DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29898#0326
290
ETRUSCAN ARCHITECTURE.
Part I.
robber horde on the banks of the Tiber till she became the arbiter of
the destinies of the ancient world, is little beyond the record of con-
tinuous wars. From the possession of the seven hills, Rome gradually
carried her sway at the edge of the sword to the dominion of the
whole of Italy and of all the then known world, destroying every-
thing that stood in the way of her ambition, and seeking only the
acquisition of wealth and power.
Greece, in the midst of her successful cultivation of the arts of
commerce and of peace, stimulated by the wholesome rivalry of the dif-
ferent States of which she was composed, was awakened by the Persian
invasion to a struggle for existence. The result was one of the most
brilliant passages in the world’s history, and no nation was ever more
justified in the jubilant outburst of enthusiastic patriotism that fol-
lowed the repulse of the invader than was Greece in that wifch which
she commenced her short but briHiant career. A triumph so gained
by a people so constituted led to results at which we still wonder,
though they cause us no surprise. If Greece attained her manhood on
the battle-fields of Marathon and Salamis, Rome equally reached the
maturity of her career when she cruelly and criminally destroyed
Corinth and Carthage, and the sequel was such as might be expected
from such a difference of education. Rome had no time for the culti-
vation of the arts of peace, and as little sympathy for their gentler
influences. Conquest, wealth, and consequent power, were the objects
of her ambition—for these she sacrificed everything, and by their
means she attained a pinnacle of greatness that no nation had reached
before or has since. Her arts have all the impress of this greatness,
and are characterised by the same vulgar grandeur which marks
'everything she did. Very different they are from the intellectual
beauty found in the works of the Greeks, but in some respects they
are as interesting to those who can read the character of nations in
their artistic productions.
In the earlier part of her career Rome was an Etruscan city under
Etruscan kings and institutions. After she had emancipated herself
from their yoke, Etruria long remained her equal and her rival in
political power, and her instructress in religion and the arts of peace.
This continued so long, and the architectural remains of that people
are so numerous, and have been so thoroughly investigated, that we
have no difcficulty in ascertaining the extent of influence the older nation
had on the nascent empire. It is more diificult to ascertain exactly
who the Etruscans themselves were, or whence they came. But on the
whole there seems every reason to believe they migrated from Asia
Minor some twelve or thirteen centuries before the Christian era, and
fixed themselves in Italy, most probably among the Umbrians, or some
people of cognate race, who had settled there before—so long before,
ETRUSCAN ARCHITECTURE.
Part I.
robber horde on the banks of the Tiber till she became the arbiter of
the destinies of the ancient world, is little beyond the record of con-
tinuous wars. From the possession of the seven hills, Rome gradually
carried her sway at the edge of the sword to the dominion of the
whole of Italy and of all the then known world, destroying every-
thing that stood in the way of her ambition, and seeking only the
acquisition of wealth and power.
Greece, in the midst of her successful cultivation of the arts of
commerce and of peace, stimulated by the wholesome rivalry of the dif-
ferent States of which she was composed, was awakened by the Persian
invasion to a struggle for existence. The result was one of the most
brilliant passages in the world’s history, and no nation was ever more
justified in the jubilant outburst of enthusiastic patriotism that fol-
lowed the repulse of the invader than was Greece in that wifch which
she commenced her short but briHiant career. A triumph so gained
by a people so constituted led to results at which we still wonder,
though they cause us no surprise. If Greece attained her manhood on
the battle-fields of Marathon and Salamis, Rome equally reached the
maturity of her career when she cruelly and criminally destroyed
Corinth and Carthage, and the sequel was such as might be expected
from such a difference of education. Rome had no time for the culti-
vation of the arts of peace, and as little sympathy for their gentler
influences. Conquest, wealth, and consequent power, were the objects
of her ambition—for these she sacrificed everything, and by their
means she attained a pinnacle of greatness that no nation had reached
before or has since. Her arts have all the impress of this greatness,
and are characterised by the same vulgar grandeur which marks
'everything she did. Very different they are from the intellectual
beauty found in the works of the Greeks, but in some respects they
are as interesting to those who can read the character of nations in
their artistic productions.
In the earlier part of her career Rome was an Etruscan city under
Etruscan kings and institutions. After she had emancipated herself
from their yoke, Etruria long remained her equal and her rival in
political power, and her instructress in religion and the arts of peace.
This continued so long, and the architectural remains of that people
are so numerous, and have been so thoroughly investigated, that we
have no difcficulty in ascertaining the extent of influence the older nation
had on the nascent empire. It is more diificult to ascertain exactly
who the Etruscans themselves were, or whence they came. But on the
whole there seems every reason to believe they migrated from Asia
Minor some twelve or thirteen centuries before the Christian era, and
fixed themselves in Italy, most probably among the Umbrians, or some
people of cognate race, who had settled there before—so long before,