DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0032
xxxii ORIGIN OF THE ETRUSCAN RACE. [introduction.
supposed to have established their power in the land about 290
years before the foundation of Rome, or 1044 before Christ.1
The threads of the history, however, of these races are so
entangled, as to defy every attempt at unravehnent; and the
confusion is increased by the indiscriminate application of the
word Tyrrheni, which was used by the ancients as a synonym,
sometimes of Pelasgi, sometimes of Etrusci.
Amid this confusion, two facts stand out with prominence.
First—that the land was inhabited before the Etruscans,
properly so called, took possession of it. And secondly—that
the Etruscans came from abroad. From what country, how-
ever, is a problem as much disputed as any in the whole
compass of classical inquiry.
It is not compatible with the object of this work to enter
fully into this question, yet it cannot be passed by in utter
silence. To guide us, we have data of two kinds—the records
of the ancients, and the extant monuments of the Etruscans.
The native annals, which may be presumed to have spoken
explicitly on this point, have not come down to us, and we
have only the testimony of Greek and Roman writers. The
concurrent voice of these—historians and geographers, poets
and philosophers—with a solitary exception, marks the Etrus-
cans as a tribe of Lydians, who, leaving their native land on
account of a protracted famine, settled in this part of Italy.2
Tyr—seni =r Ra—seni ; or a contrac- 94. It is repeated or alluded to also by
tion of it, as Ty—raseni. Mannert, Strabo, V. p. 219 ; Plutarch, Romulus ;
Geog. p. 308 ; Cramer, I. p. 161. The Cicero, de Divin. I. 12.; Pliny, III. 8;
name « Rasna," or " Resna," is some- Valer. Maximus, II. 4, 3 ; Veil. Pater-
times met with on the sepulchral urns cuius, I. I ; Tacitus, Annal. IV. 55;
of Etruria. Lanzi, II. p. 459. Bull. Justin, XX. 1 ; Appian, Reb. Punic.
Inst. 1831. p. 10. LXVI; Tertullian, Spectac. V; Festus,
1 This is the period which MUller m. Sardi, Turrhenos; Virgil, Mn. II.
(Etrusk. eml. 2, 2 ; IV. 7, 8) considers 781 ; VIII. 479 ; IX, 11; Servius, in
the commencement of the Etruscan era, loc. and I. 67 ; Horat. I. Sat. VI. 1 ;
referred to by Censorinus, de Die Natali, Lycophron, Cass. 1351—61; Sil. Italicus,
XVII. Niebuhr (I. p. 138), however, IV. 721; V. 9; VIII. 485; X. 40, 485;
would carry the first Etruscan smaihrn XIII. 828 ; Statius, Sylv. I. 2, 190 ;
as far back as 434 years before the IV. 4,6; Catullus, XXXI. 13; Rutilius,
foundation of Rome, or 1188 b.c. I. 596 ; cf. Ovid. Met. III. 583; Seneca,
2 « The father of history " is the first Consol. ad Heir. VI. The tradition as
that records this tradition. Herod. I. related by Herodotus, echoed by Servius,
supposed to have established their power in the land about 290
years before the foundation of Rome, or 1044 before Christ.1
The threads of the history, however, of these races are so
entangled, as to defy every attempt at unravehnent; and the
confusion is increased by the indiscriminate application of the
word Tyrrheni, which was used by the ancients as a synonym,
sometimes of Pelasgi, sometimes of Etrusci.
Amid this confusion, two facts stand out with prominence.
First—that the land was inhabited before the Etruscans,
properly so called, took possession of it. And secondly—that
the Etruscans came from abroad. From what country, how-
ever, is a problem as much disputed as any in the whole
compass of classical inquiry.
It is not compatible with the object of this work to enter
fully into this question, yet it cannot be passed by in utter
silence. To guide us, we have data of two kinds—the records
of the ancients, and the extant monuments of the Etruscans.
The native annals, which may be presumed to have spoken
explicitly on this point, have not come down to us, and we
have only the testimony of Greek and Roman writers. The
concurrent voice of these—historians and geographers, poets
and philosophers—with a solitary exception, marks the Etrus-
cans as a tribe of Lydians, who, leaving their native land on
account of a protracted famine, settled in this part of Italy.2
Tyr—seni =r Ra—seni ; or a contrac- 94. It is repeated or alluded to also by
tion of it, as Ty—raseni. Mannert, Strabo, V. p. 219 ; Plutarch, Romulus ;
Geog. p. 308 ; Cramer, I. p. 161. The Cicero, de Divin. I. 12.; Pliny, III. 8;
name « Rasna," or " Resna," is some- Valer. Maximus, II. 4, 3 ; Veil. Pater-
times met with on the sepulchral urns cuius, I. I ; Tacitus, Annal. IV. 55;
of Etruria. Lanzi, II. p. 459. Bull. Justin, XX. 1 ; Appian, Reb. Punic.
Inst. 1831. p. 10. LXVI; Tertullian, Spectac. V; Festus,
1 This is the period which MUller m. Sardi, Turrhenos; Virgil, Mn. II.
(Etrusk. eml. 2, 2 ; IV. 7, 8) considers 781 ; VIII. 479 ; IX, 11; Servius, in
the commencement of the Etruscan era, loc. and I. 67 ; Horat. I. Sat. VI. 1 ;
referred to by Censorinus, de Die Natali, Lycophron, Cass. 1351—61; Sil. Italicus,
XVII. Niebuhr (I. p. 138), however, IV. 721; V. 9; VIII. 485; X. 40, 485;
would carry the first Etruscan smaihrn XIII. 828 ; Statius, Sylv. I. 2, 190 ;
as far back as 434 years before the IV. 4,6; Catullus, XXXI. 13; Rutilius,
foundation of Rome, or 1188 b.c. I. 596 ; cf. Ovid. Met. III. 583; Seneca,
2 « The father of history " is the first Consol. ad Heir. VI. The tradition as
that records this tradition. Herod. I. related by Herodotus, echoed by Servius,