The Etruscans were a diachronically continuous population speaking a distinct language and practicing a distinctive culture that ranged over the Po Valley and some of its alpine slopes, southward along the west coast of Italy, most intensely in Etruria, with enclaves as far south as Campania, and inland into the Appennine mountains, during the period of earliest European writing in the Mediterranean Iron Age, in the second two quarters of the fir...
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The Etruscans were a diachronically continuous population speaking a distinct language and practicing a distinctive culture that ranged over the Po Valley and some of its alpine slopes, southward along the west coast of Italy, most intensely in Etruria, with enclaves as far south as Campania, and inland into the Appennine mountains, during the period of earliest European writing in the Mediterranean Iron Age, in the second two quarters of the first millennium BC. Their prehistory can be traced with certainty to about 1000 BC. During their floruit of about 500 BC they were a significant maritime power with a presence in Sardinia and the Aegean Sea. At first influential in the formation and conduct of the Roman monarchy they came to oppose the Romans during the Roman Republic, entered into military conflict with it, were defeated, politically became part of the republic and integrated into Roman culture. The Etruscans had both a religion and a supporting mythology. Many Etruscan beliefs...
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