The Etruscans*
The Etruscans*
We need to examine with the mysterious Etruscans* first because they seem to have contributed the most to the Roman character. Mysterious they are, both because we know very little about these people who established a vibrant civilization over much of Italy, and because what we do know about them is fragmentary and strange. Before they established a going society in northern Italy, there were only scattered bronze age cultures on the Italian peninsula.
This was back in the dark age of Greece, between the Mycenae bunch and the dawn of classical Greece. It was a time of ferment all over the Mediterranean. Waves of invaders poured down into southern Europe. The Phoenicians* were pushed westward out of Asia Minor and established a great colony at Carthage* on the North African coast and in Spain* and waves of iron using Indo-European Latin tribes invaded Italy from the north. The last invading tribe settled in the Alban hills around what would become Rome*.
Meanwhile, on the western coast of Italy, a new non-Latin tribe was emerging as a dominant force in the area of Tuscany*, spreading north and south of this cultural center. They gradually pushed the local Latin tribes further back into the hills and forests. The part of Italy they dominated came to be called Etruia*.
These Tuscany* tribes came to be known as the Etruscans*. They seem to have many characteristics of Asia Minor* peoples and may have migrated from Anatolia* across the northern edge of the Adriatic. There is an old and dubious story that they were the survivors of the fall of Troy. Many of their talents and characteristics will be adopted by the later Romans. They were hard, war-like and determined. They had a body of laws and a passion for divination. Everything they did depended on omens and signs read by their priest-kings. The Romans will ditch the king business but adopt this divination business, lock, stock and barrel.
The Etruscans* were great city planners and architects. They came up with the arch and a grid layout for their cities. They were engineers, digging tunnels through hills, draining swamps, diverting rivers and becoming expert miners and metal producers. The Romans really latch on to this architectural and engineering business and will become known as a society of builders.
Another quite different range of characteristics will be picked up by the Romans. The Etruscans were really crazy about blood and sex. They had terrific gladiator battles for every occasion (especially their funeral games), sexual freedom, luxurious living and loose moral codes. The Romans are appalled at the equality Etruscan women enjoyed, but they will adopt the rest of the blood and sex attitudes.
The Etruscans* owed much of their civilization to the Greek influence they encountered on their southern borders. The Etruscans were especially crazy about the works of Homer*.
Greek mythology is found throughout their art and may have influenced their religion as well. Their god Turms*, for example, was identical with the Greek Hermes who conducted the souls of the dead to the underworld.
Parts
» Euripides* And The Crumbling State
» Aristophanes* - He Who Laughs Last, Laughs Best
» Take The Frogs* for instance -
» Alexander And Logical Thinking
» Rome While all this is going on in the Greek-dominated Hellenistic world, the Romans* are busy
» Roman Writers c.275 BCE - c.110 BCE During The Era Of Senate Supremacy
» From Classical Light Into The Dark Ages The Fifth Century
» The End of the Western Empire in Italy
» Why Europe Isn't Very Interesting In The Sixth Century
» Islam* Enters Europe As We Enter The Eighth Century
» Vikings Move On As Does Islamic Culture
» Theatre Reappears In Bits And Pieces As We Move Onward Into The Tenth Century
» Europe Moves On Into The Eleventh Century
» As The Twelfth Century Begins Economic And Intellectual Profits
» The Third Crusade The One We All Remember
» More Crusades And A Small Renaissance As We Go Into The Thirteenth Century
» The Small Renaissance Part of the Century
» THEATRICAL PERFORMANCE SPACE IN CHURCH DRAMA -
» The Fourteenth Century And We Come To The Down Part Of The Late Middle Ages
» The Black Death* Comes To Europe
» Everything Takes Off In All Directions At Once
» The Renaissance Officially Begins
» Italian Theatrical Renaissance Gets Going
» Brief Consideration of the Range of Plays
» The Winds Of Reformation* Begin In Germany -
» Theatrical Scenery Takes Off
» Background for Spanish Theatre -
» Other Current Spanish Playwrights
» The English Renaissance 1588-1629
» Sources Of English Playwrighting
» William Shakespeare* -(1564-1616)
» English Settlements Begin In America
» Spanish Court Theatre Flourishes
» The French Theatre Finally Gets Up and Running Introduction
» Back in France Richelieu* Pushes Theatre Development
» English Religious Opposition Increases
» England Falls into Civil War
» English Restoration Theatre Begins
» Middle Class and Sentimental English Theatre
» Europe and America in Social Ferment
» Germany and the Beginnings of Romanticism
» American Revolutionary Times Begin
» Melodrama,* Popular Theatre, and Napoleon MELODRAMA*
» Realistic Elements In Production
» Political Philosophy Moves On
» The Mexican War* and Nationalism
» The 1848 Revolutions and Nationalism
» Some of his best known plays:
» 1908 - Theatre Theorists Publish
» New Connections, New Starts - 1911 -
» And After 1914-1925 Introduction
» The Russian Revolution - 1917
» America Draws Back Into Its Shell -
» Second World War and Its Aftermath
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