ETRUSCAN CIVILIZATION
These Etruscans, like the Hittites of Asia Minor, [3] are a mysterious race. No one as yet has been able to read their language, which is quite unlike any Indo-European tongue. The words, however, are written in an alphabet borrowed from Greek settlers in Italy. Many other civilizing arts besides the alphabet came to the Etruscans from abroad. Babylonia gave to them the principle of the round arch and the practice of divination. [4] Etruscan graves contain Egyptian seals adorned with hieroglyphics and beautiful vases bearing designs from Greek mythology. The Etruscans were skillful workers in iron, bronze, and gold. They built their cities with massive walls, arched gates, paved streets, and underground drains. In the course of time a great part of this Etruscan civilization was absorbed in that of Rome.
[Illustration: AN ETRUSCAN ARCH The Italian city of Volterra still preserves in the Porta dell' Arco an interesting relic of Etruscan times. The archway, one of the original gates of the ancient town, is about twenty feet in height and twelve feet in width. On the keystone and imposts are three curious heads, probably representing the guardian deities of the place.]
[Illustration: CHARACTERS OF THE ETRUSCAN ALPHABET About eight thousand Etruscan inscriptions are known, almost all being short epitaphs on gravestones. In 1892 A.D. an Etruscan manuscript which had been used to pack an Egyptian mummy, was published, but the language could not be deciphered.]
THE GREEKS
As teachers of the Romans the Etruscans were followed by the Greeks. About the middle of the eighth century B.C. Hellenic colonies began to occupy the coasts of Sicily and southern Italy. The earliest Greek settlement was Cumae, near the bay of Naples. [5] It was a city as old as Rome itself, and a center from which Greek culture, including the Greek alphabet, spread to Latium. A glance at the map [6] shows that the chief Greek Colonies were all on or near the Sea, from Campania to the gulf of Tarentum. North of the "heel" of Italy extends an almost harborless coast, where nothing tempted the Greeks to settle. North of Campania, again, they found the good harbors already occupied by the Etruscans. The Greeks, in consequence, were never able to make Italy a completely Hellenic land. Room was left for the native Italian peoples, under the leadership of Rome, to build up their own power in the peninsula.
THE ITALIAN HIGHLANDERS
The Italians were an Indo-European people who spoke a language closely related, on the one side, to Greek and, on the other side, to the Celtic tongues of western Europe. They entered Italy through the Alpine passes, long before the dawn of history, and gradually pushed southward until they occupied the interior of the peninsula. At the beginning of historic times they had separated into two main branches. The eastern and central parts of Italy formed the home of the highlanders, grouped in various tribes. Among them were the Umbrians in the northeast, the Sabines in the upper valley of the Tiber, and the Samnites in the south. Still other Italian peoples occupied the peninsula as far as Magna Graecia.
THE LATINS
The western Italians were known as Latins. They dwelt in Latium, the "flat land" extending south of the Tiber between the Apennines and the Tyrrhenian Sea. Residence in the lowlands, where they bordered on the Etruscans, helped to make the Latins a civilized people. Their village communities grew into larger settlements, until the whole of Latium became filled with a number of independent city-states. The ties of kinship and the necessity of defense against Etruscan and Sabine foes bound them together. At a very early period they had united in the Latin League, under the headship of Alba Longa. Another city in this league was Rome.