Etruscans: Italian Civilization Before Ancient Rome

[Music] it's hard to imagine Italy as anything other than the heart of the Latin world the origin point of Roman civilization which has so greatly influenced the society we live in today however it was not always this way stretching from the Po Valley to the Tiber River the Etruscan civilization thrived for centuries before the founding of Rome boasting a society that rivaled the sophistication of classical Greece the trading acumen of Phoenicia and the wealth of Egypt in this video we will tell you the story of Italy's most ancient people and explore the monumental cultural impacts they had on the young Roman Republic and through them the world shoutout to bling kissed for sponsoring this video we live in a fast paced world and often it's difficult to find the time to learn new stuff our work and social life take up most of our time while social media is addictive so it's natural to think that you don't have enough time to read a book yet developing yourself is crucial for every facet of our lives so how to fix that we recommend the app called bling kissed this is a unique app that takes the most important insights new developments Ed's know-how from thousands of non-fiction books condensing them into 15 minute long reads or listens as we have to work almost 24/7 to produce our videos Linkous tis essential for our personal growth recently we've used blinkers to read you've all know her Aires 21 lessons for the 21st century and Mary beard civilizations and we highly recommend these books to our viewers the first 100 people to go to blinkers comm slash kings and Generals are going to get unlimited access for one week to try it out you'll also get 25% off if you want the full membership in their early history the Romans referred to these strange and foreign people's to their north as a truss key and it is from this route that's the modern region of Tuscany gained its however the peoples in question called themselves the resenha at their peak which lasted from around 750 to 400 BCE they were an incredibly prosperous society and their cities lit up the Italian heartland Pisa Bologna Capua and other modern population centres were originally founded by the Etruscans they were also a seagoing people forging trade networks all over the Mediterranean that brought copious wealth into their lands through their skilled warriors they would establish themselves as the premier power in the Italian peninsula for centuries and although they would eventually be conquered and assimilated into Rome the Empire we all know would be nigh unrecognizable if not for the contributions that the Etruscans made to its society where the Etruscans originally came from is a matter of scholarly debate the ancient historian Herodotus claimed that they were migrants from Anatolia while others asserted that they were one of the mysterious sea peoples that caused the bronze age collapse it is through language that we gain a clearer window into the Etruscans past for most of their history their civilization was surrounded by Celtic goals to the north Greeks to the south and italic tribes to their east the latter of whom would eventually spawned a Latins of Rome diverse as they were these three people had one thing in common they spoke indo-european languages today this massive language family covers most of the globe but in the early Iron Age it would have been a relatively new arrival in Europe with the Greeks italics and Celts all being descended from a common ancestor that likely migrated out of the Caucasian mountains between the 3rd to 1st millennium BC the Etruscan language however is not indo-european making it an anomaly compared to its neighbours from this we can discern that the Etruscans themselves were probably indigenous belonging to an ancient bloodline that inhabited Europe long before the great migration potentially making them Italy's earliest known people whatever their origin maybe we can trace the Etruscans archaeological presence in Italy as far back as 1200 BC around the same time the Trojan War supposedly took place little is known about Etruscan society this far back in time but we can be fairly certain that with weapons forged from bronze they came to dominate central western Italy they built their villages on naturally defensible plateaus constructing houses of thatch and mud while subsisting off farming herding and forestry they cremated their dead in primitive burial sites and placed the rashes in by conic herbs 1000 BC saw the first italic peoples enter into the peninsula but the forebears of the Romans had centuries before their time in the Sun would come and the proto Etruscans retained their territorial and cultural integrity in the face of this migration by the 9th century the Etruscans entered what is known as the Villanova phase of their history ancient Tuscany was abundant in natural resources and the Etruscans grew prosperous mining the abundant copper and iron deposits in their lands small hill villages began coalescing into larger towns and population centers like PHA tok wynia and bulky became regional powers their society became noticeably more complex as observed through their architecture which now featured ornately decorated homes bearing geometric and animalistic motifs villeneuve in Etruscans interred their dead in dedicated necropolis the richest of which were home to graves bearing ritualistically elaborate weapons shields and armor made of bronze and iron these graves also featured luxury goods manufactured in Phoenicia and Greece indicating that it was around this time that the Etruscans took to the Seas establishing trade networks with the Near East Etruscan merchants brought back more than just physical treasures from their new trading partners the period of history between 750 to 500 BC saw them heavily influenced by Eastern predominantly Greek cultures Etruscan pottery sculpture and art took on a distinctively Eastern style while the Etruscan elites adapted courtly rituals that emphasized pomp and ceremony especially rites involving wine a drink they adored most importantly they opted for the Western Greek alphabet as their writing system through which we retain the