CHAPTER 3
The Romanization of Etruria

Letizia Ceccarelli

1. Introduction

The Romanization of Etruria can be explored in a number of different ways, but perhaps the most visible is through its material record, which reveals the cultural changes that transformed the Etruscan identity into a Roman one. Cato (Servius Commentarii in Vergilii Aeneidos libros 9.567), for example, recalls how almost the entirety of Italy was under the control of the Etruscans, and is supported by Livy (History of Rome 1.2: 5.33) who reports of their power from the Alps to Sicily. While the ancient sources must be understood within their context (see further, Chapters 20 and 21), they do reveal that the Etruscans controlled several areas. Their economic and political structure allowed for a profound influence on their neighboring populations. It was undoubtedly a multidirectional and reciprocal permeability, integration, and cultural domination – even in Rome. Yet, how did the Etruscans come to lose their political power to Rome? In this chapter, I discuss the military events as well as the political, social and economic processes that led to the incorporation of the Etruscans into the Roman state.

2. Roman Expansion

Historically, the beginning of the territorial expansion of Rome can be associated with the conquest of Veii in 396,¹ a military and political event that Roman sources later depicted as mythical, as with the victory over Troy after a 10-year siege. The crucial reason for the rise of Rome had been its control over the river mouth of the Tiber and the salt mines, but then Rome annexed the territory of Veii, estimated as being around 562 square kilometers.

During this period (in 390), the Gauls sacked Rome (Livy 5.50.3), and Caere gave shelter to the priests and the sacred symbols of Rome (the sacred fire) as well as the Vestal Virgins. In exchange, Rome granted the people of this major Etruscan city hospitium publicum, or the possibility of living in Rome with neither military nor tax duties. Given these diplomatic ties, Rome then annexed Caere as a civitas sine suffragio, granting its people Roman citizenship, with the exception of the power to vote in Rome for magistrates, with the municipium a status later given to many of Etruria’s conquered cities.

Following the Gallic sack, Rome created the colonies of both Sutri and Nepi, defined by Livy (6.9.4) as the gates of Etruria (claustra Etruriae). In turn, the inland Etruscan cities, with the exception of Arezzo (Livy 9.32.1), attempted to create a league against Rome. It was formed at a meeting of the Twelve Etruscan cities at Fanum Voltumnae, today identified with the site of Campo della Fiera, near Orvieto (Stopponi 2011 and 2013; see further, Chapter 9). The list was never recorded by the ancient sources, which only cite the later addition of Populonia (Servius Commentarii in Vergilii Aeneidos libros 10.172). In 358, the city of Tarquinia, allied with the Faliscans and with Caere, declared war against Rome. This ended in 351 with a 40-year truce, during which time Rome was engaged in defeating the southern populations, including the Latins, Volscans, and Samnites.

In 311, an Etruscan army occupied Sutri, but Rome reestablished its power a year later. This led to Rome’s expansion into the upper Tiber Valley and Umbria, including the creation of the Latin colony of Narnia-Nequinum in 299, while it formed treaties with Cortona, Arezzo, and Perugia and renewed the truce with Tarquinia for 40 years. It was not until the early third century that a coalition of Gauls, Samnites, Etruscans, and Umbrians challenged the power of Rome but they were subsequently defeated in 295 at Sentinum. This event marks the end of the Etruscans’ political power: Rome embarked on a recurrent strategy of conquering each of Etruria’s cities and ravaging their territory. In 294, for example, the Romans devastated the territory of Volsinii and conquered Roselle. A treaty for 40 years was granted to Volsinii, Arezzo and Perugia in exchange for a payment of a large sum of money. In 283, following a Gallic invasion in the territory of Arezzo and the defeat of the Roman army, the Roman colony of Sena Gallica was established. Later, P. Tiberius Coruncanius conquered Vulci and Volsinii (in 280).

