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.

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.

He had to retire with his men to Tarquinii, where he raised the standard of intervention among the Etruscans.

The Romans had to face one intervention by the Etruscans ( Horatius Cocles ) and another by the Latin League ( Battle of Lake Regillus ).

Diodorus Siculus ( XXII, 2, 2 ; XXVIII, 2, 1 ) reported that the Romans had changed their rectangular shields for round ones, imitating the Etruscans.

The Po river is first certainly identified in the Graeco-Roman historians and geographers of the late Roman Republic and the early Roman Empire, long after the valley had been occupied successively by prehistoric and historic peoples: Ligures, Etruscans, Celts, Veneti, Umbri, and Romans.

While the origin of the city had remained unknown for centuries, the Pelasgi, the Greeks, the Etruscans, and the Ligurians had variously been proposed as founders of the city ( for example, a colony of the ancient city of Pisa, Greece ).

By the 3rd century BC, Rome had become the pre-eminent city of the Italian peninsula, having conquered and defeated the Sabines, the Etruscans, the Samnites and most of the Greek colonies in Sicily, Campania and Southern Italy in general.

He had military successes against Veii and the Etruscans, and expanded the city to include the Quirinal, Viminal and Esquiline hills.

However, the Etruscans had taken over ⟨ Χ ⟩ from western Greek, and it therefore stands for in Etruscan and Latin.

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

The Etruscans, like the contemporary cultures of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, had a significant military tradition.

How to understand the will of deities and how to behave had been " revealed " to the Etruscans by two " initiators ", Tages, a childlike figure born from tilled land and immediately gifted with prescience, and Vegoia, a female figure.

The Etruscans had much influence over Roman architecture.

Rome had an affinity for the people of Campania, who, like themselves, traced their backgrounds to the Etruscans.

Rome adopts the Etruscan alphabet, which the Etruscans themselves had adopted from the Greeks.

The historical Etruscans had achieved a form of state with remnants of chiefdom and tribal forms.

The Etruscans, who had a sophisticated knowledge of Greek mythology, demonstrated a particular interest in the theme of the delivery of Helen's egg, which is depicted in relief mirrors.

According to Greek mythology adopted by the Etruscans and Romans, when Hercules had to perform twelve labours, one of them was to fetch the Cattle of Geryon of the far West and bring them to Eurystheus ; this marked the westward extent of his travels.

In 268 BC at the mouth of the Ariminus river, in an area that had previously been inhabited by the Etruscans, the Umbrians, the Greeks and the Gauls, the Romans founded the colony of Ariminum, probably from the name of a nearby river, Ariminus ( today, Marecchia ).

In a somehow comparable, more moral rather than legal mode, Numa sought to associate himself with one of the roles of Vegoia in the neighbouring Etruscans ' religious system by deciding to set the official boundaries to the territory of Rome, which Romulus had never wanted, presumably done with the same concern of preserving peace.

However, since his benefactor Maecenas was a native Etruscan, Virgil portrayed Mezentius as a tyrant, attributing to him personally the evils which the Greek authors had previously accused the Etruscans of, such as torture and savagery, an ethnic prejudice already present in the Homeric Hymns.

Pliny mentions nine gods of the Etruscans who had the power of wielding thunderbolts, pointing toward Martianus's Novensiles as gods pertaining to the use of thunder and lightning ( fulgura ) as signs.

This vast work, in which Italian literature from the time of the Etruscans to the end of the 17th century is traced in detail, occupied eleven years, 1771-1782, and the thirteen quarto volumes embodying it appeared successively in Modena during that period.

The ancient Romans further developed the techniques learnt from the Etruscans, as shown by numerous works of literature containing information that is still valid today: De Agri Cultura ( around 160 BC ) by Cato the Elder, De re rustica by Marcus Terentius Varro, the Georgics by Virgil and De re rustica by Columella.

In improper sense, the term " Italics " is sometimes used, especially in the non-specialized literature, to refer to all pre-Roman people of Italy, including therefore ( definitely or supposedly ) not Indo-European lineages as the Etruscans, Ligurians or Raetians.

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 ).

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.

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

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.

Unlike any Greeks, the Etruscans instead pictured a full-grown bearded Heracles at Hera's breast: this may refer to his adoption by her when he became an Immortal.

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 ).

The classical Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome.

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.

Gelon was succeeded by his brother Hiero, who fought against the Etruscans at Cumae in 474 BC.

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

Rome was founded within or adjacent to Etruscan territory, and there is considerable evidence that early Rome was dominated by Etruscans until the Romans sacked Veii in 396 BC.

The prevalent view today is that Rome was founded by Italics and merged with Etruscans later.

The main criterion for deciding whether an object originated at Rome and traveled by influence to the Etruscans, or descended to the Romans from the Etruscans, is date.

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