The Etruscans are the mysterious predecessors of Rome. The influence of the Etruscan culture on the ancient Roman civilization The influence of the Etruscan culture on the culture of Rome

Roman culture of the early era developed on a local, Latin basis, but was influenced by more cultured peoples, first of all the Greeks, and then the Etruscans.

The Romans spoke Latin, which was enriched by Greek and Etruscan words. Maybe. Already in the VIII century. BC e. they used writing. Ancient authors tell about this, but no written monuments of this time have been preserved. The oldest Latin inscription dates from the end of VII. BC e. The Latin alphabet developed on the basis of the Greek, but the Etruscans participated in the transmission of the Greek written tradition.

In IV BC. e. stage games were introduced in Rome in the image of the Etruscans performed by professional artists - histrions, as well as demonstrations of one-act plays, atellanes, invented by the Campanians and named after the Campanian city of Atella.

Until now, scientists have not revealed many of the mysteries of the Etruscans. It is not known where this people came from to Italy, what race they belonged to. Many of the inscriptions on the monuments could not be deciphered, although the Etruscans used the Greek alphabet.

The heyday of the Etruscan culture came at a time when the archaic era reigned in Greece. Etruria was then a strong maritime power, and its inhabitants were excellent sailors and wars. Rome was initially ruled by the Etruscan kings, although they were soon driven back by the Romans. But even after Etruria was conquered by Rome, and its population mixed with the Roman, Etruscan culture was of great importance for a long time.

An idea of ​​the architecture of this state is given mainly by the necropolises that archaeologists discovered near the cities of Etruria - Vertulonia, Cera, Populonia, Vulci, etc. The cities of the dead, consisting of many majestic tombs, played no less a role for the Etruscans than for the ancient Egyptians.

Most of the Etruscan tombs were found in the 19th century, and not by professional archaeologists, but by amateurs and treasure hunters. So, Father Regolini and General Galassi discovered one of the most interesting burials in Caere. The tomb is a construction of slabs hewn from tuff, in the form of a long corridor with a vault in the form of a pyramid. Two round chambers are attached to its middle one. When they entered the tomb, they saw on the couch the body of a woman in rich clothes. On the vessels standing nearby, the researchers read her name - Lartia. Unfortunately, the air that entered the room with them instantly reduced Lartia's body to dust.

The Etruscan tombs had a round shape: in ancient times, the circle symbolized the sky. The ceiling of the tomb was a vault formed by rows of stones hanging over each other. Although such a false vault did not actually rest on the walls, it was quite strong. Therefore, it is not entirely clear for what purpose a pillar was placed in the middle of the burial chamber in many tombs. Perhaps it had a symbolic meaning, representing the so-called cosmic axis, connecting heavenly space with the earthly and underground.

The proximity to the Egyptian culture is also indicated by the shape of many tombs, which are heaped mounds, vaguely reminiscent of the pyramids of the Egyptian pharaohs.

Unfortunately, not a single temple built by the Etruscans has survived. Unlike tombs, they were built of brick - mud or wood, so they could not be durable. But what these temples looked like is known: they had a square shape and were surrounded by columns on three sides. The Etruscan temple stood on a podium. Through the portico, the entrance to three temple premises was opened simultaneously. At the heart of such structures was an order called Tuscan or Etruscan. It was a variant of the Doric order but, unlike the latter, had more massive proportions and base.

The Italian type of residential building is associated with the traditions of Etruscan architecture. Its compositional center is the atrium - a large hall with a rectangular hole in the center of the ceiling.

The roof of the Etruscan temple was decorated with brightly painted terracotta masks of satyrs, silenes, maenads, Medusa the Gorgon. They were intended to scare away evil spirits - evil spirits and demons that could enter the temple.

Unlike Greek, Roman temples had a more stable and durable appearance. They were not as elegant and beautiful as the Greek ones: probably, the Etruscans attached more importance to what was inside, and not outside. The gods of Etruria were divided into several triads, the main among them was the triad consisting of Tinia, Uni and Menerva, analogous to Zeus, Hera and Athena in Greece and Jupiter, Juno and Minerva in Rome.

It was the Etruscans who created the first Roman temple, which the inhabitants of Ancient Rome considered their main shrine - the temple of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva on the Capitol. It was built from short-lived materials, so the Romans were constantly renovating it. Nevertheless, the building stood intact for quite a long time, until the 5th century BC. n. e., when the leader of the vandals Genseric tore off part of its gilded roof from the temple.

Thanks to the Etruscans, the Romans also had an emblem - a statue of the legendary she-wolf who nurtured the founders of the Great Empire - Romulus and Remus. Talented Etruscan masters cast it in bronze.

Etruscan cities have not yet been excavated. But it is known that the inhabitants of Etruria were one of the first among other peoples to begin to create cities with a regular layout. The Etruscans had excellent engineering skills. They built bridges, arches, roads. The gates, which played a huge role in the life of the Etruscans, speak of their architectural talents: they were the completion of the fortress walls and protected from the invasion of strangers. Such is the gate called the Arch of Augustus in Perugia. Above the space of the arch between the columns there are shields - symbols of the sky.

The period when talented craftsmen - the Etruscans built a temple on the Capitoline Hill and created a bronze she-wolf, was the final one in their history. By this time, the former power of Etruria remained in the past. The nearness of the end was also reflected in art, more gloomy and tragic than before. The tombs, as before, looked like the dwellings of the living - houses with household items, clothes, weapons. But now these things have become simply fake, they cannot be picked up, separated from the walls with which they form a single whole.

By the 3rd century BC. most of the cities of Etruria were already under the rule of Rome. The Romans settled the lands where the Etruscans had lived since ancient times, gradually mixing with the Roman population and forgetting their language.

Etruscans and their influence on Roman civilization.