The final event of the Roman conquest of Etruria was the defiance of Caere in 274–273 when, according to Dio Cassius (Historiae Romanae fr. 33), the confiscation of half of the city’s territory led to the founding of the maritime colonies of Alsium (247), Fregenae (245), Pyrgi and Castrum Novum (264). After the rebellion of Volsinii in 265, the city was destroyed and the town was relocated next to Lake Bolsena. Similar treatment was applied to the Faliscan city of Falerii Veteres in 241, as recalled by Zonaras (Epitome Historiarum 8.18): a new town, called in the modern literature Falerii Novi, was built along the route of the via Flaminia. Another crucial event took place in 265: the Romans pillaged the federal Etruscan sanctuary of Fanum Voltumnae in the territory of Volsinii, one of the meeting places of the Etruscan League, which was then dissolved. According to Pliny (Natural History 34.16.34), the conquering general, Marcus Fulvius Flaccus, took 2000 bronze statues from the site to Rome as booty, dedicating some of them in the temples of Fortuna and Mater Matuta in the Forum Boarium.

In addition, the list of cults introduced in Rome in the third century reveals that the establishment of a new cult reflected the Roman domination of the territory of the deity’s origin. Thus, the evocatio of Juno Regina from Veii in 396 marked the Roman victory over the city. Gods from other subdued cities were also evoked: Vertumnus-Voltumna from Volsinii (264) and Minerva Capta from Falerii (241). Accordingly, all the Etruscan cities came under the political control of Rome but only in 89, with the end of the Social War, did their inhabitants become Roman citizens with full rights.

3. Roman Infrastructures: Roads and Centuriation

Results from several surveys in Etruria, such as in the territory of Volterra, the Albegna Valley, Tuscania, Cerveteri (ancient Caere), Veii and the Tiber Valley (Barker and Rasmussen 1988; Terrenato 1998; Hemphill 2000; Carandini and Cambi 2002; Patterson 2004; Cascino, di Giuseppe and Patterson 2012) reveal that the period of Romanization was not characterized by a dramatic change in the occupation of landscape as is suggested from historical accounts. In contrast, the archaeological data suggest an intensification of landscape exploitation from the third century, with many rural settlements. This pattern fits into the land-ownership structure and social structure of the Etruscan elites, who maintained their social and economic control despite the political changes. It is also reflected in the presence of rural aristocratic villas (for example, Selvasecca (near Blera) and Giardino Vecchio (near Cosa), see also Becker 2013), as well as the specificity of local responses to external factors that impacted on the landscape, such as the road networks and land division (on the Etruscan landscape see Chapter 4).

The phenomenon of colonization aimed both to extend the territory of Rome and to place strategic garrisons in key areas. Their network served to guard crucial points of the frontier and the lines of communication, as well as to increase the presence of Roman and Latin citizens. Together with the construction of a road system that connected these colonies, many scholars (e.g., Liverani 2011) interpret this as forming part of Rome’s conquest strategy.

The existing Etruscan road network was efficient in connecting the cities and was used extensively by the Romans in the early stages of their conquest. However, when it was no longer sufficient, between the second half of the third and the first half of the second centuries, Rome created a new framework of paved roads that crossed Etruria in order to conduct efficient military operations in the recently conquered areas (Figure 3.1). Although there is a lack of precise information from both the ancient sources and the archaeological record, it is clear that they made use of the Etruscan road system (Liverani 2011). The via Aurelia, the first Roman road to be built, runs parallel to the Tyrrhenian coast towards the north, and was constructed in either 241 or 144. It linked the new colonies along the coast but did not include the old centers of Caere, Tarquinia, Vulci, and Populonia, which were approached by side-roads (diverticula).

Figure 3.1 Map of Roman colonies and roads in Etruria.

Drawing: Camporeale 1992: 103.

Constructed in 220, the via Flaminia reached the Adriatic coast by crossing both Etruscan and Umbrian territory. The via Clodia connected Tuscania, Vulci, and Cosa and was joined by the Cassia just outside Rome, which was probably built in the first half of the second century. The latter led to Bolsena, Chiusi, Cortona, Arezzo, and Pisa. Along these routes small functional centers were created: these include Forum Cassii, a praefectura in the territory of Tarquinia, Forum Aurelii in the territory of Vulci, and Forum Clodii in the territory of Caere. This road network had a dual function: not only did it serve the Roman military but it also allowed the conquerors to exert a new economic control over the territory, shifting the power from the Etruscan cities located at a distance from these roads. As a result, the latter slowly declined in favor of newly created Roman towns.

The Romans punished the conquered southern Etruscan cities by confiscating part of their territory and imposing a new land division related to new settlements or colonies. Centuriation – the regular division of land in a layout of square grids – was the method used to parcel out the territory. Rome applied this method extensively in Italy, although perhaps less so in Etruria due to its undulating landscape. Nevertheless, surveys in the territory of Vulci have revealed centuriation plots around the colonies of Cosa and Heba (Figure 3.2).

