ment that they even refused to assist the Veientines against Rome, because they had returned to it, and placed themselves again under the rule of a king. (Liv. v. 1.) Tolumnius, also, is called king of Veii about 40 years earlier. (Id. iv. 17.)

66

VI. RELIGION.

Asar of the Scandinavians (Müller, vol. ii. p. 81; Donaldson, Varronianus, p. 151); and much of the gloomy worship of the infernal deities, which forms so prominent a part of the Etruscan religion, presents a strong similarity with the northern mythology. (Gerhard, Die Gottheiten der Etrusker, p. 17.)

the introduction on works of art of foreign deities, and a different cycle of mythology, there remains a pervading similarity with the religious system of the early Greeks, which can hardly be accounted for otherwise than by referring them to a common Pclasgic origin. From the same source, probably, proceeded much of that which we find common to the southern Etruscans and to their neighbours in Latium.

4. But whatever extent may be allowed to these The Etruscans were celebrated beyond almost any last sources of influence, a much greater one was other people of antiquity for their devotion to their exercised by the Pelasgic element of the Etruscan national religion. and for the zeal and scrupulous people. With every reasonable allowance for the care with which they practised the various observ-operation of later Hellenic ideas, and especially for ances of its rites and ceremonies. Livy calls them gens ante omnes alias eo magis dedita religionibus, quod excelleret arte colendi eas (v.1). Hence they became the instructors of the Romans in many of their religious rites, and that people adopted from them a considerable part of what was in later ages received as the established national religion of Rome. Hence arises one great difficulty in regard to all inquiries into the Etruscan religion, that, as we have no account of it in its native purity, it is almost impossible to say what was truly Tuscan, and to separate it from other elements with which it had become in later ages intimately blended. Equally difficult is it to determine the precise extent and influence of the Greek religion upon that of Etruria. Much of what appears common to the two was probably derived through the Pelasgic population of Southern Etruria, but the fact appears incontestable that the operation of direct Hellenic influences at a much later period may be extensively traced in the Etruscan mythology. This is particularly obvious in the works of art which have been discovered in Etruria, and here the difficulty is still increased by the great influence which Hellenic art undoubtedly exercised over that of the Etruscans, irrespective of any direct religious operation. [See below, p. 868.] Hence this class of monuments, which, considering the vast numbers of them that have been preserved, would seem likely to throw so much light upon the subject, can only be employed with the utmost caution. It is impossible here to enter into the discussion of this abstruse and complicated subject: a few leading results only can be briefly stated.

1. The Etruscan religious system was not one wholly foreign to the other nations of Italy: it had many points in common with those especially of the Sabines and Latins; and though in many cases this may arise from the confusion of later writers, and the impossibility of distinguishing, in the 7th and 8th centuries of the Roman state, which of its religious institutions were really derived from Etruria, it seems impossible to doubt that the Etruscan mythology really contained much that was common to the two people just mentioned, and that had been derived by all three from some common source.

Of the special deities that were worshipped by the Tuscans, the most important were Tina or Tinia, corresponding to the Latin Jupiter; Cupra, who was identified with Juno; and Minerva, whose name was the same in the Tuscan language, and appears on Etruscan monuments as Menerfa. These three deities seem to have been regarded as the chief gods, whence we are told that every Etruscan city had three temples dedicated to them (as was the case in the Capitol at Rome), and three gates which bore their names. (Serv. ad Aen. i. 422). Besides these, we find particularly mentioned as Etruscan deities, and bearing names of clearly Etruscan origin: Vertumnus, whose worship seems to have especially prevailed at Volsinii, from whence it was transferred to Rome; Nortia, the Etruscan goddess of Fortune, also worshipped at Volsinii, apparently identical with the Fortuna of Antium and Praeneste ; and Voltumna, whose sanctuary was the meeting-place of the whole Etruscan nation. To these must be added, partly from notices of ancient writers, partly from extant monuments: Vulcan, whose Etruscan name, as we learn from works of art, was Sethlans, the special object of worship at Perusia; Mercury, called by the Etruscans Turms, a name of frequent occur. rence on mirrors; Venus, who appears in similar works under the name of Turan; Mantus, probably a genuine Etruscan name, and one of the principal infernal deities; Vedius or Vejovis, also an infernal power; Summanus, the god of nocturnal thunder, and one of the rulers of the shades. These two last names are Latin, and perhaps the deities themselves belong properly to Latium. Ancharia, who was the tutelary goddess of Faesulae, and Horta, who gave name to the town of that name near the foot of Soracte, are, apparently, mere local divinities, but of native Tuscan origin. Apollo and Hercules, whose names are written on Etruscan bronzes Aplu or Apulu, and Herecle or Hercle, would seem to be foreign divinities that had originally no place in the mythological system of Etruria, though their worship was at a later period extensively diffused in that

