Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Etruscans
No one knows exactly why the ancient Etruscans headed to Tuscany in the 9th century BC,
but Etruscan artefacts give clues as to why they stayed: dinner. The wild boar roaming the
Tuscan hills was a favourite on the menu, and boar hunts are a recurring theme on Etruscan
ceramics and tomb paintings. In case the odd boar bristle tickled the throat while eating,
Etruscans washed down their meals with plenty of wine, thereby introducing viticulture to
Italy.
Tomb paintings show Etruscan women keeping pace with men in banquets so decadent
they scandalised even the orgy-happy Romans. Many middle-class and aristocratic women
had the means to do what they wished, including indulging in music and romance, particip-
ating in politics and overseeing a vast underclass of servants. Roman military histories
boast of conquests of Etruscan women along with Etruscan territory starting in the 3rd cen-
tury BC. According to recent genetic tests, Etruscans did not mingle much with their
captors - their genetic material is distinct from that of modern Italians, who are the des-
cendants of ancient Romans.
Etruscans didn't take kindly to Roman authority, nor were they keen on being enslaved
to establish Roman plantations. They secretly allied themselves with Hannibal to bring
about the ignominious defeat of the Romans - one of the deadliest battles in all of Roman
history - at Lago Trasimeno in neighbouring Umbria: 16,000 Roman soldiers were lost in
approximately three hours.
After that, Rome took a more hands-off approach with the Etruscans, granting them cit-
izenship in 88 BC to manage their own affairs in the new province of Tuscia (Tuscany),
and in return securing themselves safe passage along the major inland Roman trade route
via the Via Flaminia. Little did the Romans realise when they paved the road that they were
also paving the way for their own replacements in the 5th to 8th centuries AD: first came
German emperor Theodoric, then Byzantine emperor Justinian, then the Lombards and fi-
nally Charlemagne in 800.
