Regal Rome - 1852 Author:Francis William Newman Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: PART III. ETRUSCOLATIN ROME, CHAPTER VII. THE ETEUSCA2STS. Anctjs Maectps was succeeded on the throne of Home by an Etruscan, named Tarquin. Before w... more »e enter into any of the details concerning the new king, it is desirable to form a sharper notion of the Etruscans, and of their land. Etruria was bounded by the Tiber on the south, by the Macra (Magrd) on the north, and by the Apennines in the interior; being larger than the modern Tuscany. " The soil," says Diodorus, " will bear everything; and being well cultivated, yields abundance of fruits, not only for sufficiency, but for luxurious enjoyment; so that servants and freemen Diodor. v., 40. NAME Of THE ETEUSCANS. 105 alike havo their own separate houses. From the universal fertility of the country, they can always keep large stores in reserve; for, in short, Tyrrhe- nia sits everywhere on open plains, divided by gently-sloping hills serviceable to agriculture, and is moderately humid, as well in summer as in winter." In modern times, Tuscany has been called the garden of Italy; but this description must perhaps be confined to the vale of the Arno. In natural fertility, Campania and Lombardy must fully equal it; but in those ancient times no part of Italy was so turned to service by skilful agriculture- as Etruria. i The Etruscans, who conquered their country from the Umbrians, called themselves Rhasena,- but foreign nations knew them by a name which under all its varieties, points to Tursh or Turch as the radical element. The Umbrians (judging by the EugubineJ tables) called them Tursci; a word which the Romans vulgarly softened into Tusci, or more politely transposed into Etmsci. Their country must have been called Etrusia by the old Latins, which, by a well-recognised tendency, became in the standard Lat...« less