2. Some portions of the Etruscan mythology and religion unquestionably point to an Eastern origin. The number and importance of these evidences of Oriental influence have been greatly exaggerated by those writers who have insisted on the Lydian, or other Oriental, extraction of the Etruscans; but the existence of such an element in their religious sys-country; and the same thing was still more clearly tem cannot be denied; though it is a question how far it proves in any particular case direct transmission from an oriental source.

3. There are not wanting indications which would connect the religious mythology of Etruria with that of the northern nations of Europe. The name of Aesar, which was the Etruscan appellation for the gods in general (Suet. Aug. 97), at once recals the

VOL. I.

the case with the Greek Bacchus, though there existed an Etruscan divinity named Phuphluns with whom he appears to have been identified or confounded. On the other hand, Usil (Sol), the god of the sun, and Losna or Luna, as they bear native names, were probably also genuine Etruscan deities. The worship of Janus at Falerii, of Silvanus and Inuus at Caere, and of Saturuus at Saturnia (called

3 K

by the Tuscans Aurinia), is also attested by Roman | Munthuch, all applied to deities of unknown power, writers, but the Etruscan names of these deities are unknown to us.

appears to have remained principally in the hands of the Etruscans; but it had fallen to a great degree into disrepute, and, though an attempt was made by the emperor Claudius to restore it (Tac. Ann. xi. 15), it gradually sunk into contempt, and the Tuscan Haruspex was regarded, like the Chaldaean astrologer, as a mere vulgar impostor. The superstition itself, however, continued down to the latest ages of the empire, and is mentioned in A. D. 408 during the wars of Alaric in Italy. (Zosim. v. 41.)

VII. Arts and Sciences.

truvius, unfavourable; the temples built according
to the Tuscan order (of which there were several at
Rome, including that of Jupiter in the Capitol)
having a low and heavy aspect. This must have
been aggravated by the custom, characteristic of the
Tuscan architecture, of loading the outside of the
pediment with statues. (Vitruv. iii. 3. § 5, iv. 7;
Plin. xxxv. 12. s. 45, 46; Müller, Arch. d. Kunst.
§ 169.) The external architectural decorations of
some of the Etruscan sepulchres (especially the
façades of those hewn in the rock at Castel d'Asso,
Norchia, &c.) present the same close approximation
to the Hellenic, and particularly the Doric, style.
The existing monuments of Etruscan architecture
are confined to works of a more massive and simple
description, among which the most remarkable are
the fragments of their city walls, especially those of
Faesulae, Volaterrae, Cortona, and Rusellae.
all these instances the masonry, which is of the most
massive character, is composed of large irregular
blocks, not united with cement, but rudely squared,
and laid in horizontal courses. There is, however,
little doubt that the difference of construction be-
tween these Etruscan walls and those of Latium and
the Central Apennines is not a national charac-
teristic, but results merely from the difference of
material-the walls of Cosa and Saturnia, which
are composed of the hard limestone of the Apennines,
being of the same polygonal construction with those
of the Latin and Volscian cities. (Specimens of both
styles of construction are figured by Micali, Popoli
Antichi Italiani, pl. 9-12.)

