Chapter 11
Imperial epilogue
For many modern accounts of the Etruscans, their story is nearly at an end. Massive land redistributions, the transformation of the language from one natively spoken to one which was no more than the object of academic study, decline in the towns, and a generalized absence of funerary evidence leads one quickly to assume that to all intents and purposes, the Etruscans had disappeared. The last act in this sad story tends to be assigned to the emperor Claudius, whom we have already seen married to the descendant of Etruscan kings, and trying to make sense of Etruscan history. He wrote a 20-volume account of the Etruscans, of which nothing survives. This ‘known unknown’ is the single most frustrating and disappointing gap; even if Claudius had composed a hotch-potch of daft myths and mistaken historical reconstructions, he cannot have failed to include the kind of evidence we must now either glean from scraps, or simply confess we do not have. Yet there is no evidence that anyone read it even at the time.
With their language no longer spoken, no native literature, and a dismal aura of decline, there may seem little else to say about the Etruscans. Yet that would be a mistake. Understanding what happened in Etruria between the Augustan period and the fall of the Roman empire is key to understanding how (and how well) the empire worked, and the Etruscans were contributing to that story.
Take Faesulae (Fiesole); an important minor centre from the 9th century BC, it was turned into a Sullan colony and preceded the triumviral colony of Florentia (Florence), with which it would have close ties (Florence even contributed to the restoration of the Capitolium at Fiesole). The visitor will be guided into a well-presented area of archaeological remains—all Roman, with a restored complex of theatre, baths, and temple. Over 30 Latin inscriptions have been found. A. Faltennius and his third wife, Ladinnia, have characteristically Etruscan names but he identifies himself carefully with his Roman tribal affiliation (son of Gaius, of the Scaptian tribe, and holding the office of sevir). L. Tettius Probus and L. Tettius Maximus (impeccably Roman) lament a wife and mother. Lucius Crescens has a daughter called Tigris (not very Roman at all). C. Vettius Chrysogonus’ family will have owed much to Sulla’s henchman of the same name. Others were from servile origins: Eutychus, Hilarus, and Corinthus. It is the standard mix for a prosperous little town of a few thousand souls.
In 4 BC, when Augustus was consul with Lucius Sulla (descendant of the dictator and founder of the colony), one Gaius Crispinus Hilarius (a free man, though with that name not originally Roman) went up to the Capitol at Rome to sacrifice preceded by his 8 children, 27 grandchildren, 18 great grandchildren, and 8 granddaughters by marriage. We hear of guilds and the worshippers of Saturnus, and there is a dedication to Isis. Thereafter, we hear nothing until Stilicho defeats Radagaisus and the Vandals and Suevi in 406, and the town has a difficult time in the 6th century Gothic Wars. It recovered its independence and Fra Angelico lived there in a convent. Several families—amongst them the Medici—created beautiful Renaissance villas on the slopes winding down towards Florence. It became a popular haunt for tourists seeking cooler air; Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas spent a summer there; and many modern tourists follow them today. Fiesole then is just one of many examples of a town that was Etruscan, becomes Roman, then becomes Tuscan, both in the Renaissance sense and in the sense of somewhere which encapsulates what we think of as a typically Tuscan scene, with its cypresses and hills and piazzas and sunshine.
The excellent local museum covers the full range of material through to medieval, but the Etruscan material dominates, as in almost every archaeological museum in Tuscany. Periodization is inevitable, and it is unsurprising what is the main draw; the ‘mysterious’ Etruscans have it over the rather boring Romans every time. Yet that bath, temple, and theatre complex tells us something important about the construction of a municipal life in Faesulae, and its continuity.
Some families did survive the upheaval described at the end of Chapter 9. The Caecina family at Volterra managed to survive Sulla, Caesar, and Augustus, and were commemorated on the grand theatre. There were even some who survived the Perusine massacre in 40 BC; P. Volumnius A. f. Violens and L. Proculeius A. f. Titia gnatus were quattuorvir and duovir; they held the first office before the massacre and the second in the Augustan resettlement. The Seii were doing well at Volsinii until one member, Sejanus, who had been Tiberius’ right-hand man, fell so foul of the emperor that he was killed and his body dragged through the streets of Rome. The disappearance of these evocative names from the epigraphic record is suggestive of a decline, but it is also based on an argument from silence. We simply do not have the information or evidence. Since epigraphy was sometimes preserved more in funerary contexts from the lower classes, we may simply be missing the records of families which continued to exist; an intriguing example of continuity is a man called Verinus, an Etruscan name, whose family tombs are in a Christian cemetery in Chiusi; we find him in Syria and celebrated as commander in a war against the Armenians in the early 4th century. Several emperors claimed Etruscan ancestors. However, families do die out, and with intermarriage, changes of name, and so forth, the old Etruscan aristocracy seems to have dwindled.
