Polybius relates that the Celts were close neighbors of the Etruscans and " cast covetous eyes on their beautiful country.

The archaeological evidence from Bologna and its vicinity contradicts the testimony of Polybius and Livy on some points, who say the Boii expelled the Etruscans and perhaps some were forced to leave.

According to Françoise Hélène Pairault's study, historical and archaeological evidence point to the fact that both Diana of the Aventine and Diana Nemorensis were the product of the direct or indirect influence of the cult of Artemis spread by the Phoceans among the Greek towns of Campania Cuma and Capua, which in turn passed it over to the Etruscans and the Latins by the VI and V centuries BC.

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 ).

Beekes argued that the people later known as the Lydians and Etruscans had originally lived in northwest Anatolia, with a coastline to the Sea of Marmara, whence they were driven by the Phrygians c. 1200 BC, leaving a remnant known in antiquity as the Tyrsenoi.

" According to Woudhuizen, the Etruscans were colonizing the Latins.

Such hairpins suggest, as graves show, that many were luxury objects among the Egyptians and later the Greeks, Etruscans, and Romans.

This family is reasoned to be a pre-Indo-European Mediterranean substratum of the 2nd millennium BC, sometimes referred to as Pre-Greek, and this is supported by confirmation from ancient Greek authors like Herodotus in Histories that the Etruscans were from Lydia ( SW Turkey ).

Although the demography of ancient Rome was multi-ethnic, including, for example, Etruscans and other Italics besides the Latini, the latter were the dominant constituent.

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.

Undoubtedly, many Nuragic Cultural traits and values were inherited by the Etruscans and by the Romans.

In Attic Greek, the Etruscans were known as ( Tyrrhēnioi ), earlier Tyrsenoi, from which the Romans derived the names Tyrrhēni ( Etruscans ), Tyrrhēnia ( Etruria ), and Mare Tyrrhēnum ( Tyrrhenian Sea ).

The Etruscans were a monogamous society that emphasized pairing.

It is also possible that Greek and Roman attitudes to the Etruscans were based on a misunderstanding of the place of women within their society.

Some cities were founded by Etruscans in prehistoric times, and bore entirely Etruscan names.

Others were colonized by Etruscans who Etruscanized the name, usually Italic.

The Architecture of the ancient Etruscans adapted the external Greek architecture for their own purposes, which were so different from Greek buildings as to create a new architectural style.

The Etruscans were the chief enemies of the Umbri, and the Etruscan invasion went from the western seaboard towards the north and east ( lasting from about 700 to 500 BC ), eventually driving the Umbrians towards the Apenninic uplands and capturing 300 Umbrian towns.

After the downfall of the Etruscans, Umbrians attempted to aid the Samnites in their struggle against Rome ( 308 BC ); but communications with Samnium were impeded by the Roman fortress of Narni ( founded 298 BC ).

Remarkable is that, even though the Etruscans imported, manufactured, and exported amphorae extensively in their wine industry, and even though other Greek vase names were Etruscanized, no Etruscan form of the word exists.

The ancient Romans learned the arch from the Etruscans, refined it and were the first builders to tap its full potential for above ground buildings:

The Etruscans in Italy were, from their earliest period, greatly influenced by their contact with Greek culture and religion, but they retained their wooden temples ( with some exceptions ) until their culture was completely absorbed into the Roman world, with the great wooden Temple of Jupiter on the Capitol in Rome itself being a good example.

On the other hand, if the Sherden only moved into the Western Mediterranean in the ninth century, associated perhaps with the movement of early Etruscans and even Phoenician seafaring peoples into the Western Mediterranean at that time, it would remain unknown where they were located between the period of the Sea Peoples and their eventual appearance as the Nuragic civilization of Sardinia.

The historical Etruscans had achieved a state system of society, with remnants of the chiefdom and tribal forms.

Latinus heeded the prophecy, and Turnus consequently declared war on Aeneas at the urging of Juno, who was aligned with King Mezentius of the Etruscans and Queen Amata of the Latins.

But, there is no evidence whatever of a Greek presence on the west coast and the Ionians at Aleria on the east coast had been expelled by the Etruscans long before Roman domination.

" Invading the Po valley with a large army they drove out the Etruscans and resettled it, the Boii taking the right bank in the center of the valley.

In the second half of the 3rd century BC, the Boii allied with the other Cisalpine Gauls and the Etruscans against Rome.

Towards the end of Hesiod's Theogony ( 1011f ), we find that Circe bore Odysseus three sons: Ardeas or Agrius ( otherwise unknown ); Latinus ; and Telegonus, who ruled over the Tyrsenoi, that is the Etruscans.

The Etruscans coming from northern Anatolia also worshipped Apollo, and it may be that he was originally identical with Mesopotamian Aplu, an Akkadian title meaning " son ", originally given to the plague God Nergal, son of Enlil.

It looks as if the confrontation happened between two groups of Etruscans who fought for supremacy, those from Tarquinia, Vulci and Caere ( allied with the Greeks of Capua ) and those of Clusium.

The Etruscans had a rich literature, as noted by Latin authors.

The last person known to have been able to read Etruscan was the Roman emperor Claudius ( 10 BC – AD 54 ), the author of a treatise in twenty volumes on the Etruscans, Tyrrenikà ( now lost ), who compiled a dictionary ( also lost ) by interviewing the last few elderly rustics who still spoke the language.

Inscriptions have been found in north-west and west-central Italy, in the region that even now bears the name of the Etruscans, Tuscany ( from Latin tuscī " Etruscans "), as well as in modern Latium north of Rome, in today's Umbria west of the Tiber, around Capua in Campania and in the Po valley to the north of Etruria.

A segment of this people moved south-west to Lydia, becoming known as the Lydians, while others sailed away to take refuge in Italy, where they became known as Etruscans.

The Etruscans brought the alphabet from Anatolia.

Both of these accounts draw on the story by Herodotus ( i, 94 ) of the Lydian origin of the Etruscans.

Some scholars also see in Urartian art, architecture, language, and general culture traces of kinship to the Etruscans of the Italian peninsula.

The Etruscans ' objets d ' art are of incalculable value, causing a brisk black market and equally brisk law enforcement effort, as it is against the law to remove objects from Etruscan tombs unless authorized by the Italian government.

Among the Etruscans, the generative dawn-goddess was Thesan.

Though Etruscans preferred to show the goddess as a nurturer ( Kourotrophos ) rather than an abductor of young men, the late Archaic sculptural acroterion from Etruscan Cære, now in Berlin, showing the goddess in archaic running pose adapted from the Greeks, and bearing a boy in her arms, has commonly been identified as Eos and Cephalus.

Fasces-symbolism might derive — via the Etruscans — from the eastern Mediterranean, with the labrys, the Anatolian and Minoan double-headed axe, later incorporated into the praetorial fasces.