Etruscan

A wall painting of dancers, in an Etruscan tomb from about 475 BC. Dance has been used as a social, religious, and magical ritual for thousands of years.

The head of a bronze statue of an Etruscan warrior, from about 300 BC. The Etruscans lived in Etruria, central Italy from the 8th to the 4th centuries BC. Although eventually dominated by the Romans, they enjoyed great power in the 6th century BC.

An exhibition of surgical instruments used by the Etruscans. Etruscan kings first ruled in Rome, and their civilization was the basis for the Roman world, which later took on the Etruscan skills in government, art, and medicine.

Dancers and a harpist on an Etruscan fresco from Tarquinia, Italy. This fresco was found on the wall of a tomb and dates from c. 465 BC. Tarquinia was a principal city of the Etruscan people, who inhabited parts of modern day Tuscany and Umbria from the 8th to the 2nd centuries BC.

Member of an ancient people inhabiting Etruria, Italy (modern-day Tuscany and part of Umbria) from the 8th to 2nd centuries BC. The Etruscan dynasty of the Tarquins ruled Rome 616–509 BC. At the height of their civilization, in the 6th century BC, the Etruscans achieved great wealth and power from their maritime strength. They were driven out of Rome in 509 BC and eventually dominated by the Romans.

The Etruscans probably came from Asia Minor at some date before 800 BC. The Etruscan government was a close aristocracy and was confined to the family of the Lucumones who combined civil with religious functions. Etruria reached its greatest extent about 500 BC but the Greeks and Romans drove the Etruscans from Campania and Latium. Hiero I of Syracuse defeated the Etruscans in a naval battle at Cumae 474. About 454 they were driven out of Corsica and Elba; in 396 Veii was defeated, and the Gauls destroyed the colonies on the Po in 390. The southern part of Etruria swore allegiance to Rome 351, and after a series of crushing defeats, the Romans under Cornelius Dolabella won a decisive victory at the Vadimonian Lake 283. In 91 the Etruscans received the Roman franchise. The military colonies established in Etruria by Sulla and Augustus destroyed the national character of the people, and the country became Romanized.