Figure 3.2 Map showing centuriation plots around the Roman colonies of Cosa and Heba, third – second century BCE.

Drawing: Barker and Rasmussen 1998, 2000, fig. 105, p. 270. Reproduced with permission of John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

4. Roman Colonies

The practice of the foundation of colonies in Etruscan territory by Rome was very limited in the third century, due to extensive prior urban development by the Etruscans and a policy of alliances with the ruling elites of their cities (on foundation rituals see Chapter 7). For instance, only one colony, Cosa, was founded (in 273) in the territory of Vulci – although it was inhabited by at least 2500 settlers and their families (Barker and Rasmussen 1998).

Rome reorganized the Etruscan cities under its control and gave them different administrative statuses such as civitates foederatae; also created were both Latin colonies, and, from the first half of the second century on, Roman ones. The previously mentioned maritime colonies in the territory of Caere were small settlements devoted to the control of the coast, with 300 settlers/soldiers and families, as Rome built the naval power that resulted in the first Punic war. In the second century, several other colonies were founded, including Gravisca (181) in the territory of Tarquinia, Saturnia (183) in the territory of Vulci, Heba in the inland of Talamone, and Lucca (180) in the territory of Pisa, a Latin colony set up in order to protect the city from the Ligurians. It is clear that Rome’s focus was on the total control of the coast, with smaller settlements and more substantial colonies in the Albegna and Tiber valleys.

The foundation of these colonies was not only intended to serve strategic aims but also to ease social and economic tensions in the Roman state. In a Latin colony, land was distributed among 2500 to 6000 adult males, who in return gave up their Roman citizenship in exchange for larger land allotments. In the territory of Vulci, which was defeated in 280 by the consul T. Coruncianus, the colony of Cosa was built, three years later, to the northwest of the city adjacent to the coast. Traditionally the colony, with its regular layout (e.g., Brown 1980), is interpreted as a smaller version of Rome itself, with a public space – a forum – and a temple dedicated to the Roman state gods, the Capitolium. However, such a canonical interpretation of the replication of Rome has been deconstructed with an argument using material culture and cults (Bispham 2006). Architectural terracottas and the reinterpretation of the so-called auguraculum on the acropolis of Cosa reveal the existence of a small third-century temple, contemporary to the foundation of the colony, that was rebuilt in the form of the still-standing Capitolium only in the early second century (Taylor 2002).

Colonization, therefore, was the political program of Rome’s expansion: the conquest of a territory and the assignment of that territory as the property of the Roman people to citizens by means of a process of land division and assignation of plots. Cultural Romanization can therefore be understood as the creation of a network of cities in the Etruscan territories that were subject to Roman law and institutions, and where Latin was the official language.

The Etruscan integration into the Roman cultural and political system was a complex process that had two major parts. On the one hand, the local elites deliberately chose integration as a way of maintaining their privileges and control over the poorer population. On the other hand, the colonies introduced the ideology of Rome, with many of its features, both political and religious.

5. Political Changes

Along with implementing a new military and colonial system, Roman control over Etruria benefited from the static nature of the Etruscans’ social structure, which lacked the dynamism of Roman society. In Etruria, a ruling elite held the power, dominating a lower, plebeian class, a system somewhat similar to the Roman clients and slaves but without the latter’s practice of manumission. On several occasions the sources refer to revolts in Etruscan cities where the ruling classes sought the help of Rome (Liverani 2011). One such example is Arezzo in 302 (Livy 10.3–5), while in Volsinii (Zonara 8.7.4–8) the plebeian rebellion led to the destruction of the city by Rome.

Generally, for Rome, alliances with the Etruscan ruling elites were very useful as the elites kept the cities loyal and maintained their power within those cities with the help of Rome. The integration of the Etruscan aristocracies into the Roman world took several forms. Firstly, at an economic level, there was the introduction of coinage based on Roman measures, such as at Tarquinia, Volterra and probably at Chiusi (Liverani 2011). Secondly, at an ideological level, there was the adoption of forms of personal celebration in a Roman style. Clear examples are the bronze statues with votive and celebratory function, such as the Arringatore (the Orator) dated to the late second century and discovered near Perugia. The man commemorated, Aule Metele (as the incised Etruscan inscription identifies him), is represented in the typical Roman attire for an oration, with the tunic and the toga (the exigua praetexta) leaving the right shoulder bare.