The Etruscans are considered the creators of the first developed civilization on the Apennine Peninsula, whose achievements, long before the Roman Republic, include large cities with remarkable architecture, fine metalwork, ceramics, painting and sculpture, an extensive drainage and irrigation system, an alphabet, and later coinage. Perhaps the Etruscans were aliens from across the sea; their first settlements in Italy were flourishing communities located in the central part of its western coast, in an area called Etruria (approximately the territory of the modern.
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Tuscany and Lazio). The ancient Greeks knew the Etruscans under the name of Tyrrhenians (or Tyrsenes), and the part of the Mediterranean Sea between the Apennine Peninsula and the islands of Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica was called (and is called now) the Tyrrhenian Sea, since Etruscan sailors dominated here for several centuries. The Romans called the Etruscans Tusks (hence the modern.
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Tuscany) or the Etruscans, the Etruscans themselves called themselves Rasna or Rasenna. In the era of their highest power, ca. 7th-5th centuries BC, the Etruscans extended their influence to a significant part of the Apennine Peninsula, up to the foothills of the Alps in the north and the environs of Naples in the south. Rome also submitted to them. Everywhere their dominance brought with it material prosperity, large-scale engineering projects, and achievements in the field of architecture. According to tradition, in Etruria there was a confederation of twelve basic city-states, united in a religious and political union. These almost certainly included Ceres (modern.
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Cerveteri), Tarquinia (modern.
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Tarquinius), Vetulonia, Veii and Volaterra (modern.
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Volterra) - all directly on the coast or near it, as well as Perusia (modern Perugia), Cortona, Volsinia (modern.
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Orvieto) and Arretius (modern.
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Arezzo) in the interior of the country. Other important cities include Vulci, Clusius (modern.
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Chiusi), Falerii, Populonia, Rusella and Fiesole.

Origin of the Etruscans

In the 7th century BC e. the peoples who inhabited Etruria mastered writing. Since they wrote in the Etruscan language, it is legitimate to call the region and the people by the names mentioned above. At the same time, there is no exact evidence proving any one of the theories about the origin of the Etruscans. Two versions are most common: according to one of them, the Etruscans come from Italy, according to the other, this people migrated from the Eastern Mediterranean. Added to the ancient theories is the modern suggestion that the Etruscans migrated from the north.

In favor of the second theory are the works of Herodotus, which appeared in the 5th century BC. e. According to Herodotus, the Etruscans are from Lydia, a region in Asia Minor, - Tyrrhens or Tyrsenes, forced to leave their homeland due to terrible famine and crop failure. According to Herodotus, this happened almost simultaneously with the Trojan War. Hellanicus from the island of Lesbos mentioned the legend of the Pelasgians who arrived in Italy and became known as Tyrrhenians. At that time, the Mycenaean civilization collapsed and the Hittite empire fell, that is, the appearance of the Tyrrhenes should be dated to the 13th century BC, or a little later. Perhaps this legend is connected with the myth of the escape to the west of the Trojan hero Aeneas and the founding of the Roman state, which was of great importance to the Etruscans.

Supporters of the autochthonous version of the origin of the Etruscans identified them with the earlier culture of Villanova discovered in Italy. A similar theory was set forth in the 1st century BC. e. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, but the arguments given by him are doubtful. Archaeological excavations show a continuity from the culture of Villanova I through the culture of Villanova II with the importation of goods from the eastern Mediterranean and Greece until the Orientalizing period, when the first evidence of Etruscan manifestations in Etruria arises. Today, the Villanova culture is associated not with the Etruscans, but with the Italics.

Up to the middle of the 20th century. The ʼʼLydian versionʼʼ was subjected to serious criticism, especially after the decipherment of the Lydian inscriptions - their language had nothing to do with Etruscan. At the same time, according to modern ideas, the Etruscans should not be identified with the Lydians, but with the more ancient, pre-Indo-European population of the west of Asia Minor, known as the ʼʼProtoluviansʼʼʼ or ʼʼpeoples of the seaʼʼ.

According to A. I. Nemirovsky, the intermediate point for the migration of the Etruscans from Asia Minor to Italy was Sardinia, where from the 15th century BC. e. there was a very similar to the Etruscans, but an unwritten culture of the Nuraghe builders.

Etruscans and their influence on Roman civilization. - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "Etruscans and their influence on Roman civilization." 2017, 2018.

The people who inhabited the lands of modern Italian Tuscany a little more than two thousand years ago, calling themselves "Rasen", left traces of a surprisingly rapid flowering, and also many unexplained mysteries. The lack of written and material historical evidence, a significant time period separating modernity from the era of the Etruscans do not yet allow a thorough study of the life of representatives of this civilization, but it is known that the Etruscans had a very noticeable influence on the ancient peoples, and on the modern world.

The rise and fall of the Etruscan civilization

The civilization of Villanova, the first of the Iron Age cultures in Italy, is considered by a number of scientists to be an early stage in the existence of the Etruscans, while others deny the continuity between the two cultures, recognizing the version of the expulsion of the representatives of Villanova by the Etruscans.
The origin of the Etruscans is one of the questions that have caused controversy among historians since ancient times. So, Herodotus claimed that these people came to the Apennines from Asia Minor - this version is still the most popular.

Titus Livy assumed that the homeland of the Etruscans was the Alps, and the people appeared due to the migration of tribes from the north. According to the third version, the Etruscans did not come from anywhere, but always lived in this territory. The fourth version - about the connection of the Etruscans with the Slavic tribes - is currently considered pseudoscientific, despite its popularity.
Interestingly, the Etruscans themselves foresaw the decline and death of their civilization, which they wrote about in their books, later lost.

The reasons for the disappearance of the people are called both assimilation with the Romans and the impact of external factors - in particular, malaria, which could be brought to Etruria by travelers from the East and spread thanks to mosquitoes that inhabited the swampy lands of Italy in many.
The Etruscans themselves are silent about their history - their language, despite the rather successful decipherment of the inscriptions on the tombstones, nevertheless continues to remain unsolved.

The interaction of the Etruscans with other peoples

Be that as it may, about a thousand years of the existence of the Etruscan civilization left curious traces. Etruria was located in an exceptionally favorable region in terms of natural resources. Here, building stone, clay, tin, iron were found in abundance, forests grew, coal deposits were explored. The Etruscans, in addition to the high level of development of agriculture and crafts, also succeeded in piracy - they were known as excellent shipbuilders and kept the ships of other tribes at bay. This people is credited, among other things, with the invention of an anchor with a lead crossbar-rod, as well as a copper sea ram.

However, the interaction of the Etruscans with the ancient peoples of the Mediterranean did not have the character of confrontations - on the contrary, the inhabitants of Etruria willingly adopted the values ​​of Ancient Greece and the peculiarities of everyday life. It is known that the ancient Greek alphabet was borrowed first by the Etruscans, and from them by the Romans. Despite the fact that scientists cannot yet translate the Etruscan language, it is nevertheless written in Greek letters - as on the tablets from the city of Cortona, discovered in 1992.

It is believed that a number of words used by modern man are of Etruscan origin. These are, in particular, “person”, “arena”, “antenna” (meaning “mast”), “letter” and even “service” (meaning “slave, servant”).
The Etruscans were great lovers of music - to the sounds of a flute, most often a double one, they cooked, and fought, and went hunting, and even punished slaves, which the Greek scientist and philosopher Aristotle writes about with some indignation.

