Dennis, George: The cities and cemeteries of Etruria: in two volumes (Band 1) (London, 1848)

lx PHYSICAL CIVILIZATION. [introduction.

the injurious processes of nature. They drained lakes by-
cutting tunnels through the heart of mountains, and they
diverted the course of rivers, to reclaim low and marshy ground,
just as the Val di Chiana has been rescued in our own times.2
And these grand works are not only still extant, but some are
even efficient as ever, after the lapse of so many centuries.

That the Etruscans were eminently skilled in tunnelling,
excavating, and giving form and beauty to shapeless rocks, and
for useful purposes, is a fact impressed on the mind of every
one who visits the land. Their tombs were all subterranean,
and, with few exceptions, hewn in the rock, after the manner of
the Egyptians and other people of the East. In truth, in no
point is the oriental character of the Etruscans more obviously
marked than in their sepulchres; and modern researches are
daily bringing to light fresh analogies to the tombs of Lycia,
Phrygia, Lydia, or Egypt.

In physical comfort and luxury the Etruscans cannot have
been surpassed by any contemporary nation. Whoever visits
the Gregorian Museum of the Vatican, or that of the Cavaliere
Campana at Rome, will have abundant proofs of this. Much
of it is doubtless owing to their extensive commerce, which was
their pride for ages. In their social condition they were in
advance of the Greeks, particularly in one point, which is an
important test of civilization. In Athens, woman was always
degraded; she trod not by the side of man as his companion
and helpmate, but followed as his slave; the treatment of the

great preceptors in all works of public per transversum in Atrianorum paludes.

utility. There is no positive evidence Niebuhr declares the channels by which

of this ; but it is the opinion now gene- thePo stilldischargesitself,tobetuework

rally entertained. Micali (Ant. Pop. of the Etruscans. And in the territory

Ital. I. p. 150; II. p. 307) indeed of Perugia, and in Suburbicarian Tuscia,

maintains that there are remains of are traces of many lakes drained by the

Etruscan paved roads still extant, such Etruscans, and now dried up ; «the

as that from Caere to Veii, and thence tunnels are unknown and never cleared

to Capena, constructed before the domi- out, but still work." The Emissary of

nation of the Romans. Albano, which there is every reason to

2 Such is the interpretation put by regard as an Etruscan work, is a

Niebuhr (I. p. 132) on Plin. III. 20— triumphant memorial of their skill in

Omnia ea flumina, fossasque, primi a such operations.
Sagi fecere Thusci: egesto amnis impetu