In

It is especially from the still extant monuments and works of art discovered in Etruria that there has arisen in modern times a high, and in some degree certainly exaggerated, notion of the civilisation of the ancient Etruscans. But all accounts agree in representing them as by far the most cultivated and refined people of ancient Italy, and especially devoted to the practice of arts and handicrafts of various kinds. (Athen. xv. p. 700, c.; Heraclid. 16.) It was from them that the Romans confessedly derived many of the arts and inventions that conduced to the comfort of daily life, as well as many objects of luxury and magnificence. To the latter class belong the ornamental attire worn in the triumphal processions, themselves probably an Etruscan custom (Appian, viii. 66),—as well as by the kings and chief magistrates of Rome: the Toga picta, the Praetexta, the golden Bulla, the ivory curule chair, &c. (Diod. v. 40; Flor. i. 5; Macrob. Sat. i. 6; Liv. i. 8; Strab. v. p. 220.) The numerous objects of an ornamental character found in the Etruscan tombs fully confirm Of their edifices for the exhibition of games, such the testimony of ancient writers to their proficiency as theatres or amphitheatres, we have no distinct in this branch of art, while the paintings on the knowledge: they could hardly have been without walls of some of their sepulchres afford some insight something of the kind, as we are told that both the into their habits of daily life, and lead us to infer theatrical exhibitions of the Romans, and their glathat they were really, as represented by the Greeks, diatorial combats, were derived from the Etruscans, a luxurious and sensual people. The account of who moreover delighted in horse-races and pugilistic their abandoned vices and profligacy given by Theo- contests. (Liv. i. 35, vii. 2; Athen. iv. p. 153; Val. pompus (ap. Athen. xii. p. 517) is obviously much Max. ii. 4. § 4; Tertull. de Spect. 5.) But the exaggerated; but Virgil also bears testimony to theatre at Faesulae (repeatedly referred to by Niethe general belief in their habits of debauchery buhr as a great Etruscan work), and the amphi(Aen. xi. 736; see also Plaut. Cistell. ii. 3, 20). theatre at Sutrium, to which very exaggerated imDiodorus, however, represents these luxurious and portance has been attached by some writers, are in voluptuous habits as belonging to the degeneracy of all probability Roman works of comparatively late the Etruscans, consequent on their long prosperity, date. The Etruscans appear to have paid especial and characteristic therefore only of their decline. attention to the more practically useful objects of (Diod. v. 40.) And it must always be borne in architecture, such as the laying out of streets and mind that almost all the extant works of art belong sewers. Of their skill in the latter, the Cloaca Maxto a late period of their national existence. They ima at Rome-the construction of which is univerwere especially noted for their devotion to the plea-sally attributed to the Etruscan monarchs of the sures of the table, whence we find the Etruscans ridiculed in Roman times for their corpulence. ("Pinguis Tyrrhenus," Virg. G. ii. 193; "Obesus Etruscus," Catull. 39. 11.)

In the higher departments of art, it is clear that the Etruscans had made great progress in architecture, sculpture, and painting. 1. Of Etruscan Architecture our knowledge is really but very limited. The so-called Tuscan order of architecture, as applied to the construction of temples and similar edifices, is really nothing more than a modification o. the Doric, which it resembles too closely to have had a separate and independent origin. The principal difference was in the greater width between the columns, which admitted only of the use of timber instead of stone for the architrave; and in the arrangement of the cella, which occupied only half the length of the interior area of the temple. The general effect was. according to Vi

city-is a striking example: the same monument proves also that they were acquainted at a very early period with the true principle of the arch, and possessed great skill in its practical application. Closely connected with this class of works were those for the drainage and outlet of stagnant waters by subter. ranean emissaries or tunnels,-an art for which the Etruscans appear to have been early celebrated. Of their domestic architecture we can judge only from some of their sepulchres, which bear unquestionable evidence of being intended to imitate, as closely as possible, the abodes of the living. (Dennis, Etruria, vol. i. p. lxvi.) But the common tradition of the Romans represented the Atrium, the most peculiar feature in the construction of a Roman house, as an Etruscan invention; and hence the most ancient and simple form of it was called Tuscanicum. (Varr. L. L. v. 33. § 161; Vitruv. vi. 3; Diod. v. 40.)