Identities, especially in the context of Etruscan cities, were both projected and perceived, and were undoubtedly constantly evolving and shaped by the elites, leading to the existence of multiple identities (cf. Warden 2013). In the sixth century, there was a strong sense of elite identity among the members of the upper class, and the community identified closely with its leading members. By the time of the Social War, the distinctions between ethnic groups had been absorbed by a Roman identity, but Etruscan aristocratic families still maintained their political power by having representatives in the Senate. The public and religious underground complex excavated at Caere, first by Cristofani in the 1980s and more recently by Queen’s University (Ontario, Canada) at the Vigna Marini Vitalini (Torelli 2000), offers further evidence of the profound political control of Rome and the inclusion of the Etruscan cities in its sphere. This templum sub terrae for the cult of the Lares Publici was decorated with paintings, and included an inscription that recalls the dedicator, the Roman praetor G. Genucius Clepsina, who was consul between 276 and 270. This complex, therefore, represents another indication of the elite Etruscan families’ ability to exert their power with Roman support.

6. Romanization as Latinization

One crucial element that marked the control of Rome over Etruria was the change of language from Etruscan to Latin (on the Etruscan language see Chapter 14). As early as the second century, several inscriptions of legislation on bronze tables were written in Latin, for instance at Chiusi (CIL I².597), while by the first century many funerary inscriptions were bilingual, and the latest Etruscan inscriptions can be dated to the Augustan and early Julio-Claudian periods. This process varied according to different areas: at Caere, for example, the transition towards Latin had already begun in the third century: half the family names (gentilicia) had Latin origins. In Tarquinia, in the same period, this phenomenon was much less common, while the transition to bilingual inscriptions was especially slow in rural areas (Liverani 2011).

The official language in Etruria became Latin with the Social War, when, in 90, the Senate decreed Roman citizenship without any penalties to their loyal allies, among whom were the Etruscans. During the civil war between Marius and Sulla, the Etruscans’ support for Marius resulted in Sulla’s strong revenge, according to the sources, against Arezzo, Chiusi, Populonia, and Volterra. Roselle, Talamone, and Vetulonia were also devastated, judging by the levels of destruction identified in the excavations. Sulla further punished Etruria by confiscating land for his veterans and by establishing colonies in Fiesole, Arezzo, Volterra, and Chiusi, with many Etruscans forced away from their territory, as recounted by Strabo (5.2.6) writing about the survivors of Volterra. In northern Etruria, Caesar also created minor settlements in Volterra and Arezzo in addition to establishing colonies at Veii, Capena, Lucus Feroniae and Castrum Novum on the coast. Finally, in the division of regions made by Augustus, Etruria became Region VII and its elite was completely integrated into the Roman political system.

The politics of colonization are thought by many scholars to have started in the mid-Republican period, although the canonical interpretation of the replication of Rome has been deconstructed by an interesting argument using material culture and cults (Bispham 2006). Nonetheless, when looking at the longue durée of cultural changes, “Romanization” found direct expression in monumental buildings, constructed with a consistent artistic language by local elites imitating and embracing the fashion of their conquerors (Wallace-Hadrill 2008). This was a case of imitation rather than the embrace of another identity, as the dialectic between Roman and non-Roman only ceased to exist after the Social War.

7. The Hellenistic Gods

Sacred architecture and material culture played a crucial role in shaping the social and political identity of the Etruscan cities. The canonical characteristics of a temple, with some variations in plan (Tuscan, as defined by Vitruvius 4.7.1–2) developed after 580: a pronaos, the vestibule with columns, the antae, prolonging the side walls of the cella, and a podium, serving to raise the building from the ground, which was approached by an axial flight of steps. The physical appearance of a temple is an important part of the creation and transmission of meaning, as the erection or rebuilding of a temple and the quality of its architectural decorations had a number of implications, both religious and political – coinciding frequently with important historical events (see further, Chapter 12).

In the Hellenistic period, from the fourth century on, two artistic styles can be identified in Etruria: Pergamene and Attic. These can be seen in the production of architectural terracottas and cinerary urns, whose mythological subjects frequently contained themes from the Theban cycle.