only documentation of their mysterious language today this era also presided over rapid urbanization of Etruscan society as their towns bloomed into cities complete with paved roads and aqueducts built amongst hallowed tombs or Stier temples and luxury villas inspired by Hellenic design as their tribal warriors evolved into professional armies the Etruscans expanded their territory coming to dominate their southern Latin neighbors including a certain little backwater town called Rome politically the Etruscans were always a divided people much like the ancient Greeks the city-state was the main political unit in a trivia with a single city forming a nucleus of control over its surrounding rural territory these cities were often in fierce competition with one another and war between them was not uncommon with that said a loose alliance was formed around 600 BC that consisted of the 12 most powerful city-states called the League of 12 peoples while this enables the Etruscans to regulate each other's economic and religious interests each city remained largely independent in practice originally the city-states were ruled by kings but like Athens before them it seems that the Etruscans overthrew their monarchs between the 5th and 4th centuries BC and established a form of oligarchic republican government although this transition was not uniform across all their cities Etruscan religion and mythology were rich and multi-layered prior to 600 BC they worshipped formless gods thematically centered around the moon and the Sun as their cultural contact with the Greeks grew deeper their deities began to more closely resemble the Olympian Pantheon the Greeks saw Etruscan gods merely as adaptations of the road divine plagiarism the Romans would also later be guilty of while the Etruscan religion greatly resembles the Greeks and to a lesser extent the Phoenicians fundamentally it was unique their chief God was tinea ruler of the sky at surface level he appeared to mirror Zeus but the two were not entirely paralleled Zeus like most of the Greek gods often acted impulsively and violently tinea on the other hand could not even throw a lightning bolt without permission from a mysterious collective of deities known as the secret gods of favor Ernie the goddess of fertility and childbirth was often compared to Hera but while Hera was the jealous and vengeful wife to a pathologically adulterous husband tinea and Ernie appears to have a functional loving marriage maneuver was the third most important deity and was roughly equivalent to Athena it was from men over that the Romans would get the name for their own goddess of wisdom Minerva unlike her Greek and Roman counterparts the Etruscan maneuver was not a virgin and even had an intimate relationship with the Etruscan version of Heracles of course there were many other gods some born of the Etruscans indigenous past and some cut from greco-roman cloth in general Etruscan gods were more restrained peaceful and all-round functional when compares to their Greek counterparts in most societies religion is often ties to public spectacle and in this the Etruscans were no different sporting events in particular were incredibly popular with boxing wrestling and Chariot Racing never failing to draw a crowd once a year citizens of the 12 cities would gather at fan and Volta may the most sacred sanctuary in a trivia and broad parallel to what Mount Olympus was to the Greeks there they would revel in public games intertwined seamlessly with intricate religious rituals if an ancient Greek or Roman happens to attend the games at phanom Volta may they may have been surprised to find women present in the audience indeed Etruscan women enjoyed a great deal of freedom and autonomy compared to their greco-roman counterparts and later Roman authors often condemned them as frivolous spoiled as depraved when compares to latin women the wives and daughters of Etruria had the freedom to own inherit and transfer property as they saw fit during ceremonial banquets they feasted alongside men as equals for them there was no shame in drinking in contrast to Greek women who were generally expected to forego alcohol Etruscan women were also prominent leaders in religious life serving as Oracle's and priestesses who held direct sway over the people's political decisions through their powers of divination while the Greeks also had a prominent female Sybil in Delfy she required male priests to interpret her will while Etruscan priestesses delivered their own prophesies the Etruscan cities maintained a strong martial culture both to settle disputes among themselves and to expand their frontiers against their Gallic and italic neighbors Etrian warfare was originally small-scale in nature in the villanova era warriors formed the aristocratic elite of society they are merged themselves with bronze helmets and choruses and went into battle wielding iron Spears javelins stabbing swords and shields in general the rich fought on horseback or on a chariot while the lower classes fought on foot conflicts usually took the form of minor skirmishes between neighboring tribes and featured little in the way of tactics two armies would meet and exchange a hail of javelins at which point both sides would charge one another and engage in a chaotic melee individual heroism was valued over unit cohesion and it was not uncommon for warriors to seek one-on-one combat during the heat of battle as at Ruskin society evolved so did its military as a byproduct of trading with the Greeks the Etruscans slowly adopted a distinctly Hellenic style of arms armour and warfare the warrior caste still comprised the social elite but by the sixth century BC it had evolved to resemble a Greek hoplite a in arms and armor more disciplined than their villeneuve and ancestors the Etruscan hoplite A's fort primarily in a phallic protected on the wings by cavalry a universally effective formation that even the Romans used before the adoption of the Manipal Etruscan phalanxes were often supplemented by auxiliaries from their societies lower classes who were more lightly armed than their Irish to kradic counterparts often wielding nothing more than stones and slings these armies were effective