Togas, decorations, construction of cities and circuses

Women wore puffy skirts and lace-up bodices, and besides, they were very fond of jewelry - however, like men. Etruscan bracelets, rings, necklaces made of gold have been preserved. Etruscan craftsmen achieved special skill in creating brooches - gold clasps of extremely fine workmanship, which fastened capes.

Special mention deserves the Etruscan art of building cities, which had a great influence on the architecture of Rome and antiquity in general. In the 7th century BC. the phenomenon of Twelve-gradia arose - the union of the largest Etruscan cities, among them Veii, Clusius, Perusia, Vatluna and others. The rest of the cities of Etruria were subordinate to the nearest of those included in the Twelve Cities.

The beginning of the construction of the city of the Etruscans began with a symbolic designation of the border - it had to be outlined by a bull and a heifer harnessed to a plow. The city necessarily housed three streets, three gates, three temples - dedicated to Jupiter, Juno, Minerva. The rituals of building Etruscan cities - Etrusco ritu - were adopted by the Romans.

There is also an assumption that the famous ancient Roman roads that still exist today, for example, the Via Appia, were not built without the participation of the Etruscans.

The Etruscans built the largest hippodrome of Ancient Rome - Circus Maximus, or the Great Circus. According to legend, the first chariot races were held by King Tarquinius Priscus, who was from the Etruscan city of Tarquinia in the 6th century BC.

As for gladiator fights, this ancient tradition originates from the Etruscan culture of sacrifice, when captive warriors were given a chance to survive instead of being sacrificed to the gods.

The mixing of different cultures, the mutual influence of the worlds of Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome and Etruria on each other led to the enrichment of the experience of different peoples and at the same time to the loss of the identity of each of them. The Etruscans in the ancient world are one of the most important components, without them the history of mankind would be different.
For a long time, the Etruscans were credited with the creation of the Capitoline she-wolf, the famous bronze sculpture. However, the radiocarbon method of research showed that the work was created no earlier than the 11th century, and the figurines of twins appeared since the 15th century. However, modern scientists have debunked and

Geographical and historical environment of Ancient Italy.

Etruscan civilization existed in Italy; here the city of Rome arose; its entire history, from its origin in legendary times to the fall of the Roman Empire on the threshold of the Middle Ages, has been connected with Italy.

Therefore, starting the story of the Etruscans and Rome, it is necessary first of all to touch on the geographical and historical conditions for the development of ancient Italy, located on the Apennine Peninsula.

This large peninsula, shaped like a boot, juts out deep into the Mediterranean Sea in its central part. From the north it adjoins a wide valley of the river. Po, enclosed from the mainland by the arc of the Alps. The Apennine mountain range stretches along the entire peninsula. In the north and south, the mountains approach the western coast of Italy, and in its middle part - to the east coast. The Apennine peninsula is washed by the Adriatic, Ionian, Tyrrhenian and Ligurian seas, which are parts of the Mediterranean Sea.

Conditions for the development of navigation in Italy were worse than in Greece. There are few islands near Italy. The largest of these, Sicily, served as a bridge between Italy and North Africa, but the other two large islands, Corsica and Sardinia, lie quite far to the west.

The coastline of the Apennine Peninsula is slightly indented: there are few convenient bays, especially on the east coast. True, the oldest deckless and single-deck ships could be pulled ashore almost everywhere.

Ancient Italy had more than Greece, an array of fertile lands: in the valley of the river. Po, in Etruria, Campania, Sicily. In ancient Latium, many lands were swampy, but with the creation of a drainage system in the form of sewage channels, this area also became quite suitable for agriculture. The soils were less fertile in the center and in the south of the eastern part of the peninsula. Italy abounds in rivers.

Most of them now become shallow in the summer, but in ancient times they were more full-flowing due to the abundance of forests, later cut down. Ancient Italy was not very rich in minerals.

Marble and other types of building stone were mined here, as well as clay suitable for pottery production. At the mouth of the Tiber were deposits of table salt. But there are almost no ore deposits; only in Etruria copper was smelted, and on the island of Ylva (Elba) - iron.

Favorable for the life of primitive people, the natural conditions of Italy, which has been inhabited since the Paleolithic era, for a long time contributed to a certain isolation of its historical development, while, for example, the need for bread for the Greeks, associated with relative overpopulation, drove overseas from the 8th century. BC. The impossibility before the advent of steel or even bronze tools of a broad development of agriculture in Italy, with its dense forests and predominantly heavy soils, ruled out the creation of a more or less highly productive economy and a class society on its basis.

Tin appeared here only from the end of the 2nd millennium BC, it may have been imported from Spain and Britain. Accordingly, only from that time did the production of bronze begin in Italy. The production of iron, especially steel, spread even later. The great remoteness of Italy from the advanced civilized countries of the East, compared with Greece, also slowed down the pace of its historical development in ancient times.

The ethnic composition of the population of Italy by the middle of the 1st millennium BC.

The population of the Apennine Peninsula by the middle of the 1st millennium BC was ethnically diverse. If in Greece by this time there was a fairly homogeneous population in terms of ethnic composition (the Greeks even had a common self-name - the Hellenes), then the population of Italy was very different in languages ​​and culture.

Very ancient tribes were the Ligurians, the inhabitants of the northwestern coast of Italy, called Liguria after them. Their language remained unknown, and therefore their family ties are also unknown.

In the eastern regions of the Apennine Peninsula lived tribes whose languages ​​belonged to the Illyrian branch of the Indo-European family (or were related to Illyrian). Of these tribes, the Veneti are known in northeastern Italy. The area inhabited by them was called Venice; this name was also given to the city that arose here in late antiquity.

At the southeastern tip of the Apennine Peninsula lived the Iapigi and other Illyrian tribes, apparently moved here from the Balkan Peninsula. The Greeks called Illyria a vast country in the north-west of the Balkan Peninsula, partly coinciding with present-day Yugoslavia.

The majority of the population of Italy by the middle of the 1st millennium BC. were the Italic tribes. Italics came to the Apennine Peninsula at the turn of the 2nd and 1st millennium BC. from the north - from the Danube regions. Among the Italic tribes, Osco-Umbrians, Sabines-Samnites, Latins are known.

From the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. immigrants from the East begin to penetrate into Italy, Sicily, North Africa, Spain and Gaul (present-day France): the Etruscans (the Eastern (Asia Minor) origin of the Etruscans is very likely, but has not yet been finally proven.), Phoenicians and Greeks. Etruscans in the 7th - 6th centuries. BC. dominated Central and Northern Italy. The Phoenicians had permanent colonies in Sicily, Sardinia, and possibly Corsica.

