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when we think of ancient Italy we
normally think about the Romans the
Republic and later on their vast empire
after all their importance to Western
civilization in really well honestly
everything cannot be understated I could
go on about their achievements and how
they've influenced our world today but
I'll save that for other programs that
are specifically about the Romans in
this program I want to focus on a people
whose achievements and ideas influenced
the Romans these people were the
Etruscans who and most books about early
Italian history are eclipsed by the
Romans
however it's at Ruskin culture that
greatly influenced the social and
political development of what became
Roman civilization and that my friends
is what we're about to discuss
we called them Etruscans because they
came from a region of western Italy
called etruria just north of the site
that would eventually become Rome
however they called themselves the
resenha their earliest history like much
of their culture is a bit of a mystery
one theory more like ancient legend
actually is that the Etruscans were the
descendants of a people who had migrated
from Western Anatolia specifically the
area called Libya the basis for this was
due to their language which is much
different than anything else that was
found on the Italian peninsula at the
time however today most scholars
consider the Etruscans to be the
descendants of the local italic
indigenous population who between the
years 1800 BCE formed their own distinct
civilization regardless of whether or
not they migrated to the Italian
peninsula the Etruscans were extremely
fortunate to be living in nutria this is
because the area was replete with a lot
of valuable minerals and metals before
long the Etruscans became extremely
wealthy and this wealth enabled them to
become the dominant group on the Italian
peninsula by around the 700s BCE there
were several well-established Etruscan
city-states from these the Etruscans
expanded rapidly and established cities
and colonies across the Eponine
mountains the Po Valley Tuscany Umbria
and eventually even around Rome itself
but they didn't just dominate the land
they were active on the seas as well the
Greeks called them ter Hanoi which is
where the Tyrrhenian sea gets its name
from
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the more we study history the more we
tend to see a lot of similarities among
developing cultures like the Sumerian
city-states and later on those of
ancient Greece the Etruscan city-states
were proud to be self-sufficient and
independent while they shared many
cultural traits and a common language
each city-state had its own government
laws and unique customs so as one might
expect there were fierce rivalries
between many of them however the
Etruscans did come together and
cooperate when they needed to one way of
doing this was through a loosely
organized Council known as the League of
12 peoples this organization dealt with
issues that were common to all member
city-states in many cases these issues
dealt with religion but sometimes they'd
form trade agreements with outside
parties however these latter agreements
didn't always hold because certain
members would cheat on them causing more
conflicts and distrust between
city-states the one good thing about the
league was that it never attempted to
oppose any centralized control over
individual city-states however it could
grant or withhold financial or military
assistance to any member of the league
for good or bad behavior coordinated
action was the exception rather than the
rule and for the most part the Etruscan
city-states generally acted in their own
self-interest the one strengths Etruscan
Society had was that it was adaptable
and took many of the best things from
the other civilizations that had
encountered their constant trading with
Greeks Carthaginians
and even Egyptians exposed them to new
ideas from areas of the world that
arguably were much more technologically
advanced than themselves along with
adapting pottery styles from the eastern
Mediterranean and sculpture techniques
from the Greeks
the Etruscans seem to have adopted a
version of the Phoenician alphabet and
from that created their own this later
was passed down to the Romans and became
the basis for their own alphabet in
general the urbanize eat Ruskin's looked
down upon the rural Romans they
considered them to be less sophisticated
farmers who lived in huts without much
in terms of high culture or art despite
their distrust and distaste for the
Romans
the Etruscans had
in common with their southern neighbors
as Roman society developed it in many
ways mirrored that of the Etruscans for
example some early Etruscan city-states
were monarchies that were overthrown and
replaced by republics despite what may
seem to be a sort of early democracy
power in the city-states was kept in the
hands of aristocratic families much like
the patricians later on in Rome in 616
BCE the first of three Etruscan born
kings assumed power in Rome beginning
with the reign of Lucia stark Aeneas
Priscus who reportedly ruled from 616 to
579 BCE Rome was transformed from a
small village on the Tiber River into
something resembling a small Etruscan
city-state we're told that brick
building has replaced its mud huts that
sewers were built roads were paved and
the city's first temple erected the next
two kings of Rome Servius Tullius
Andalusia starchiness Superbus also
known as Tarkin the proud were also
Etruscan by 510 BCE the Romans had
seemingly had enough of their Etruscan
rulers Tarkin the proud was overthrown
and the monarchy was completely
disbanded from then onward Rome became
more powerful as the disunited Etruscan
States began a slow but steady period of
decline during the 400s BCE the
prosperous Etruscan city of AI and Rome
were constantly at war though VI was
much wealthier and was said to be
replete with weapons the Romans were
able to lay siege to the city for
several years finally in 396 BCE Roman
forces under Marcus furious Camillus
supposedly by digging a tunnel entered
and eventually sacked to the city of VI
they plundered anything of value killed
all the men and rounded up the women and
children and sold them into slavery now
what's interesting is that the other
disunited Etruscan city-states
didn't seem to care too much yes VI was
an important city but it had also been a
great rival to most of them
few if any of the other city-states
thought that Rome would be able to
venture further north to pose a
significant threat to them they of
course were wrong Rome began a series of
campaigns against other Etruscan cities
including Turkey na doe Decapolis and
fillet arrived at Arras after decades of
war the Romans were able to defeat them
and maintain their push up the peninsula
the continued Roman pressure from the
south and attacks from the gauze to the
north eventually wore the Etruscans down
by 264 BCE the Romans had taken the last
Etruscan City of both see me making
their conquest of Etruria complete
though Etruscan cities were under Roman
control Etruscan culture and language
lived on in fact it was only after 200
years that Latin replaced it in a true
Rio of course by that time the Roman
Republic had conquered a good part of
the Mediterranean world with its
official language of Latin being spoken
everywhere its soldiers went however
it's safe to say that without the
Etruscans Rome may have still been that
small village of huts rather than a city
on the Tiber River so I hope that you
got a little taste of who the Etruscans
were and just why they're so important
especially to the formation of Western
civilization if you learned something
from this program please like the video
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much for stopping by keep the world safe
for rock and roll and catch you next
time