Etruscans
The Etruscan city-states of central Italy, their culture and trade, and their influence on early Rome, including its traditional last kings.
Category: Peoples
- c. 750 BCEEuboeans settle Pithekoussai
In the 8th century BCE Greeks from Chalcis and Eretria set up a trading post at Pithekoussai on Ischia, with a mixed Greek, Etruscan and Phoenician population of 5,000-10,000 by 700. Nestor's Cup, c. 730, bears an early Greek inscription.
- c. 616 BCETarquinius Priscus begins the Etruscan dynasty (traditional)
Tradition makes Tarquinius Priscus (reign c. 616-578 BCE) the first of three Etruscan-descended kings of Rome. He is credited with the Circus Maximus and the Cloaca Maxima, and with starting the Capitoline temple.
- c. 578 BCEServius Tullius becomes king; census and classes (traditional)
Tradition credits the sixth king (reign c. 578-535 BCE) with Rome's first census and the property-based voting classes. Scholars see a gradual process; some identify him with the Etruscan Mastarna.
- c. 540 BCEBattle of Alalia
Etruscan and Carthaginian fleets fight Phocaean Greeks off Corsica, c. 540-535 BCE. The Greeks win but lose most of their ships and leave Corsica; Corsica goes to the Etruscans and Carthage keeps Sardinia.
- c. 535 BCETarquin the Proud seizes the throne (traditional)
According to Livy, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus has Servius Tullius murdered with the help of his wife Tullia and takes power, c. 535 BCE. He rules as a tyrant and completes the Capitoline temple.
- c. 509 BCETarquin expelled; the Republic founded (traditional)
Tradition says the rape of Lucretia led Lucius Junius Brutus to drive out Tarquin the Proud, replacing the king with two annual consuls. Modern scholars doubt the story and suspect a coup or an Etruscan occupation.
- c. 509 BCETemple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus dedicated
Livy dates the dedication of Rome's greatest temple, on the Capitoline, to 13 September 509 BCE; Dionysius says 507. Begun under Priscus and finished under Superbus, it housed the cult of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva.
- c. 500 BCEPyrgi Tablets: Etruscan and Phoenician dedication
Around 500 BCE the Etruscan ruler of Caere, Thefarie Velianas, dedicates a sanctuary at Pyrgi to Uni, equated with Astarte, on gold tablets in Etruscan and Phoenician. Found in 1964, they show Etruscan-Carthaginian ties.
- 474 BCEBattle of Cumae: Etruscan sea power broken
A fleet from Syracuse, led by the tyrant Hiero I, and Cumae defeats the Etruscans in the Bay of Naples in 474 BCE. Etruscan naval strength and influence in Italy decline; Pindar celebrated the victory.
- c. 396 BCERome destroys Etruscan Veii (traditional)
In c. 396 BCE the dictator Camillus takes Veii, the Etruscan city near Rome, by tunnelling under its defences, according to Livy. Its fall extends Roman power in central Italy.
- c. 298 BCEThird Samnite War
Rome faces the Samnites and a coalition of Etruscans, Umbrians and Gauls, 298-290 BCE. Victory at Sentinum and the end of Samnite resistance give Rome control of much of central Italy.
- 295 BCEBattle of Sentinum
In 295 BCE the consuls Fabius Rullianus and Decius Mus beat Samnites and Senone Gauls in the decisive battle of the Third Samnite War. Decius dies in a ritual self-sacrifice; the Etruscan and Umbrian allies withdraw.
- 264 BCERome destroys Etruscan Volsinii
Asked for help by Volsinii's aristocrats against its freed slaves, Rome besieges and razes the city in 264 BCE and moves its people to a new site on Lake Bolsena. Etruscan independence is all but over.