The largest center of the Phoenician colonization was Carthage, founded by immigrants from Tyre, in the 9th century. BC. on the northern coast of Africa opposite Sicily. Greeks in the VIII-VI centuries. BC. so densely populated the coasts of southern Italy and Sicily that this area became known as "Greater Greece".

Later, other ancient peoples settled in Italy, the Indo-European tribes of the Celts, whom the Romans called the Gauls. The Celtic invasion of northern Italy took place in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. They populated the river valley. Po, which the Romans began to call Cisalcin Gaul ("Gaul on this side of the Alps"), in contrast to Transalpine (Transalpine) Gaul.

Etruscans. Sources about the Etruscans and the question of the origin of this people.

In Central and Northern Italy in the 1st millennium BC. there lived a people who called themselves races. The Greeks called him Tyrrhenes or Tirsenes, and the Romans - Tusks or Etruscans. The last name entered into science. The main area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe Etruscans, located in the north-west of Central Italy, was known to the Romans as Etruria, in the Middle Ages it became known as Tuscany; it bears this name to this day. Fertile soils, many rivers, the largest of which is the Arno, access to deposits of copper and iron ore, access to the sea, abundant vegetation - all this made Etruria one of the most comfortable areas for people to live in Italy in the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age. Etruscan society was the oldest class society on the Apennine Peninsula. The Etruscans even before the Romans created a federation of city-states in Italy.

Many historical monuments have survived from the Etruscans: the remains of cities with stone walls and buildings, with a clear layout of streets intersecting at right angles and oriented to the cardinal points, many burial grounds, weapons, household utensils, jewelry, about ten thousand inscriptions, traces of Etruscan influence in culture late Italy, mention of the Etruscans in the writings of ancient authors.

The written monuments of the Etruscans are spelled, because they used an alphabet close to the Greek; now scientists understand about 500 individual Etruscan words, but in general the Etruscan language is incomprehensible. No close relatives of this language have been found. According to some, the Etruscan language was related to the Indo-European (Hitto-Luvian) languages ​​of Asia Minor; others believe that he was not at all related to the Indo-European language family.

Based on the study of material and written monuments of Etruscan origin, as well as the ancient tradition, which, following Herodotus, almost unanimously called the Etruscans immigrants from Asia Minor, some modern scientists believe that the Etruscans moved from the East - from Asia Minor or the islands adjacent to it - and arrived to Italy around the turn of the II and I millennia BC. But there is another opinion about the origin of the Etruscans, based on the statements of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who considered them autochthonous in Italy. In any case, the local population of Italy undoubtedly participated in the formation of the Etruscan people on Italian soil. By the beginning of our era, the Etruscans had dissolved among the Italic population; The Etruscan language went out of use, giving way to Latin - the language of the Romans.

Economy of the Etruscan city-states.

Starting from the 8th century BC. The Etruscans, in addition to Etruria proper, occupied a large territory in Northern and Central Italy. Their main occupation was agriculture. As in other regions of Italy, wheat, spelt, barley, oats, and grapes were grown in Etruria. Flax growing was well developed among the Etruscans. Linen fabrics were used to make clothes, sails, umbrellas to protect against rain and sun. Linen fabrics also served as writing material; the custom of writing linen books later passed to the Romans. Linen fabrics were used by the Etruscans to make shells. Nets were also made from flax.

It is assumed that the Etruscans were the first in Italy to use artificial irrigation.

It is known that in those cities where there was a strong Etruscan influence, for example, in Rome, during the Etruscan kings, canals were built, the flow of rivers was regulated, swamps and lakes were drained using underground drainage. The drainage of the swamps, necessary for agriculture, was at the same time the most effective means of combating malaria, from which the population of Etruria suffered. As elsewhere in Italy, cows, sheep, and pigs were bred in Etruria; the Etruscans were engaged in horse breeding, but on a limited scale. The horse was considered a sacred animal among them and was used, as in the East, exclusively in military affairs.

In the II and I millennia BC. in Etruria, copper was mined and bronze was made. Tin came through Gaul from Britain. Iron metallurgy has spread widely in Etruria since the 7th century. BC. The Etruscans mined and processed a huge amount of metal for those times. The abundance and good quality of metal tools contributed to the development of the Etruscan economy, and the good armament of their troops contributed to the conquests, the establishment of dominance over the conquered communities of Italy and the development of slave relations.

The Etruscans' skill in metalworking may have been brought from the East, otherwise it remains inexplicable that in a short time they went far ahead in the development of metallurgy compared to all other peoples of this country.

It is assumed that the artisans were free people who united in colleges on a professional basis. The Board defended the interests of artisans of this profession in this city.

The Etruscans carried on extensive trade with Greece, the Phoenician colonies, Asia Minor, the tribes of Italy, and the more northerly peoples of Central and Western Europe. The trade of the Etruscans, like other sailors of that time, was combined with piracy.

There was a struggle between the Etruscans and the Greek cities of Italy and Sicily. Greek colonists sought to penetrate the Etruscan sources of raw materials in the region of Ilva, Corsica, Sardinia and the southern coast of Gaul. In addition, Greeks and Etruscans clashed in the process of colonizing Central Italy. In the fertile Campania, where the Greek cities of Cuma and Naples arose, the Etruscan (or Italian under Etruscan domination) cities of Capua, Pompeii, Nola, Herculaneum and others soon grew up. The Etruscans sought to get rid of the mediation of the Greeks in trade with the coastal cities of Balkan Greece and Asia Minor, for this, trying, in particular, to seize the Strait of Messina between Italy and Sicily. It is no coincidence that all hostilities between the Greeks and the Etruscans unfolded in the 6th-5th centuries. BC. in the region of Sicily, Corsica and Central Italy.

There was also rivalry between the Etruscans and the Carthaginians. Their trade and colonization interests clashed in the 7th-6th centuries. BC. in Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, on the southern coast of Gaul.

But the appearance of the Greeks in the Western Mediterranean forced the rivals to unite against a common enemy. In 535 BC the Etruscans (citizens of the city of Caere), in alliance with Carthage, defeated the Greek fleet off the coast of Corsica and captured the island. This provided the Etruscans with freedom of action in the central region of the Mediterranean for several decades. Etruscan goods (mainly metal products and slaves) now followed the East through the Strait of Messina without the mediation of the Greeks. With one of the Greek cities in southern Italy, Sybaris, the Etruscans maintained friendly relations and successfully sold their goods here. But in 510 BC. Sybaris was destroyed by the inhabitants of another South Italian Greek city - Croton, and the Greeks established a guard post in the Strait of Messina. This was the first blow to the Etruscan trade in the south. The second was the defeat by the Greeks (Syracusans) of the united Etruscan-Carthaginian fleet at Cum in 474 BC. Since that time, the trade relations of the Etruscans with Greece and the Middle East, apparently, began to be carried out through the ports of the Adriatic Sea, bypassing the Strait of Messina. This trade flourished in the 5th century. BC. the Etruscan city of Spina at the mouth of the Po.