so much so that with them the Etruscans expanded their power over the lion's share of Italy however like all civilizations their prosperity would not last forever and a decline was soon to come to anyone with a passing knowledge of ancient history the fall of etruria to the Romans seems an inevitability but to the ancients the result was hardly set in stone Rome itself was founded in 753 BC and for centuries the urbanized Etruscans considered it a rural backwater barely worth mentioning this changed in 616 BC when an Etruscan aristocrat from Tarquinius ascended as king of Rome known to his people as Lucia's Tarquinius Priscus he introduced his city to a working sewage system led Rome in its subjugation of the other tribes of Latium and built the Circus Maximus importing athletes and chariot races from Etruria to introduced the Romans to the joy of public sporting Priscus his dynasty would last two more generations in 509 BC his grandson Tarquinius Superbus infamous for his wanton tyranny was overthrown and exiled forever ending at the Roman Kingdom and giving rise to the Roman Republic this marked a turning point in Italian history as the Romans began to slowly expand while the Etruscans slowly declined in 396 BC after a century of frontier warfare the dictator Marcos furious camelus conquered sacked and completely depopulated the city of a the other Etruscan cities looked upon this destruction with apathy too many of them they II was a bitter rival that they were glad to see gone and besides it was one thing for Rome to take a city directly on its border but the upstart Latins could never extend further north into the Etrian heartland naturally this was a fatal judgement hampered by their inability to properly unite against a common enemy the Etruscan city-states were simply unable to provide a consistent answer to the dynamic Roman military over the next few centuries their territory fell chunk by chunk into Roman hands one final pushback was made in 298 BC when the Etruscans finally put up a united front against the Romans a lying with a confederation of Gauls and Sam Knights in the third San Night war nevertheless they were defeated and this ended any hope of etruria retaining its independence its last city false in EE fell to Rome in 264 BC the same year that the Republic would go to war with Carthage for the first time even after their conquest the Etruscans did not disappear overnight their people culture and language survived for another 300 years under Roman rule however following the social war of 90 BC Etruscan cities within the Republic gained full Roman citizenship and this expedited their assimilation into Latin society and by around 30 ad the Etruscan language had gone extinct ending a culture that had endured for nearly 1,500 years nevertheless the legacy these ancient peoples left upon the Roman Empire was nothing short of extraordinary the Romans based their Latin alphabet upon Greek letters but they received those letters through the Etruscans core pillars of Roman infrastructure such as the aqueduct and the paved road where cultural borrowings taken from well-established Etruscan technology icons of Roman authority such as the toga the fasces and the custom of the military triumph were all originally Etruscan the Romans adopted much of Etruscan military technology such as the use of brass trumpets to relay orders in battle even the iconic pillar man Scouten evolved from Etruscan designs by and large the Romans owed much of their skill in metalworking to the master artisans of etruria finally the Roman love for public sports and spectacle was rooted in at Ruskin culture some sources even claim that the institution of gladiatorial combat evolved out of an Etruscan sacrificial Rite one must imagine Emperor Justinian watching his beloved greens turn a call in front of an electric crowd of 40,000 people in the Constantinople Hippodrome and wonder if he knew that he owed this spectacle to a forgotten people gone 600 years before his birth indeed it is easy to ascribe the value of the Etruscans solely upon the cultural legacy they left upon an empire that in turn has left such a profound legacy on our society today however these mysterious peoples of a bygone Italy are more than a stepping stone of Roman history their society stands on its own as one of the strongest wealthiest and most sophisticated of antiquity and a reminder of the fascinating worlds one can find by digging deep into the mysterious mists of humanity's forgotten past we always have more stories to tell so make sure you are subscribed to our channel and have pressed the bell button we would like to express our gratitude to our patreon supporters aunts channel members who make the creation of our videos possible now you can also support us by buying our merchandise by the link in the description this is the kings and Generals channel and we will catch you on the next one

Channel: Kings and Generals

Views: 921,445

Rating: 4.9125247 out of 5

Keywords: etruscan civilization, ancient italy, ancient history, ancient world, ancient rome, ancient greece, roman empire, world history, roman republic, kings and generals, full documentary, history lesson, history channel, documentary film, decisive battles, animated historical documentary, military history, history documentary, animated documentary, king and generals, roman history, late roman empire, roman army

Id: FkySjRwUteE

Length: 20min 25sec (1225 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 20 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Playful_Chipmunk_602]

The Etruscans had long been an underrated civilization overshadowed by ancient rome but kings and Generals finally did them justice with this vedio.

[u/Jadabu91]

Just started reading a book about them. Thanks for sharing!

[u/Inquisitive-1]

Thank you for sharing the video link. Brief, informative and a motivator for me to delve deeper in to Etruscan history, particularly since the role of women differs significantly from the Greeks and Romans.

[u/Qafqa]

It's ok, if a bit superficial.

Here's an article that focuses on religion, but is more specific on origins: http://derukugiblog.com/2020/05/04/devoted-more-than-all-others/