Etruscan civilization

The Romans, after making a truce on conditions satisfactory to the Gauls, and being thus, contrary to their expectation, reinstated in their home and as it were now started on the road of aggrandizement, continued in the following years to wage war on their neighbors.

After subduing all the Latins by their valor and the fortune of war, they fought first against the Etruscans, then against the Celts, and next against the Samnites, whose territory was conterminous with that of the Latins on the east and north.

After some time, the Tarentines, fearing the consequences of their insolence to the Roman envoys, begged for the intervention of Pyrrhus.

This was in the year preceding the expedition of those Gauls who met with the reverse at Delphi and then crossed to Asia, 280 BC.

The Romans had ere this reduced the Etruscans and Samnites and had vanquished the Italian Celts in many battles, and they now for the first time attacked the rest of Italy, not as if it were a foreign country, but as if it rightfully belonged to them.

Their struggle with the Samnites and Celts had made them veritable masters in the art of war, and after bravely supporting the war with Pyrrhus and finally expelling himself and his army from Italy, 274 BC, they continued to fight with and subdue those who had sided with him.

When with extraordinary good fortune they had reduced all these peoples and had made all the inhabitants of Italy their subjects excepting the Celts, they undertook the siege of Rhegium, now held by certain of their compatriots.

Chapter 16.

It may be seen, moreover, by reason of the statues found at Viterbo at the beginning of the pontificate of Alexander VI, that sculpture was in great esteem and in no small perfection among the Etruscans.

And although it is not known precisely at what time they were made, it may be reasonably conjectured, both from the manner of the figures and from the style of the tombs and of the buildings, no less than from the inscriptions in those Etruscan letters, that they are most ancient and were made at a time when the affairs of this country were in a good and prosperous state.

But what clearer proof of this can be sought, seeing that in our own day, that is, in the year 1554, there has been found a bronze figure of the Chimera of Bellerophon, in making the ditches, fortifications, and walls of Arezzo, from which figure it is recognized that the perfection of that art existed in ancient times among the Etruscans, as may be seen from the Etruscan manner, and still more from the letters carved on a paw, about which, since they are but few and there is no one now who understands the Etruscan tongue, it is conjectured that they may represent the name of the master as well as that of the figure itself, and perchance also the date, according to the use of those times.

This figure, by reason of its beauty and antiquity, has been placed in our day by the Lord Duke Cosimo in the hall of the new rooms in his palace, wherein there have been painted by me the acts of Pope Leo X.

And besides this, there were found in the same place many small figures in bronze, after the same manner, which are in the hands of the said Lord Duke.

Some sections, though, of this trail have been lost to modern highways, so it's been a bit rerouted.

But other segments still follow the old cobbled, stoned Roman roads, medieval paths, and sometimes even farm tracks which cross some ancient Etruscan and also Roman ruins.

Could you still follow it today? Do people follow it? Yeah,

people do follow it and do mainly different sections of it.

Most of these towns remain quite intact, you know, medievally intact.

Cobblestones and ancient walls, etc., lots of lovely hidden piazzas, etc.

They've got very deep history which dates back to Etruscan times and Roman period.

And some of them became medieval city-states and some strategic outposts were to protect not only against invaders but also things like the plague.

Etruria is a cool name for a vessel.

The homeland of the Etruscans.

They dug deep on some of these names.

Etrurial jurors.

Great." And this...

Unfortunately, this was right after the Etruscans video, which like absolutely kicked my ass, um, in terms of how long it took to, to assemble that.

So I'm like, "Oh, okay, I was thinking that I'll do the Odyssey detailed diatribe next, but okay, I'll do this for the sponsor.

It'll be fine timing.

Great, whatever." Um, ended up working out okay, um, because I, I did enough research that I had just a, a whole bucket full of notes, and I spent...

Usually a script will take like two or three, or in the case of the Etruscans, like four days to write it all out because there's a lot of information-

Mm-hmm

... to organize and sift through and make it fit, make it flow.

Populations of essentially different culture, tastes, and pursuits have vied with one another in their superstitious adoration of it.

Greek crosses of equal arms adorned the tomb of Midas of Phrygia, and long before the time of the Etruscans, the inhabitants of northern Italy erected crosses over the graves of their dead.

The cross was common to Mexico.

White marble crosses were found on the island of St. Ulloa by its discoverers.