Of great importance to the Etruscans was their trade with the northern tribes who lived beyond the Alps in Central and Western Europe. They brought bronze and ceramic products, fabrics and wine to the Gauls beyond the Alps for exchange, and the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus reports that, for example, Italian merchants received a slave boy for an amphora of wine. In the northeast, the Etruscans penetrated into the Danube countries, and in the west - into Spain. In Central and Western Europe, the consumers of Etruscan goods were mainly to know barbarian tribes, which paid off Etruscan merchants with slaves, tin, and amber. Gallic military raid 390 BC undermined the Etruscan trade not only in the north, but also in the east. Part of the Gauls fortified south of the Alps and cut off the paths connecting Etruria with the coast of the Adriatic Sea. True, in the north, Etruscan culture retained its significance for a long time. For example, the Germans, apparently, through the mediation of the Alpine tribes, in the first centuries of our era, received a runic letter, ascending bypassing the Latin directly to the Etruscan.

The socio-political system of the Etruscans.

Throughout the history of the Etruscan people, he did not have a single state. During the period of its independence, Etruria was a federation (union) of twelve independent city-states, the exact list of which has not been preserved. These included Veii, Tarquinii, Caere, Volsinii, Rusella, Vetulonia, Arretius, Perusius, Volaterra, Volta, Clusius, as well as Fezuly or Cortona. In the event of the departure of one of the members of the federation (for example, as a result of a military defeat), another state was accepted into the association.

So, after the fall of the Vei, destroyed by Rome in 396 BC, Populonia was accepted into the federation in their place, which remained until then, despite its economic importance as a major port city and an important center of metallurgy, as part of the state of Volaterra. The Etruscans created similar dodecagons in the main areas of their colonization - in the Po Valley and Campania.

In each of the independent Etruscan states, in addition to the main city, there were cities subordinate to the main one. In their inner life, many of these subordinate cities enjoyed autonomy. Every spring, the heads and representatives of the Etruscan states gathered in the sanctuary of the god Vertumn in Volsinia. National games and fairs were timed to coincide with these meetings. Those who gathered discussed issues of common policy, made sacrifices and chose the head of the union from among the twelve Etruscan kings. The head of the federation apparently had no real power. The Federation was predominantly a religious union. The unity of the military-political actions of the Etruscan city-states was rarely achieved: the cities fought, reconciled, concluded treaties independently of each other and from a common agreement. The lack of unity of the Etruscan states was one of the main reasons for their defeat in the fight against Rome.

The basic unit of the most ancient Etruscan society was the tribal community. The heads of tribal communities constituted the council of elders; from among them, perhaps, a lukumon was elected. The power of the Lucumons, like the power of the Greek basilei, was for life, but not hereditary. The functions of lukumon are unclear; some believe that he was the supreme judge, military leader and chief priest of the state.

The development of the economy, including extensive foreign trade, as well as conquest contributed to the enrichment and strengthening of the Etruscan nobility, which seizes power in cities: in the VI century. BC. royal power is replaced in the Etruscan city-states by oligarchic republics.

Some researchers believe that most of the land was concentrated in the hands of the Etruscan nobility. According to other scholars, the bulk of the land was in the possession of small free peasants.

In Etruscan society, three categories of dependent people are known: lautni, etera and slaves.

In the V-IV centuries. BC. the nobility had many domestic slaves, and there were also gladiator slaves. But the bulk of the oppressed were the forced local rural population, reminiscent of the Spartan helots, Thessalian penestes and royal people in the ancient Near East. Lautni are dependent people included in the home community of their patron - patron. Most of the Lautni, as their names indicate, came from outsiders. The category of lautni included the free, who, due to debt or other disasters, were subordinate to the aristocrats. The position of the Lautni was hereditary: their children and grandchildren remained in the Lautni estate. Thus, lautni are patriarchally dependent persons who are members of the master's "house".

The category of etera is identified by ancient authors with the Thessalian penestes. Apparently, the Etera came from the local, non-Etruscan population. Etera are known in the eastern and southeastern regions of Etruria, where the remnants of the Italic population survived until later times. Eteras were involved in Etruria for military service and, possibly, for labor duties in favor of the state. Most of the Eter owned small plots of land, for which they gave their master part of the crop. Other etera lived at the master's court, doing crafts or domestic work; such etera were called by the Etruscans lautni etera.

So, in the Etruscan society there were, firstly, actually slaves (servants, gladiators), and secondly, patriarchally dependent people, one part of which was employed in the master's own households as artisans and other service personnel (lautni and lautni etera) , and the other part cultivated allotments for a share of the harvest (eter).

Etruscan religion.

Information about the religion of the Etruscans is better preserved than about other aspects of the life of Etruscan society. The main deities of the Etruscan pantheon were the supreme god Vertumn, whose functions are little known, and the trinity of gods - Tin, Uni and Mnelva. Tin was a deity of the sky, a thunderer and was considered the king of the gods. His shrines were on high steep hills. In terms of its functions, Tin corresponded to the Greek Zeus and the Roman Jupiter, therefore it is no coincidence that later in Rome the image of Tin merged with the image of Jupiter. The goddess Uni corresponded to the Roman Juno, so they also merged in Rome in a single image of Juno. In the image of the Etruscan goddess Mnerva, features characteristic of the Greek Athena are visible: both were considered the patroness of crafts and arts. In Rome, with the development of crafts, the veneration of the goddess Minerva, whose image was identical to Athena-Mnerva, spread.

In addition to these gods, the Etruscans also worshiped a whole host of good and evil demons, which are depicted in many in Etruscan tombs. Like the Hurrians, Assyrians, Hittites, Babylonians and other Middle Eastern peoples, the Etruscans imagined demons in the form of fantastic birds and animals, and sometimes people with wings behind their backs. For example, the good demons lazi, corresponding to the Roman lares, were considered by the Etruscans to be the patrons of the hearth and were represented as young women with wings behind their backs.

An important role in the religion of the Etruscans was played by the idea of ​​a gloomy afterlife kingdom, where the souls of the dead gather. The Etruscan god of the underworld Aita corresponded to the Greek god Hades.