The sepulchres of the Etruscans have attracted

were dispersed not only over all Italy, but other parts of the world also, were principally of this material: and so numerous were they, that the city of Volsinii alone was said to have contained two thousand bronze statues. (Ibid.) They were characterised by a stiff, archaic style of art, resembling the early Greek or what has been called the Aeginetan style, but which seems to have been retained in Etruria for a much greater length of time than in Greece. Some of the extant specimens, however, present more freedom of design and great beauty of execution. The best examples of Etruscan works of art of this character are the celebrated SheWolf in the Capitol, the Chimaera in the gallery at Florence, the "Arringatore" or Orator in the same collection, and a statue of a boy in the museum at Leyden. (All these are figured by Micali, Ant. Pop. Ital. pl. 42—44.)

30 much attention as to require a brief notice. They | signa," which, according to Pliny (xxxiv. 7. s. 16), present many varieties in their construction and decoration, so that none of these styles can be fixed upon as peculiarly national or characteristic. They are sometimes chambers hewn out in a cliff or wall of solid rock, occasionally with architectural decorations cut in the same (Castel d'Asso, Bieda, Norchia); more frequently without such ornaments, or with a mere door cut in the rock: sometimes subterranean chambers surmounted by tumuli, either of loose earth and stones, or built up with masonry into a more regular form (Tarquinii, Volaterrae); often mere chambers sunk in the earth without any trace of such superstructure: again these chambers are sometimes circular, sometimes square; the entrances not unfrequently arched or vaulted, while the chamber itself is usually flat-roofed, and often has the ceiling adorned with beams and coffers, in imitation of the abodes of the living. The internal walls of some of the tombs are adorned with paintings, and this decoration is found both in those hewn in the rock, and those sunk beneath the level of the soil: it is, however, peculiar to Southern Etruria, and is by no means general even there. In one respect the sepulchres of Etruria are distin guished from those of the Romans, that they are always subterranean, never mere structures raised for the purpose of containing the tomb; there are in many instances, as already mentioned, superstructures of an architectural kind, but the actual chamber in which the dead bodies are deposited is sunk beneath these, often at a considerable depth below the surface. The account preserved to us by Pliny (xxxvi. 13. s. 19) of the tomb of Porsena is certainly exaggerated and fabulous in its details and dimensions, but had doubtless some foundation in truth; and some analogies to it have been remarked in the existing remains of several Etruscan monuments. (Dennis, vol. ii. p. 389.) A labyrinth, such as is said to have existed at the base of this tomb, has been also discovered in the Poggio Gajella, near Chiusi. [CUSIUM.]

2. Of Etruscan Sculpture, in the stricter sense of the term, as confined to works carved out of stone or wood, we hear but little from ancient authors; and the existing remains, though numerous, are mostly of inferior interest, from the late period to which they belong. Of this class are especially the numerous sarcophagi and urns or chests for ashes found at Volterra, Perugia, and Chiusi, the fronts of which are adorned with reliefs, generally representing subjects from the Greek mythology or poetical history, while on the lid is a recumbent figure of the deceased personage. These urns are carved in a soft sandstone or alabaster, and are for the most part of indifferent execution, and certainly belong to a declining period of art, though bearing unquestionable evidence of Greek influence, both in the subjects chosen and in the mode of their treatment. There remain, however, a ew statues of figures in a sitting position, found only at Chiusi, which present a much more archaic character: as well as certain cippi or stelae with figures in a very low, almost flat, relief, and a strong rigidity or severity of style resembling the Egyptian. (Dennis, vol. ii. pp. 336-338; Micali, Pop. Ant. Ital. pl. 54-58.) But the Etruscans excelled in many other branches of the Plastic Arts, and especially in all kinds of works in bronze. Their skill in this department is celebrated by many ancient authors, and is attested also by specimens still extant. The "Tuscanica