Early in the imperial period, partly as a result of the new colonies, monumental building picks up. There are aqueducts at Lucus Feroniae, Cerveteri, Falerii; bath buildings at Ferentium, Volsinii, Faesulae, and Pisa; theatres or amphitheatres at Sutrium, Ferentinum, Rusellae, Volterra, Faesulae, Florentia, and Luna. We have seen the adornment of the Forum at Tarquinia, and the continued Roman presence at Fanum Voltumnae. L. Ateius Capito built a meeting place for the local officials, a record office, an arena for watching shows, a portico, and a banquet hall at Castrum Novum. One interesting example just outside Etruria is at Ocriculum (Otricoli) with a fine theatre, amphitheatre, and nymphaeum. Many of these buildings must have been maintained throughout the empire, and the theatres and amphitheatres needed to be filled with shows, all of which cost money. So there was plenty of opportunity for entertainment and for conspicuous benefaction (euergetism).
Agriculture was again critical for the economic underpinning of any pre-industrial settlement. Grain, oil, and wine continued to be produced and distributed; in the 1st century AD, Pliny singles out the wheats of Chiusi and Arezzo, as Varro had done a century before. Recently, a glassmaking factory was found not far from Roselle in the Maremma. If anything, the intensity grew—this is the period when we do see larger estates and greater use of slaves. The villa became a critical feature of the extra-urban landscape.
Taking villa culture as a whole, a recent study which surveyed 50 villas across the region shows some coming to an end in the 2nd century AD, thus confirming the picture we have of an overall decline which is coherent with the so-called 3rd century crisis, a complex picture of slowdown, monetary problems, and unrest across the provinces. A classic example is the villa at Settefinestre near Cosa. Built in the 1st century BC, Settefinestre was highly active in oil and wine production, and very possibly belonged to the family of the Sestii whose amphorae are found across the Mediterranean. It is possible that there was a slave quarter, but the villa is also sufficiently luxurious to allow for elegant leisure with high quality wall paintings, a colonnade or peristyle, atrium, and garden. So this is a villa which exemplified perfectly the culture of apparent leisure (otium, time to philosophize and write poetry and have fine banquets) and real productive activity. There is an upgrade in the early 2nd century AD—new bath buildings are added, but the productive side is also strengthened—and then the villa starts to slide into a phase of demolition and abandonment in the late 2nd and early 3rd century AD.
However, the villa of Le Colonne, which is nearby and shares enough structural details for some to have thought they were designed by the same architect, has a completely different phasing. There appears to be a break in the 1st century BC; another in the 1st century AD; and a third in the mid-3rd century. After each hiatus, however, the villa picks up, and it is still going in the 6th and 7th century AD, as is the settlement of Cosa. Cosa had a good Republican start, a solid Augustan period, and a vital Antonine phase, but in between are periods of decline. Turning the basement of the curia, where the local senate met, into a Mithraeum, looks like a pretty low moment for civic pride; but on the other hand the shrine of Bacchus seems never to have gone out of operation.
Consideration of other villas shows similar patterns; some came to a very determined close, and the early 3rd century was clearly tricky, but others continued successfully. Around Capena and Veii, there is little sign of a 3rd century crisis. The area between Tarquinia and Vulci also seems to have survived until the later imperial period. Constantine produced a decree encouraging the continuation of religious activity at Hispellum in Umbria, and allowing them to retain games there, which incidentally implies that the Fanum Voltumnae was still going strong (or had been revived). Near Cerveteri, Trajan founded a major port site called Centumcellae (now Civitavecchia). Inland his successor Hadrian built a substantial bath complex, the Terme Taurine (one of several 2nd century AD bath buildings), which may in fact have had an earlier Sullan phase, and which appears to have been functional when Rutilius Namatianus passed by in the 5th century—a remarkable degree of continuity (Figure 17). Elsewhere, decline was more visible. Late 2nd and early 3rd century Bologna was still prosperous, but by the mid-3rd century, both public and private building was disintegrating. In the countryside too there are signs of contraction.