Grain, wine, fruits, oil, animals were sacrificed to the gods. During a family meal, a small cup of food was placed on the table or on the hearth for the demons - the patrons of the house. At the funeral feasts of noble people, captives were sacrificed to the gods. From this rite, the Etruscans developed gladiatorial games: slaves were forced to fight to the death at the funeral of their master or poisoned people with dogs for the purpose of sacrifice. The gladiatorial games borrowed from the Etruscans and the persecution of people by animals lost their original ritual meaning among the Romans and turned into bloody spectacles that were arranged for the entertainment of the townspeople.

The Etruscans were, apparently, the first builders of temples in Italy. Subsequently, in Rome, the first temples were built by Etruscan masters.

An important place in Etruscan society was occupied by the priesthood. Haruspex priests (fortunetellers) were in charge of divination by the insides of sacrificial animals, primarily by the liver, as well as the interpretation of various signs - unusual natural phenomena (lightning, the birth of freaks, etc.). These features of the Etruscan cult, through a number of intermediate links, are borrowed from Babylonia.

The rise of Rome.

Ancient Roman legends connected the founding of Rome with the Trojan War. They said that when Troy perished, some Trojans managed to escape. Aeneas was at their head. The ships of the fugitives rushed along the sea waves for a long time. Finally they arrived in Italy and founded the city of Alba Longa in Latium. It's been a long time. One of the descendants of Aeneas, King Numitor, was overthrown by his brother Amulius. Fearing revenge from the children or grandchildren of Numitor, Amulius forced his daughter Rhea Sylvia to become a vestal. Vestals, priestesses of the goddess Vesta, the patroness of the hearth, did not have the right to marry. However, Sylvia had two twin sons, Romulus and Remus, from the god Mars. To get rid of them, Amulius ordered them to be thrown into the Tiber. But the babies were miraculously saved: the wave threw the babies ashore, where they were fed by a she-wolf. Then the shepherd became the teacher of the children. In the end, the brothers found out about their origin, killed Amulius, restored the rights of their grandfather, and themselves founded a new city - Rome. When the city was founded, a quarrel arose between the brothers, during which Romulus killed Remus. Romulus became the first Roman king, and the city was named after him: Rome in Latin Roma. In accordance with this legend, the Romans later erected a bronze statue of a she-wolf on the Capitol.

Roman scholars tried to determine the date of the founding of Rome on the basis of legends. Varro in the 1st century BC. suggested that April 21, 753 BC be considered the day of the founding of Rome. (according to our reckoning). April 21 was a shepherd's holiday among the ancient Latins. At present, scientists look at the date proposed by Varro only as a traditional, legendary one. In addition, it has been established that the first inhabitants of Rome, the Latins and Sabines, were Italians, and not immigrants from Asia Minor, while the Italians, if they migrated here, then from Central Europe.

However, scientists admit that along with fiction, Roman legends also reflected memories of real historical events: the approximate time of the emergence of Rome, the connection of the first Roman settlers with Albop Longa, and other facts. Thus, the legend of the abduction of the Sabine women by the Romans arose after the merger of the Latin and Sabine communities in Rome. She says that the first inhabitants of Rome were only young men - companions of Romulus, his squad.

Neighboring communities were distrustful of the new settlers and did not want to marry their daughters to them.

Then Romulus arranged a feast, to which he invited the Sabines. During the feast, the Romans kidnapped the Sabine girls. The Sabines went to war against Rome, but the Sabines managed to reconcile their fathers and husbands.

Let us turn to the archaeological data on the ancient population of Rome and Latium. Lanius is a region in the west of Central Italy. This is a hilly plain with an area of ​​\u200b\u200babout 2 thousand square meters. km. It is bounded by the sea, r. Tiber and mountains. At the turn of II and I millennia BC. e. this region was settled by the Latins, who gave it their name. They settled mainly on the hills, where there was a drier and healthier climate; in the swampy lowlands, people suffered from malaria. The Latins lived in fortified settlements-towns, originally consisting of primitive huts.

Each city was the center of the surrounding territory. Tradition counted 30 such settlements in Latium, headed by Alba Longa.

Apparently, it was a federation of Latin cities, created in order to protect against external enemies. The volcanic soil of Latium was fertile and suitable for agriculture, although the lowlands were swampy. An important role in the economy of the Latins was played by cattle breeding. They raised cows, sheep, pigs. There were few horses, and they were used exclusively in military affairs. It is assumed that the settlement of Latium came from Alba Longa and Rome appeared later than it.

Rome arose on the left bank of the Tiber, 23 km from its mouth, on the hills. The geographical position of Rome was advantageous in many respects: it stood on a navigable river, near the sea. On the left bank of the Tiber, at the very foot of the hills on which the city was born, there was an ancient “salt road”, along which salt mined at the mouth of the Tiber was transported into the interior of the country. The hills, especially the Capitol and the Palatine, which had steep slopes, were convenient for defense against enemies.

The first settlement on the site of the future Rome arose in the 10th century. BC. on the Palatine Hill. The inhabitants of this village burned the dead in the same way as the inhabitants of Alba Longa did. Obviously, they were Latins. In the ninth century BC. some neighboring hills were inhabited. The people who settled on them did not burn the dead, but buried them in graves. Apparently, it was another branch of the Italic tribes - the Sabines.

In the 8th or 7th century BC, probably, there was a union of the Latin and Sabine communities.

It is possible that in the 7th c. BC. this association also included an Etruscan community that settled on one of the hills. It is believed that the very word "Rome" (in Etruscan Ruma) is of Etruscan origin. Thus, Rome arose as a territorial community, as a union based not on a tribal community, but on a neighboring one. The memory of the unification of the three communities during the formation of the Roman state was preserved, in particular, in the fact that in a later era the full population of Rome was divided into three tribes (tribes): Ramnov (Latins), Titiev (Sabines) and Luceres (Etruscans?). At the end of the 8th century BC. Rome began to subjugate the cities of Latium. According to legend, the Romans captured and destroyed Alba Longa.

Royal period in Rome.

In the 7th-6th centuries BC. The Etruscans established their dominance in Northern and Central Italy. Rome also fell into their sphere of influence. It is not known whether Rome was conquered by the Etruscans; rather in the 7th century. BC e. there was a peaceful interaction between them and the Latin-Sabine community. In the VI century. BC.

Rome developed as a city-state. According to tradition, seven kings ruled in Rome; the last three were Etruscans. Scientists consider these three kings - Tarquinius the Ancient, Servius Tullius and Tarquinius the Proud - real historical figures.