Innumerable smaller figures in bronze have beer found in Etruria, and evidently represent the "Tyrrhena sigilla" of the Romans (Hor. Ep. ii. 2. 181; Tertull. Apol. 25): besides these, they were particularly celebrated for their bronze candelabra, which were eagerly sought after both by Greeks and Romans (Athen. xv. p. 700), and of which many beautiful specimens still remain; as well as for a variety of other ornamental utensils in the same material. (Ib. i. p. 28. b.; Micali, ib. pl. 32-41.) Another branch of art which appears to have been peculiarly Etruscan, was that of the engraved bronze mirrors (erroneously termed Paterae), of which some hundreds have been discovered, and no doubt can exist of their being of native Etruscan manufacture, the inscriptions which occur on them being uniformly in Etruscan characters; their style of execution, however, varies greatly, and is often of a very rude description. (Gerhard, über die Metallspiegel der Etrusker, Berlin, 1838.) Nor were they less skilful workmen in other metals; their embossed cups of gold were celebrated among the Greeks, even in their best days, and the beauty of their necklaces and other ornamental goldsmith's work is sufficiently proved by existing specimens.

Not less celebrated were the Etruscan works in earthenware or Terra Cotta. These were not confined to small objects, such as vases or domestic utensils, but included whole figures and statues, many of them of large size, with which they adorned the exterior, as well as the interior, of their temples. Hence the custom was introduced at Rome, where even the temple of Jupiter in the Capitol was in early times surmounted by earthenware statues of Tuscan manufacture. (Vitruv. iii. 3. § 5; Cic. de Div. i. 10; Plut. Popl. 13; Plin. xxxv. 12. s. 45.) Closely connected with this branch of art was the Etruscan pottery, in the manufacture of which they undoubtedly excelled; but the only descriptions of works of this kind that can be regarded as of true native origin are the red ware of Arretium, which seems to have been much used in Roman times, and the black ware of Clusium, adorned with figures in relief, many of them of a grotesque and strongly oriental character. [CLUSIUM.] The painted vases, on the contrary, which have been found in great numbers at Clusium, Tarquinii, and especially of late years at Vulci, though commonly known by the name of ETRUSCAN vases, bear unquestionable evidence of Greek origin. This is proved by their perfect similarity, and, in many cases, even identity, with similar works found in Campania,

the south of Italy, and Sicily, as well as in Greece itself; and by the fact that they uniformly represent subjects taken from the Greek mythology or heroic legends, and bear, inscribed on thein, Greek names and words as well as in several instances the names of Greek artists: but while it is now generally admitted that this branch of art was a foreign importation, it is a still a disputed question whether the vases themselves were of foreign manufacture, or were made in Etruria by Greek artists settled there. The latter opinion has been maintained by Millingen and Gerhard; the former by Müller, Bunsen, Kramer, and Thiersch. (Müller, Arch. d. Kunst. § | 177, Kl. Schriften, vol. ii. pp. 692-708; Gerhard, Rapporto sui Vasi Volcenti, in the Ann. d. Inst. Arch. 1831; Bunsen, in the same Annali, for 1834; Millingen, On the late Discoveries in Etruria, in the Trans. of Roy. Soc. of Lit. 1830 and 1834; Kramer, über den Styl u die Herkunft der bemahlten Griechischen Thongefässen, Berlin, 1837; Thiersch, über die Hellenischen bemahlten Vasen, 1841; Abeken, Mittel-Italien, pp. 289300.)

of the Second Punic War, was capable of furnishing a vast quantity of arms and armour to the fleet of Scipio. (Liv. xxviii. 45.) The abundance of copper, probably, also gave rise to the peculiar system of coinage in use among the Etruscans, as well as the other nations of Central Italy, and which must certainly have been of native origin, being wholly opposed to that in use among the Greeks. The Etruscan coinage, like the early Roman, was exclusively of copper, or rather bronze; and the coins themselves, which were of a large size, were cast in moulds instead of being struck with a die. (Müller, Etrusker, vol. i. pp. 303–308; Eckhel, vol. i. pp. 85-89.) This early introduction of coined money, as well as the accounts of their naval power, sufficiently proves that the Etruscans must have carried on an extensive commerce, but we have very little account of its details. Their luxurious habits of life would necessarily conduce to the same result, and we learn that they maintained close relations of amnity with the Sybarites in Southern Italy, as well as with the Carthaginians. (Arist. Pol. iii. 5; Athen. xii. p. 519, b.)

