Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Attempts by the Etruscans to conquer the Greek settlements failed and accelerated the
Etruscan decline. The death knell, however, would come from an unexpected source - the
grubby but growing Latin town of Rome.
The origins of the town are shrouded in myth, which says it was founded by Romulus
(who descended from Aeneas, a refugee from Troy whose mother was the goddess Venus)
on 21 April 753 BC on the site where he and his brother, Remus, had been suckled by a
she-wolf as orphan infants. Romulus later killed Remus and the settlement was named
Rome after him. At some point, legend merges with history. Seven kings are said to have
followed Romulus and at least three were historical Etruscan rulers. In 509 BC, dis-
gruntled Latin nobles turfed the last of the Etruscan kings, Tarquinius Superbus, out of
Rome after his predecessor, Servius Tullius, had stacked the Senate with his allies and in-
troduced citizenship reforms that undermined the power of the aristocracy. Sick of mon-
archy, the nobles set up the Roman Republic. Over the following centuries, this piffling
Latin town would grow to become Italy's major power, gradually sweeping aside the
Etruscans, whose language and culture disappeared by the 2nd century AD.
Giuliano Procacci's
History of the Italian People
is one of the best general histories of the country in
any language. It covers the period from the early Middle Ages until 1948.