Under the Etruscan rulers, Rome became a significant center of crafts and trade. At this time, many Etruscan artisans settled in it, and Etruscan Street arose. Rome was surrounded by a stone wall, a sewage system was installed in the city; built under Tarquinius the Ancient, the so-called Great Cloaca - a wide underground sewage channel lined with stone - operates in Rome to this day. Under Tarquinius the Ancient, the first circus for gladiatorial games was built in Rome, still made of wood. On the Capitol, Etruscan masters erected a temple of Jupiter, which became the main shrine of the Romans. From the Etruscans, the Romans inherited a more advanced type of plow, craft and construction equipment, a copper coin - ass. The Etruscans also borrowed the attire of the Romans - a toga, the shape of a house with an atrium (an interior with a hearth and a hole in the roof above it), writing, the so-called Roman numerals, methods of divination by the flight of birds, by the entrails of sacrificial animals.

The social structure of Ancient Rome.

The royal period in the history of Rome (VIII-VI centuries BC) was the era of the decomposition of primitive relations and the emergence of classes and the state in Rome. The "Roman people" (populus Romanus) at the beginning of its history was a tribal association. According to tradition, there were 300 genera in Rome, which consisted of 30 curiae (10 genera each) and 3 tribes (10 curiae each). True, this tradition cannot be considered completely reliable. The Roman tribe, to a certain extent corresponding to the Greek phylum, is the Roman curia, which was an association of closely related reds. Each clan allegedly consisted of ten families. The strict correctness of the Roman tribal structure bears the stamp of a later artificial rethinking or traces of state intervention in the original structure of ancient Rome. However, as F. Engels emphasized, “at the same time, it is possible that the core of each of the three tribes could be a genuine old tribe” (F. Engels. The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State. - K. Marx and F. Engels. Works. 2nd edition, vol. 21, p. 120.). Perhaps the ancient tribal organization of Roman society was transformed by numerically equalizing the clans and curias in each tribe in order to streamline the army and state administration.

According to the theories of some modern scientists, the tribal division of the Roman people began to be supplemented very early, and subsequently supplanted by territorial communities - pagi; as a result of the union of these pagi, Rome arose. The ancient authors consider the pag to be the basic unit, at the head of which was some kind of magistrate, who oversaw that the inhabitants of the pag cultivated the land well and did not leave their community.

In the royal period in Rome, relatives were bound by the customs of blood feud and mutual assistance. Members of the genus were descended from a common ancestor and had a common generic name (for example, Julia, Claudia).

Family communities existed within the clans. The Roman patriarchal family was called the "surname" (familia). In the royal period, it was usually a large family home community, similar to the ancient Eastern "house" and included children, grandchildren, wives of sons and grandchildren, as well as slaves. The head of the patriarchal (agnathic) family community was called pater familias - "father of the family" or dominus - "lord, master" (from the word domus - "house, household"). When women got married, they lost contact with their family community and entered into the patriarchal family of their husband, but not into his family, and therefore retained their premarital family name (Women did not have personal names (except for nicknames) in the archaic period; the eldest daughter in the family had only a generic name, the subsequent ones had numbers (“Second”, “Third”, etc., occasionally “Elder”, “Younger”)). Each family community had its own cult of household deities, including the cult of family ancestors. Family cults were intertwined with cults sent by pagas. The most characteristic of the family and territorial communities was the cult of the Lares.

The patriarchal family owned a house, livestock, weapons, household items, jewelry and a small plot of land. The arable land was divided among the family communities by lot. Land redistributions were made from time to time. Pastures were used collectively by members of the neighboring (territorial) community. The empty land remained popular - ager publicus.

In Roman society, the community-state was the supreme owner of all land.

Land ownership (with the exception of the collective use of communal lands - forests, pastures, etc.) was private. Social production existed in the form of private farms of patriarchal families. The right to participate in communal ownership of land was inextricably linked to citizenship in the community: only Roman citizens could own land and rent ager publicus plots in the Roman state. The communal, state nature of land ownership also determined the collective nature of state administration. The political organs of the civil community in Rome were the king, the senate and the popular assembly.

The oldest Roman families were united under the name of patricians. From them, a tribal aristocracy stood out, consisting of the heads of the most noble families. This nobility is subsequently most often called patricians in the narrow sense of the word. They seized into their hands a significant share of the property of the disintegrating tribal community, primarily land, as well as a large share of military booty.

Newcomers and persons who have lost ancestral ties fall into the position of clients dependent on patricians. They are drawn into patrician surnames as patriarchally dependent persons. Here there is an analogy with the ancient Eastern patriarchal-dependent workers involved in the households of the rich and noble "houses". Both in Asia Minor and in Rome, not only impoverished relatives, but also strangers, including freedmen, could become patriarchally dependent. Clients bore the generic names of their patrons - patrons, participated in common holidays with the surname of their patron; buried clients in the family cemetery.

The client received the land allotment from the hands of the patron.

The client was obliged to serve in the patron's house, accompany him on military campaigns, as well as during ceremonial exits, to provide certain payments, for example, when ransoming the patron from captivity. The patron provided patronage to the client, defended him in court. Both the patricians and the clients participated in the popular assembly, where the clients, of course, voted at the behest of their patrons. Voting in Rome during this period was open. In addition to clients in early Rome, there was another incomplete social layer - the plebs, somewhat similar to the Athenian meteks or Spartan perieks. The plebeians were personally free people, but they stood outside the tribal organization of the Roman people, were considered strangers in the Roman community, and therefore did not have the rights of community members.

It is assumed that the plebeians are the descendants of the ancient population of Latium conquered by the Romans; subsequently, the mass of the plebeians was probably replenished with newcomers who broke away from their communities, who, on their own initiative or under duress, moved to Rome and received land there. Modern scientists suggest that these people received allotments either from the royal land, the existence of which is mentioned in the sources, or from ager publicus, since the public land fund was far from being completely occupied (From such an assumption it would follow that the land plots of the plebeians were not their private property, but there is another opinion; the legal basis for the acquisition of land by the plebeians remains for the early period of the history of Rome unclear.). There is reason to believe that in ancient Rome part of the ager publicus was assigned to certain pagi, and part remained in common ownership of all the united pagi. From such a fund allotments could be provided to the settlers, from which the plebs were replenished.

Some plebeians were engaged in crafts and trade, and some gave themselves under the patronage of the patricians, becoming their clients.

The plebeians were involved in military service, but did not participate in the division of military booty; they were also not allowed to divide up the land from the public fund, which increased as a result of conquests. In the next, republican era, the agrarian question became the main one in the struggle between patricians and plebeians.