3. Of the skill of the Etruscans in Painting we can judge only from the specimens remaining in their sepulchres, the walls of many of which, especially at Tarquinii, Caere, and Clusium, are decorated with paintings. These are of very unequal merit: some of very rude design, and fantastic in their colouring; others showing much more progress in the art, though retaining a stiffness and formality of character akin to the style of the earliest Greek works, the influence of which is as unquestionable upon this as upon other branches of Etruscan art. The custom of thus adorning the interior of their sepulchres appears, however, to have continued down to a late period, and some of the painted tombs found at Tarquinii belong, without doubt, to the period of the Roman dominion. (Dennis, vol. i. pp. 303-(" Tyrrhena retro volventem carmina frustra," Lucr. 306.)

The art of writing was represented by the traditions of the Etruscans themselves as introduced from Greece, and recent researches have led to the same result, that the Etruscan alphabet was received by them directly from the Greeks, and not, as has been contended by some modern writers, from a common Oriental source. (Müller, Etr. vol. ii. pp. 290-309; Mommsen, Unt. Ital. Dial. pp. 3— 7, 40.) But the Etruscans introduced, in the course of time, some changes in the forms and values of the letters; while, on the other hand, they retained down to the latest period the mode of writing from right to left, which had been early abandoned by the Greeks. Hence, even in the days of Cicero, their books were, as Lucretius phrases it, read backwards.

The character of Etruscan art in general is well summed up by K. O. Müller in the remark that it was rather receptive than creative, and that it always retained the marks of a plant of exotic growth, which, not being indigenous to the soil, began to fade and decline as soon as the vivifying rays of Greek influence were withdrawn from it. (Müller, Kl. Sch. vol. i. p. 208; Arch. d. Kunst. § 178.)

Of the proficiency of the Etruscans in the more useful arts appertaining to ordinary life, there can be no doubt. They were noted for their skill in agriculture; and not only knew how to turn to the best account the natural fertility of the soil, but, by great works of drainage, and regulating the course of riers, to bring under profitable cultivation tracts like those at the mouths of the Padus and the Arnus, which would otherwise have been marshy and pesti lential. The Etruscans are also generally regarded as the parents, or first inventors, of the peculiar modes of limitation and division of land in use among the Romans: an art which was indeed closely connected with the rules of the "disciplina Etrusca" appertaining to augury. (Hygin. de Limit. p. 166, Fragm. de Limit. p. 350.) The iron mines of Ilva, as well as the copper mines of the interior of Etruria itself, were worked by them from a very early period; and their skill in metallurgy was obviously connected with their proficiency in the more ornamental arts of working in bronze, gold, &c. Arretium, especially, seems to have been the seat of considerable manufacturing industry, and, at the time

vi. 381.) Of their literature we have no remains, and it may well be doubted whether they ever had anything worthy of the name. Besides their ritual books of various kinds, the "Libri Fulgurales" (alluded to by Lucretius in the above passage), “Libri Augurales," &c., the only works of which we find any mention are Histories or Annals (cited by Varro and by the emperor Claudius), but which appear to have been compiled as late as the second century B. C.; and Tragedies written by one Volnius, a native Etruscan, who seems to have flourished not long before the time of Varro, so that his literary attempts were evidently not of a truly national character. (Varr. L. L. v. 55; Id. ap. Censorin. 17. § 6.)

The scientific attainments of the Etruscans appear to have been almost confined to those branches of study directly connected with their religious rites ard ceremonies, such as the observance of astronomical and ineteorological phenomena, the calculation of eclipses, the regulation of the calendar, &c. Their doctrine of Saecula, or ages of varying length, was very peculiar (Censorin. 17. §§ 5, 6; Plut. Sull. 7): ten of these ages they regarded as the period allotted to the duration of their nation; and they even went so far as to assign a limit (like the Scandinavians) to the existence of the world, and of the gods themselves. (Varro, ap. Arnob. iii. 40.) It was from the Etruscans that the Romans derived their peculiar mode of dividing the mouths by the Ides, Nones, &c. (Macrob. Sat. i. 15; Varr. L. L. vi. 28.) Of unquestionable Etruscan origin was also the Roman systein of numerals, which has been transmitted