One of the consequences of the Roman conquest of Etruria was the renovation or new construction of temples between the end of the third and the first half of the second centuries. The style of their sculptures was strongly influenced by the art of Pergamon, which developed in the northern centers with the creation of roof and pediment decorations in the sanctuaries of Populonia, Talamone, Sovana, Vulci, Chianciano, Fiesole, Volterra, and Arezzo (see e.g., Holliday 2009). To the south of the site at Chianciano, for example, in an area known as I Fucoli, a temple has been excavated near a thermal spring. Its roof, dated to the mid-second century, was decorated with several iconographic themes, with a suggested Pergamene influence, including Herakles, Laomedon, and Telephos. The best-preserved terracotta is an acroterion portraying a winged female deity holding a kantharos, the typical symbol of Dionysos. In the period of the complete control of Etruria by Rome, themes with an assembly of gods were represented, but other iconographic themes still coexisted. Other artistic themes that continued to be popular include, for instance, the myth of the “Seven against Thebes,” which was the subject of the high-relief pediment at Talamone (see Figure 24.3) created during the mid-first century (Simon 2013 (see also Chapter 26).

Dionysian themes and cults were also very popular at the beginning of the second century in Etruria, as illustrated by the terracotta throne discovered in a domus at Poggio Moscini near Bolsena (e.g., see Jolivet 2013). The widespread diffusion of such cults, especially among the middle and lower classes in Etruria, was a potential threat to the aristocratic families in the Senate, who intervened for the first time in 186 on religious matters, outlawing all the Bacchic cults and cult places in Italy.

8. Religion

Etruscan religion, as well as Roman, was a scrupulous performance of a set of rules; it can be defined as a “ritualistic religion,” where rituals and sacrifices were aimed to maintain harmony with gods, and to restore that order when it was disrupted. Therefore, knowledge of the gods and their will were crucial concepts, with understanding and the maintenance of proper relations gained through the correct performance of different operations or rituals. Another important feature of Etruscan and Roman religion was its votive character. It was customary at all social levels to make a vow to a deity in return for the fulfilment of the request (see further, Chapter 18).

Over 200 Etruscan sanctuaries are characterized by votive offerings, of which 130 votive deposits contain heads, statues, and anatomical models. They are molded, wheel- or hand-made, and dated between the fourth and second centuries. The tradition of anatomical offerings was influenced by the Greek cult of Asclepius at Corinth, where such votives were offered, especially upper and lower limbs. Anatomical votives served as either offerings of thanks or objects of supplication in request for divine attention to the body part represented. The social context in which these cults were developed was generally the countryside, where the health of both humans and animals was fundamental for survival. The origins of rural sanctuaries and their cults focused on the benefit of fields and animals, although healing cults could also be found in cities, as documented in Caere at the Manganello temple.

Religion played an integral part in Rome’s conquest strategy, as it reflected patterns of life and had socioeconomic implications. The sudden increase in the number of votive terracotta deposits in Etruscan and Italic societies has been associated with the Roman expansion in Italy (De Cazanove 2000). Recent studies have related the diffusion of the ritual of the dedication of heads (from the sixth century when under Greek influence) to social changes within Etruscan and southern Italic societies (Gentili 2005; Glinister 2006). According to this interpretation, Rome was part of this area of influence in a relatively late phase from the fourth century onwards. The dramatic decline of votive terracottas at the end of second century could mark the complete shift in Roman religious hegemony, with different forms of worship. Moreover, it is possible to make the assumption that the decline of the phenomenon of the production of votive terracottas was also connected with a demographic decline related to the changing patterns of rural settlements, as a consequence of the Punic wars. Rome required continuous manpower from the colonies and its allies during this long period of war. This had the consequence of removing a part of the population from the countryside, initiating a long-term process that led, during the second century, to economic and social transformations, as attested by the analysis of sites and material culture patterns in the Tiber Valley. Söderlind (2002) suggested that the decline in the quality and quantity of the votive deposits may be related to the reduced social and economic status of the worshippers. Moreover, the growth in the number of large estates of wealthy landowners possibly encouraged a rejection of these plebeian cults.

