Early Roman Republic, Early Iron Age (c.900 BC), Etruscans (c.800-509 BC): Introduction

In about 800 BC the Etruscans emerged in Central Italy on the western coast in the area enclosed by the rivers Arno and Tiber, the Tyrrhenian Sea and the lower slopes of the Apennines. They called themselves Rasenna, the Romans knew them as Etrusci (hence Etruria) or Tusci (hence Tuscany), and the Greeks knew them as Tyrrhenoi (hence the Tyrrhenian Sea). There is a Greek tradition that the Etruscans emigrated from Asia Minor to Italy, but modern scholars believe the Bronze Age inhabitants of Central Italy should be considered the ancestors of the Etruscans. 

In the fertile valleys, plains and rolling hills of the north, cities such as Faesulae, Cortona, Perusia and Clusium grew up and lived on through to modern times. The south, however, where the earliest Etruscan cities developed, was a volcanic zone, where tuff (volcanic) rock had weathered into peaks and plateaux, separated by deep valleys and gullies. Here, such cities as Vulci, Tarquinii, Veii and Caere are found on hills that rise where rivers or streams meet.

Emergent Etruscan engineering skills and the organisation of labour promoted land-reclamation, drainage, forestry and road building. Even so, groups of settlers found themselves cut off from each other by physical barriers so, like the early Greek city-states, they found intercommunication and therefore political cooperation difficult.

To protect citizens from external dangers, real or imaginary, the Etruscans built pomeria (sacred boundaries) around their cities. The rugged nature of many of the earlier sites prevented careful planning, but later cities had streets built on a grid system, as at Marzabotto (5th century BC) near Bologna.

In early years Etruscan cities were each ruled by a king, who wore a purple robe and a golden crown, sat on an ivory throne and was escorted by servants carrying an axe in a bundle of rods (fasces), the symbols of his power to execute or scourge. Many of these trappings of office were later adopted by Roman republican magistrates after Etruscan kings had occupied the throne at Rome.

During the sixth and fifth centuries BC nobles began to challenge the power of the kings, some of whom tried to bolster up their waning authority by reorganising the city’s political institutions in order to give the middle class more military and political influence to counterbalance the nobility. However, the kings were gradually overthrown and from then on the cities were administered by local aristocracies.

The chief of these autonomous city-states formed a League of Twelve Cities and according to Livy (59-00-17), the twelve met once a year at the Fanum Voltumnae (near Volsinii?), or the shrine of Voltumna (the chief god) where a leader was chosen to represent the league. There is no consensus of which cities were in the league but the following list is possible: Arretium, Caere, Clevsin, Curtun, Perusia, Pupluna, Tarchna, Veii, Velathri, Velch, Velzna and Vetluna.