DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.847#0143
TARQUINIA.
133
but after being incorporated witb the great Etruscan
league and made its southern bulwark, it became a
place of importance, adorned with aqueducts and
temples, and fortified by ramparts (Tarquinius agger).
Under the Tarquinian rule the conquests of the
Romans extended over the Sabine country to Col-
latia, Corniculum, Crustumerium, Nomentum, &c.;
and in their civil polity the strictest aristocracy
was established, while their equestrian games and
their reverence for the Delphic oracle were a natural
consequence of their connexion with a city whose
earliest annals tell of Tyrrhene-Pelasgic colonists,
and which had in later times received Demaratus
and his train from Corinth.
But the supremacy of Tarquinia over Etruria was
not always undisputed. The period of peace and
splendour was followed by one of intestine commo-
tions, when the army of Cceles Vibenna traversed
the land. The invaluable sentence of the emperor
Claudius, so long buried underground, and disco-
vered in modern times, throws considerable light
upon the history of ancient Etruria, and upon that
of early Rome. It is recorded in the 11th book of
the annals of Tacitus, that in the year of the
Christian era 48, the chief men of Gallia Comata
presented a petition, that they and their countrymen
might be received into the number of Roman
citizens. Claudius himself did them the honour to
advocate their cause before the senate, and, as a
motive to grant their request, he gave the instances
of strangers who had founded the most illustrious
133
but after being incorporated witb the great Etruscan
league and made its southern bulwark, it became a
place of importance, adorned with aqueducts and
temples, and fortified by ramparts (Tarquinius agger).
Under the Tarquinian rule the conquests of the
Romans extended over the Sabine country to Col-
latia, Corniculum, Crustumerium, Nomentum, &c.;
and in their civil polity the strictest aristocracy
was established, while their equestrian games and
their reverence for the Delphic oracle were a natural
consequence of their connexion with a city whose
earliest annals tell of Tyrrhene-Pelasgic colonists,
and which had in later times received Demaratus
and his train from Corinth.
But the supremacy of Tarquinia over Etruria was
not always undisputed. The period of peace and
splendour was followed by one of intestine commo-
tions, when the army of Cceles Vibenna traversed
the land. The invaluable sentence of the emperor
Claudius, so long buried underground, and disco-
vered in modern times, throws considerable light
upon the history of ancient Etruria, and upon that
of early Rome. It is recorded in the 11th book of
the annals of Tacitus, that in the year of the
Christian era 48, the chief men of Gallia Comata
presented a petition, that they and their countrymen
might be received into the number of Roman
citizens. Claudius himself did them the honour to
advocate their cause before the senate, and, as a
motive to grant their request, he gave the instances
of strangers who had founded the most illustrious