Tell me about the etruscans?

[RareNightmare]

main-etruscan.jpg
What is there to know about the etruscan people and what were their customs?

[Sora]

Afaik they spoke an isolated language but genetic wise they have no difference than modern Italians

[Flashball]

Afaik they spoke an isolated language but genetic wise they have no difference than modern Italians

Least neolithic iranian
Least levantine
More WHG and farmer
Some indo-european imput

Some Estrucan are even close to basque-like...

So yeah, they are at least differents to modern central and southern italy.

[Cybele]

I stumbled upon this article a while ago.
https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/...f-f3ad54780000
Study cited:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/art...__ffn_sectitle

Would be interesting to find more about them.

[Polak]

They were an ancient kingdom on the Italian peninsula which spoke an isolated language, however their culture was very heavily based on Ancient Greek culture due to close trade and relations.
I believe their founding myth was linked to the Aeneid/Iliad, as in their ancestors came over after the siege of Troy and founded the Kingdom, but I'm not 100% sure. The Romans based based their account of the founding of Rome and the Aeneid on the Etruscans' myth. In fact, the early Roman Republic copied not Ancient Greece, but rather based itself upon the Etruscans and copied their culture by invading their country and assimilating it into Rome.

As for genetics, they were pretty similar to ancient Italic people and Sardinians.

Not much else is known about them.

[Plutarch]

Terracotta statue of a young Etruscan woman (late 4th–early 3rd century B.C.)



My little knowledge of the Etruscans comes mainly from Greek and Roman authors (so take the following with a grain of salt).

The Etruscans are first identified in the eighth or seventh century by Hesiod in the Theogony, where he calls them “the glorious Tyrsenians.” He places them off the coast of Greece (and not in Italy), “very far away in the inner enclave of the sacred islands.” And he says that they were ruled by the first two of the three sons of Odysseus and Kirke (the Odysseus and Kirke famous from Homer’s Odyssey).

The Romans believed that the Etruscans were from Lydia (western Turkey). Plutarch says that the Etruscans “made their way from Thessaly to Lydia and then from Lydia to Italy.” And Cicero says that the Etruscans and the Phoenicians were the only barbarians to have originally sailed the seas.

Rome was originally Latin (and Sabine) but soon received many Etruscan immigrants. By the early sixth century, the Etruscans had become dominant in the city. They influenced Roman art, religion and institutions, and the three last kings of Rome were Etruscans. The Roman citizens were at one point divided into three tribes, each with an Etruscan name, but the tribes were not based on ethnic origins.

The Etruscans themselves had long been influenced by Greek art, religion, and military organization. There were trade relations, Hellenized Etruscan cities, and Italian Greek cities captured by Etruscans. Pausanias says that the Etruscans were the first barbarians ever to give a dedication to Zeus at Olympia.

The father of the first Etruscan king of Rome was a Corinthian who had settled in the Etruscan town Tarquinni and married an Etruscan. He named his son Lucumo, an Etruscan name. Lucumo (who became the first Etruscan king of Rome) left Tarquinii with his wife for Rome, where he took the name Lucius Tarquinius Priscus. His chose to move to Rome because, as the son of a foreign refugee, he was despised by the Etruscans of Tarquinii, and he wanted to improve his position. Maybe this tells us something about the Etruscan immigrants in Rome.

The Romans and the Etruscans originally relied on cavalry, with light infantry as support. Around the time the Etruscans became dominant in Rome, the Romans started to rely on infantry (hoplites) instead. This Greek tactic was perhaps introduced to Rome by the Etruscans.

Livy says that the idea of lictors (attendants of the king and, later, consuls) and their number (twelve) came to Rome from Etruria. And so did the purple-bordered toga (of royalty, originally) and the chair of state.

The rape of the beautiful and chaste matron Lucretia, wife of Collatinus, by the son of king Tarquin the Proud, led to the overthrow of the kingdom. Lucretia committed suicide after telling Brutus (the king’s nephew) and her husband (the king’s cousin) what had happened. Brutus, with Lucretia’s bloody knife in his hand, swore that no man will ever be king in Rome. Many leading families in the history of the Republic would have Etruscan names, but otherwise they were as Roman as anyone.

The Etruscans were famous for their diviners. The Romans did not have seers of their own and used Etruscan diviners. Throughout the history of the Republic, the Senate ordered the Etruscan seers (haruspices) to interpret prodigies and omens, and to perform expiatory rites. The Etruscans were most famous for interpreting the organs of sacrificed animals and lightning-strikes. Cicero calls the discipline of interpreting omens “the Etruscan discipline.”

Roman religious ritual was influenced by Etruscans too. Polybios considered the Romans to be the most religious people in the world. In order to not only preserve religious observance, but to expand it, the Senate, at the beginning of the Republic, voted to send ten sons of the leading families to Etruria, so that they could learn the science of ritual.

The Etruscans were conquered by Rome between the fourth and second centuries. Latin became the most important language in Italy, and Etruscan was extinct within three centuries. When war broke out in the early first century between Rome and the Italians who demanded Roman citizenship (the Social War), the Etruscans remained loyal, and to ensure their loyalty, the Senate offered them citizenship, which they happily accepted.