9. Funerary Iconography

Confrontations with Rome become a central theme even in the funerary iconography of the Etruscan aristocracy. An example is the painting in the so-called François Tomb at Vulci, the hypogeum of the family of Saties, dated to around 340. The tomb depicts the saga of Servius Tullius who killed Tarquinius Priscus, and a saga of the Vibenna brothers, national Etruscan heroes, represented alongside the myth of Achilles killing the Trojans on the pyre of Patroclus. This dual representation of the Trojan War and the local aristocracy fighting against Rome is clearly referring to contemporary events (see also Chapter 25).

The tension within Etruscan society at this time is also reflected in the conception of the afterlife, the banquet that, in the Archaic period, symbolized the perpetuation of the “dies faustus.” In the Hellenistic period, the banquet is instead related to the departure to Hades. A contrast between life and afterlife and its liminal state – the journey accompanied by funerary demons – is represented on many Hellenistic urns.

At Tarquinia several tombs in the necropolis of Monterozzi offer examples of late Etruscan funerary iconography (Figure 3.3) (Serra Ridgway 2000). The tombs date to around 300, some with later alterations but generally used for two or three generations of the same family, along with a second-century reoccupation followed by another in the Augustan or Julio-Claudian period. The inscriptions reveal that the first occupants were all freeborn Etruscans while the Imperial-period burials are of slave origins. The architecture and the tomb assemblages, after the early third century, decline, with a period of regrowth in the second century and the total abandonment of the Monterozzi necropolis during the first century. Distinguishing features of the late, painted tombs of Tarquinia are representations of demons guarding the door to Hades: the subjects include Vanth with a burning torch, Charun with snake and keys, and Tuchulcha, the winged demon, carrying the mallet used to bolt and unbolt the gates. This imagery has been traditionally interpreted as showing a sense of pessimism on the part of the Etruscan elite on the impending loss of their political independence (Turfa 2006b). However, even if it does not represent a reflection of a sense of hopelessness, there is an evident change in their funerary ideology (see also, Chapter 26).

Figure 3.3 Charun and Vanth, from the entrance wall of the Tomb of the Anina Family, third century BCE. Fresco. From Tarquinia.

Photo: © 2015. DeAgostini Picture Library/Scala, Florence.

A further cultural change after the Roman conquest of Etruria was the sharpened social gender distinction and hierarchy between men and women, reflected by the male and female figures reclining on sarcophagi or urn lids, such as those found at Volterra. Men are often represented with a patera or rhyton, drinking vessels used in rituals, while women are shown with a fan or a pomegranate, and a drinking vessel only in the case of a priestess. This can be seen as a reflection of the exclusively male participation in religious rituals (Jolivet 2013). Such social changes are further indicated by the cessation of the custom, dating from the Orientalizing period, of indicating the matronymic (the family name of the mother) in funerary inscriptions. Matronymics ceased being recorded during the second century (on family names see further, Chapter 14).

10. The Revival of the Etruscans

The complete integration of Etruria into the Roman sphere came about when Augustus created Region VII, which, as recorded by Pliny (Natural History 3.8–9), was formed of 54 communities and 27 colonies and recreated the Etruscan League that held religious festivals at the Fanum Voltumnae. During the Julio-Claudian period, the original League of the Twelve Etruscan cities was extended to include Populonia and Pisa, and its importance is documented by a marble relief discovered at Caere, probably part of an altar dated to 49 CE belonging to the local Augusteum. It depicts the founding heroes of the Etruscan cities of Vetulonia, Vulci, and Tarquinia.

However, a substantial role in Augustus’s strategy to unify Italy culturally was played by Etruria, especially in the religious and ritual sphere with the Etrusca disciplina, a body of religious rules that led at least one Roman (Livy 5.1.7) to characterize the Etruscans as the most religious of all people. Festus (p. 358), in the second century CE, also quotes Verrius Flaccus who, at the time of Augustus, wrote the Libri rerum etruscarum which referred to Etruscan ritual books that are now lost.

