Key Facts about Etruscans

About Etruscans:

• The Etruscans were a Mediterranean civilization that flourished between the 8th and 3rd centuries BCE.
• The Etruscans, also known as the Tyrrhenians, inhabited the area that is now
• Their country was called Tuscia, or Etruria.
• Etruria was located in the central part of the Italian peninsula.
• Etruria was bounded on the west by the Tyrrhenian Sea, on the north by the Arno River, and on the east and south by the Tiber River.
• They had a strong navy and dominated the seas on the western coast of Italy.
• The Etruscans possessed the biggest iron reserves in the whole of the western Mediterranean.
• Many features of Etruscan culture were adopted by the Romans, their successors to power in the peninsula.
• Etruscans were the first in the Mediterranean region to construct a city on the basis of a grid plan.
  • In this plan, most of the streets were laid in a north-south direction with a few streets crossing them from the east-west direction.
  • Romans later followed this plan while laying out military camps and new cities.
• Social Classes:
  • Scholars believe that there were three social classes in ancient Etruria.
  • On the top was a powerful aristocratic, or noble class.
  • Below them was a middle class that consisted of craftsmen, merchants, and sailors.
  • Finally, there was a class of enslaved people.
  • Unlike ancient Greece and Rome, women were considered equal in status to men.
  • Etruscan women were often able to read and were educated.
• Religion:
  • Etruscans believed in a universe controlled by gods. For them, the gods existed in nature as well as in all objects made by humans.
  • Etruscans thought that the gods revealed their presence through natural phenomena such as lightning.
  • Their mythology was different from the Greeks and Romans.
  • However, the gods that they worshiped became similar to important Greek and Roman gods such as Zeus, Hermes, and Athena.
• Decline:
  • The decline of the Etruscan civilization began toward the end of the 6th century and the beginning of the 5th century BCE.
  • In 509 BCE the Etruscan kings were forced out of Rome.
  • Their naval superiority ended when the Greeks destroyed their fleet in 474 BCE.
  • By the middle of the 3rd century BCE, Etruscans were taken over by the Romans.
  • Latin, the language of the Romans, replaced Etruscan.
  • By the 1st century BCE, the Etruscan people were completely absorbed by the Roman Empire, and Etruscan culture ceased to exist as a distinct civilization.