The Etruscan alphabet employs a Euboean variant of the Greek alphabet using the letter digamma and was in all probability transmitted through Pithecusae and Cumae, two Euboean settlements in southern Italy.

When Etruscan settlements turned up south of the border, it was presumed that the Etruscans spread there after the foundation of Rome, but the settlements are now known to have preceded Rome.

Etruscan settlements were in the vicinity.

Dionysius of Halicarnassus ( 1. 28. 1 ) cites a tradition that the supposed founder of the Etruscan settlements was Tyrrhenus, the son of Heracles by Omphale the Lydian, who drove the Pelasgians out of Italy from the cities north of the Tiber river.

Pistoria ( in Latin other possible spellings are Pistorium or Pistoriae ) was centre of Gallic, Ligurian and Etruscan settlements before becoming a Roman colony in the 6th century BC, along the important road Via Cassia: in 62 BC the demagogue Catiline and his fellow conspirators were slain nearby.

The founding of Marseille and the penetration by Greek and Etruscan culture after ca 600 BC, resulted in long-range trade relationships up the Rhone valley which triggered social and cultural transformations in the Hallstatt settlements north of the Alps.

Siena may have had earlier Etruscan settlements, but it was not a considerable Roman settlement, and the campo does not lie on the site of a Roman forum, as is sometimes suggested.

Generally speaking, Villanovan settlements were centered in the Po River valley and Etruria round Bologna — later an important Etruscan center — and areas in Emilia Romagna ( at Verucchio ) in Tuscany and at Fermi, Lazio.

Small scattered Villanovan settlements have left few traces other than their more permanent burial sites, which were set somewhat apart from the settlements — largely because the settlement sites were built over in Etruscan times.

Since some of the Roman months were named in honor of divinities, and as April was sacred to the goddess Venus, the Festum Veneris et Fortunae Virilis being held on the first day, it has been suggested that Aprilis was originally her month Aphrilis, from her equivalent Greek goddess name Aphrodite ( Aphros ), or from the Etruscan name Apru.

The Etruscan language was spoken and written by the Etruscan civilization, in what is present-day Italy, in the ancient region of Etruria ( modern Tuscany plus western Umbria and northern Latium ) and in parts of Lombardy, Veneto, and Emilia-Romagna ( where the Etruscans were displaced by Gauls ).

Livy and Cicero were both aware that highly specialized Etruscan religious rites were codified in several sets of books written in Etruscan under the generic Latin title Etrusca Disciplina.

Etruscan had some influence on Latin, as a few dozen Etruscan words and names were borrowed by the Romans, some of which remain in modern languages.

Bonfante, a leading scholar in the field, says "... it resembles no other language in Europe or elsewhere ...." The ancients were aware that Etruscan was an isolate.

In 1498, Annio published his antiquarian miscellany titled Antiquitatum variarum ( in 17 volumes ) where he put together a fantastic theory in which both the Hebrew and Etruscan languages were said to originate from a single source, the " Aramaic " spoken by Noah and his descendants, founders of Etruscan Viterbo.

The tablets were found in 1964 by Massimo Pallottino during an excavation at the ancient Etruscan port of Pyrgi, now Santa Severa.

Tombs identified as Etruscan date from the Villanovan period to about 100 BC, when presumably the cemeteries were abandoned in favor of Roman ones.

Etruscan coins were in gold, silver and bronze, the gold and silver usually having been struck on one side only.

In this function, it was borrowed in the 8th century BC by the Etruscan and other Old Italic alphabets, which were based on the Euboean form of the Greek alphabet.

However, recent decipherment of Lydian and its classification as an Anatolian language mean that Etruscan and Lydian were possibly not even in the same language family.

" The Tarquins were of Etruscan origin.

In Italy some important Etruscan texts were similarly inscribed on thin gold plates: similar sheets have been discovered in Bulgaria.

Ventris ' initial theory was that Etruscan and Linear B were related and that this might provide a key to decipherment.

The initial guesses were based on visual, external resemblances of the Turkic runiform letters with the Gothic runes or with Greek, Etruscan and Anatolian letters, suggesting an Indo-European Alphabet resembling Semitic Phoenician, Gothic, Phoenician-based Greek, etc.

His name and stories were adopted into Etruscan religion under the name.

The name of the sea-god Nethuns in Etruscan was adopted in Latin for Neptune in Roman mythology ; both were sea gods analogous to Poseidon.

The city was most probably founded and named by the Etruscans, for a parma ( circular shield ) was a Latin borrowing, as were many Roman terms for particular arms, and Parmeal, Parmni and Parmnial are names that appear in Etruscan inscriptions.

Those who subscribe to an Italic foundation of Rome, followed by an Etruscan invasion, typically speak of an Etruscan “ influence ” on Roman culture ; that is, cultural objects that were adopted at Rome from neighbouring Etruria.

The name appears to be derived from the Etruscan Lecne, which frequently occurs on Etruscan sepulchral monuments.

Vaticanus, also known as Vagitanus, was an Etruscan god of prophecy, and his temple was built on the ancient site of Vaticanum ( Vatican Hill ).

The first temple dedicated to Fors was attributed to the Etruscan Servius Tullius, while the second is known to have been built in 293 BC as the fullfilment of a Roman promise made during later Etruscan wars The date of dedication of her temples was 24 June, or Midsummer ’ s Day, when celebrants from Rome annually floated to the temples downstream from the city.

Two stelae built into the walls of a church are major documents relating to the Etruscan language.

* The Villa Giulia adjoining the Villa Borghese gardens was built in 1551-1555 as a summer residence for Pope Julius III ; now it contains the Etruscan Museum ( Museo Etrusco ).

The modern city was built over a pre-existing Etruscan settlement.

Large Etruscan houses were grouped around a central hall in much the same way as Roman town Large houses were later built around an atrium.

George Dennis pointed out that the town of Bolsena has no Etruscan characteristics ; for example, Etruscan cities were built on defensible crags, which the hill on which the castle is situated is not.

Rome was also accessed by the via Cassia, which was built over an Etruscan road.

More recent excavations, however, have found the remains of an Etruscan city wall ( c. 4th century BC ) underneath the current Piazzale del Cassero, and have discovered the remains of an Etruscan temple under one of the town's churches, la chiesa di Sant ' Angelo, which was built in the twelfth century.

Built on the site of an Etruscan temple, the church of Sant ' Angelo was built in Romanesque style between 1229 and 1239.

From the Etruscan period are two types of tombs: the mounds and the so-called " dice ", the latter being simple square tombs built in long rows along " roads ".

The Via Latina went over the bridge and connected to the Via Cassia, a road built over an old Etruscan road that led to Veii.