that such games were held, they often occured during religous festivals or initiations of priests and kings. Many of these festivals had ancient backgrounds and were important to honor the spirits. The Etruscans also recived a hellenic influence and by the 7th century B.C charioteering races were held. The first Circus Maximus in Rome was built by the Etruscan king Tarquinius Priscus, which shows that the Hellenic games had started to become popular among the Etruscan cities.
Conclusion
As we have seen the Etruscans played an important role in the development of Rome.
During imperial time many Roman historians studied the Etruscans and their culture since it was an obvious link to the early Roman history. Many of these documents have unfortunately been lost, but research about the Etruscans are continuing today in a positive direction and the more we learn about this mystical civilization the more we also learn about Rome and its early history.
When talking about the Etruscan influence on early Rome I would like to use the statue of Romulus and Remus and the she-wolf as metaphore for the cultural exchange. The statue consists of a bronze wolf which is originally Etruscan, and the twins are sculptured during the rennaissance according to the Greek proportions. The whole picture is very symbolic if we define the wolf as the Etruscan civilization and the two twins as the Roman civilization. Thus the Roman civilization is nurturing from the Etruscan civilization until it grows to became a strong civilization of its own culture.