17. 2nd century AD bath buildings near Cerveteri, showing the continued imperial investment and interest in Etruria
There seems no question that one of the major problems was that the new agricultural practices and the kinds of ownership which existed had not encouraged careful maintenance of irrigation channels, and this led to the resurgence of a problem long held in check—malaria. The earliest indications of malaria in Italy seem related to Gravisca on the coast of the Maremma. The area developed a bad reputation; Pliny the Younger avoided it. The problem continued until recently, and it is perhaps worth noting that one of the commonest later imperial finds is African red slip ware pottery. One can be infected with malaria by being bitten by a mosquito which has previously bitten someone infected in another country. The back and forth trade to Africa where the parasite plasmodium falciparum was widespread may have added to problems. It has recently been estimated that malaria may have been responsible for 60 per cent of the deaths in Grosseto in the 1840s, where figures happen to exist. Age-specific mortality was unusually high in the ages 5–9 and 20–50, as well as life expectancy being poor; in other words, malaria was having a disproportionate effect on age groups who might have been expected to fight off disease. The obvious question is why Etruria, especially coastal Etruria, flourished in the archaic period, to collapse in the later empire, and the answer may well lie in the simple failure to manage water drainage. The larger estates of the later empire were run in a way which may not have encouraged care. Absentee landowners, who avoided the areas in the more dangerous periods, and reliance on relatively disposable slave labour may simply not have encouraged proactive land management. Together with the increased African connection, the conditions were perfect for a resurgence of malaria, and consequent depopulation.
This will not have been universal. In AD 416, Rutilius Namatianus returned from Rome to his province and describes his coastal route along the shore of Etruria, where his father had once held an imperial position. He finds Pisa and Volterra on good form; but Gravisca was ‘oppressed by the stench of the marsh in summer’ and Cosa lay abandoned, its inhabitants allegedly having fled after an infestation of rats.
A whole range of factors in the 4th, 5th, and 6th centuries were transformative. The collapse of the Roman taxation system is part of the reason why the major trading patterns between Africa and the rest of the Mediterranean ground to a halt. There was a return to local production and local consumption. 8th century landholding patterns do not have any of the huge estates of the late Roman period. The most pressing concern may have been security. After the disasters of the 6th century, the Lombardic empire, Frankish conquest, and internal disputes made defensible sites highly attractive.
Two factors emerge in the late Roman and early medieval Etruscan world. The first is the church and the second is the phenomenon of incastellamento, the move uphill away from lowland villas to heights, often occupied by monasteries. Already in the 4th century we begin to see the development of church architecture in the old Etruscan centres. At Bologna, the baptistery, basilica, and episcopal palace date to the late 4th and early 5th century and overlie earlier buildings; similar palaeochristian buildings are found at Lucca, and a domus underlies the centre of Pistoia. At Pisa, traces of structures from the 5th century BC to the 5th century AD are found under the medieval city, and defining its perimeter and some of its streets, so one imagines a slow transformation. By contrast, although there are Roman finds under Arezzo, the town grid is completely different. Bishoprics are established by the 5th century at Tarquinia, Rosellae, and Sovana amongst other towns. The landscape of Etruria—now Toscana—was transformed into a landscape of production within a new set of power relations. There was still an element of competition for resource between the various ecclesiastical units, which used their position to secure territorial advantage, and in time, conspicuous consumption would become a factor in the construction of the great cathedrals.
The concentration of settlement in the old core areas with the garden perimeter coming inside the city walls is common, but there were also incomplete examples, leaving two settlements (Luni and Sarzano, Populonia and Piombino, Tarquinia and Corneto, Forum Cornelii and Imola). The difficulty of writing about this period is to find a balance and it is well illustrated by the current debate over the fall of the Roman empire—was it sudden and catastrophic, or gradual and characterized by continuity and transformation? The Tuscan countryside was not as prosperous or populous as it had been, but central Italy was still more urbanized and more in contact with its Roman past than much of western Europe, and it was still a world of towns with local administrations. Trade, industry (brick, iron, furniture, ceramics, glass), markets, often along the old Roman roads and taking advantage of Roman way stations, all continued, in the shadow of the omnipresent Roman ruins. Sites such as Spoleto in Umbria, Lucca, and Pisa found a new vocation as trading and manufacturing cities from the 7th and 8th century; many towns as early as the 6th century were beginning to mint gold coins again.
So incastellamento transformed the landscape by the steady shift uphill, but also probably enhanced the exploitation of resource, whilst the old towns, many of which saw decline but not abandonment, returned to popularity because of their highly defensible positions and the fundamentally city-based nature of Lombardic administration. Tuscany began to construct the landscape familiar to us today, of high, often ruinous churches and castles, and the great cities, whose medieval and subsequent architecture often overlies the Roman and Etruscan city beneath, leaving visible little more than the odd gateway, or the ancient tombs of the Etruscan necropoleis. These remains would inspire the continuing study of the Etruscans.