The Emperor Claudius, in his speech to the Senate in 47 CE (Tacitus Annals 11.15), not only described the Etruscan religious discipline as the most ancient in Italy, but he also proposed reforms to the order of the haruspices (Etruscan diviners practicing in Rome), which had been created in the late Republican or early Augustan period. His proposal is also recalled by a marble inscription from the area of the Ara della Regina temple with its list of the Ordo LX haruspicum, the order of the 60 haruspices. Such traditions continued until the early fifth century CE, as described in a passage by the historian Zosimos (Historia Nova 5.41.1) when Alaric besieged Rome:

Pompeianus, the prefect of the city, accidentally met with some persons who were come to Rome from Tuscany, and related that a town called Neveia had delivered itself from extreme danger, the Barbarians having been repulsed from it by storms of thunder and lightning, which was caused by the devotion of its inhabitants to the gods, in the ancient mode of worship. Having discoursed with these men, he performed all that was in his power according to the books of the chief priests.

In the early Imperial period, there were several members of the Roman Senate and elites with Etruscan ancestry, such as Gaius Maecenas, and Urgulania, a friend of Augustus’ wife, Livia, who had privileges similar to members of the Imperial family (Tacitus Annals 2.34, 4.21–22). Urgulania’s granddaughter, Plautia Urgulanilla, married Claudius in 24 CE. The importance of celebrating one’s Etruscan origins is further documented by the so-called Corsini throne, which was discovered in 1732 in the villa of the Plautii Laterani, a wealthy family. Dated to the first century CE, this marble throne not only imitates Orientalizing bronze thrones but also retains the memory of an important Etruscan symbol of power.

11. Conclusion

This chapter illustrates how the Romanization of Etruria can be explored through a number of themes and how the process is documented in the material record. Several military, political, social and economic events contributed to the incorporation of the Etruscans into the Roman state. Beginning with the conquest of Veii in 396, Rome gained power regionally over the area of Etruria through its control of the river Tiber, the salt mines and the establishment of colonies at key positions, such as at the “gates of Etruria,” Sutri and Nepi. This process continued until 274–273 when Rome conquered Caere, thus bringing southern Etruria under Roman influence.

Correspondingly, the Romans consolidated their influence through the enlargement of the road network, using both the existing Etruscan roads while adding their own in order to connect newly founded colonies and to facilitate the rapid movement of the military. A large number of these colonies were founded along the coastline in order to support and further extend Rome’s control along the coast. Elsewhere, Rome also sought to consolidate its power through political and social methods, best illustrated through its alliances with the ruling Etruscan elite. In the archaeological record, the Romanization of Etruria appears most vividly through sacred and funerary architecture and material culture, such as the famous statue of the Arringatore. A range of methods, therefore, led to the process of “Romanization” in Etruria. Complete integration into the Roman sphere, however, only came about at the time of Augustus, when the Etruscan language was abandoned; nevertheless, certain Etruscan rituals remained throughout the Imperial period.

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12. Bruun, C., ed. 2000. The Roman Middle Republic. Politics, Religion, and Historiography, c. 400 – 133 B.C. Rome.
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17. Cateni, G., ed. 2007. Gli Etruschi di Volterra. Milan.
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28. Gentili, M. D. 2005. “Riflessioni sul fenomeno storico dei depositi votivi di tipo etrusco-laziale-campano.” In A. Comella and S. Mele, eds., 367–378.
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GUIDE TO FURTHER READING

The majority of general publications concerning the Etruscans cover the period of the Romanization of Etruria, including: Barker and Rasmussen 1998; Camporeale 2000; Haynes 2000; Torelli 2001; Torelli and Moretti Sgubini 2008; Bartoloni 2011; Turfa 2013. On political Romanization: Jolivet 2013; Launaro 2011; Liverani 2011; Munzi 2001; Torelli 2014; Wallace-Hadrill 2008. For the evidence of survey and landscape studies: Barker and Rasmussen 1988; Carandini and Cambi 2002; Cascino et al. 2012; Cifani 2003, 2013; Hemphill 2000; Sisani 2008; Terrenato 1998, 2001; Patterson 2004; Patterson, Di Giuseppe and Witcher 2004. On funerary ideology: Haumesser 2014; Maggiani 2007; Nielsen 2013; Serra Ridgway 2000; Torelli 2001. On Fanum Voltumnae: Stopponi 2011, 2013. On religion: De Cazanove 2000; Gentili 2005; Gleba and Becker 2009; Glinister 2006; Söderlind 2002; Turfa 2006a, 2006b. On Cosa and Roman colonization: Bispham 2006; Brown 1951, 1980; Brown, Richardson and Richardson 1960; Fentress 2000; Taylor 2002.

NOTE

1 All dates are BCE unless otherwise noted.