Slaves constituted the lowest social category. The slaves were mostly strangers (bought, prisoners), but people from the free local population also fell into slavery through debt bondage. So, in ancient Rome there were four main classes: patricians, plebeians, clients and slaves. At the opposite poles of Roman society, already in the tsarist period, classes of slaves and slave owners began to emerge.

Slave owners were not only wealthy patricians, but also wealthy plebeians.

The political system of Rome in the Tsarist period.

The administrative system in ancient Rome outwardly retained the form of military democracy, but its administrative bodies increasingly carried out class, state functions. The king (rex) was first and foremost a military commander, as well as a supreme judge and priest. He was chosen by the entire Roman people.

According to tradition, kings ruled Rome from its founding until 510 BC. Next to the king was the senate - the council of elders (from the Latin senex - "old man"). There were 300 senators, one from each clan. The Senate, together with the king, approved or rejected the decisions of the people's assembly. It existed in the form of curiat comitia, which means gatherings of curia members. The people were grouped to vote according to curiae. After voting within the curia, she cast one vote at the comitia. Plebeians were not allowed to political administration.

An important event in the social and political life of Rome was the reforms of the penultimate Etruscan king, Servius Tullius, who lived, according to tradition, in the 6th century BC. BC. According to legend, he established the division of Roman citizens along territorial and property lines. From that time on, a census of all citizens and their property began to be carried out in Rome every four years. Based on the census, the entire population, including patricians and plebeians, was divided into six property categories.

Apparently, the size of his land allotment was considered a criterion for the property status of a citizen. People who cultivate a full plot (20 yugers, i.e. 5 ha) belonged to class I; 3/4 put on - to class II; 1/2 allotment - to class III; 1/4 put on - to the IV class; processing allotments of even smaller sizes - to class V; completely landless to the VI class. The Romans called landless citizens proletarians. Later, the property qualification was established in cash. Instead of the previous three tribal tribes, Servius Tullius divided the Roman state into four territorial tribes.

The division of citizens according to property was used primarily for the distribution of military service. The entire free population, including patricians and plebeians, was required to serve in the militia. The first class fielded 98 centuries (hundreds), including 80 centuries of heavily armed infantry and 18 centuries of cavalry; all other classes, taken together, fielded 95 centuries of light infantry and auxiliary detachments (If these figures are reliable, then this means that in the city-state of Rome there were already over 100 thousand inhabitants, not counting slaves. But most likely these traditional data cannot be considered accurate). The armament and maintenance of the soldiers fell on the citizens themselves, and not on the state.

Tradition ascribes to Servius Tullius the creation of a new popular assembly - the cuntriat comitia. Voting in this assembly took place by centuries, and in the general counting of votes, each centuria had one vote. The first class was guaranteed a majority of votes: 98 against 95 votes of all other classes combined. Patricians and plebeians participated in the centuriate comitia without distinction of their class status, but taking into account only the property qualification and the military service due to it. The reason for the reforms of Servius Tullius was rooted in the struggle between the plebeians and the patricians. These reforms dealt the first blow to the original class system of Rome and contributed to the further formation of a class, slave-owning society.

As an approximate chronological boundary between the royal and republican periods of Roman history, modern science recognizes the traditional date - 510 BC. According to legend, the Etruscan domination and at the same time the royal period in Rome ended in connection with the uprising of the Romans against the Etruscan king Tarquinius the Proud. According to Roman legend, the impetus for the uprising was the fact that the royal son Sextus Tarquinius dishonored a patrician woman, Lucretia, and she committed suicide. The movement against the king was led by the patricians, who sought to seize power in their own hands. The outbreak of an uprising forced Tarquinius the Proud to flee with his family to Etruria, where he found shelter with the king of the city, Clusius Porsena.

The Etruscans made an attempt to restore their dominance in Rome. Porsena laid siege to Rome. According to legend, the young man Mucius went to the Etruscan camp in order to kill Porsena. When captured, he burned his right hand on fire to show contempt for torture and death. Amazed by the steadfastness of the Roman warrior, Porsena not only released Mucius, but also lifted the siege from Rome. Mucius received the nickname "Scaevola", which means "Lefty", which began to be inherited. The name of Mucius Scaevola has become a household name: it denotes a fearless hero who sacrifices everything for the fatherland.

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Topic: The influence of the Etruscan civilization on the formation of early Roman culture.

Roman culture was formed under the influence of the cultures of many peoples, primarily the Etruscans and Greeks. Using foreign achievements, the Romans surpassed their teachers in many areas, raising the general level of their own development to unprecedented heights.

The object of this study is the process of formation of early Roman culture. Within this process, elements of the Etruscan civilization are distinguished that influence the formation of Roman culture, which is the subject of the study. Let's define a hypothesis. Suppose that in different spheres of the life of ancient Roman society, the Etruscan influence was uneven, i.e. varied in scope and content.

Accordingly, the purpose of the work is to identify the spheres of influence of the Etruscan civilization on the formation of Roman culture, to determine the extent of this influence, the qualitative characteristics of its manifestation in the process of the formation of Roman civilization.

Rome created its own civilization based on a special system of values. The question of whether it is possible to speak of the existence of an independent Roman civilization has been repeatedly discussed in science.

According to the History of Ancient Rome. ON THE. Mashkin", such well-known culturologists as O. Spengler, A. Toynbee, highlighting the ancient culture or civilization as a whole, denied the independent significance of Rome, believed that the entire Roman era was a crisis stage of ancient civilization. When its ability to spiritual creativity comes to naught, only opportunities for creativity in the field of statehood remain (the creation of the Roman Empire and technology). Everything that was done in science, philosophy, historiography, poetry, art during the long centuries of Roman domination in the Mediterranean was borrowed from the Greeks, primitive and reduced to a level accessible to the mass consciousness, which never rose to the heights of the creators of Hellenic culture.

Other researchers (S. L. Utchenko did a lot in this direction in Soviet historiography), on the contrary, believe that Rome created its own original civilization based on a special system of values ​​that developed in the Roman civil community in connection with the peculiarities of its historical development. These features include the establishment of a democratic form of government as a result of the struggle between patricians and plebeians and the victories of the latter, and the almost continuous wars of Rome, which turned it from a small Italian town into the capital of a huge power.

Rome begins its existence as the center of a new political power at a time when the founders of civilization - the Etruscans - are in distress in the bloody battles of the Greco-Etruscan war, which ultimately leads to the fall of Etruscan power.

The Etruscans are ancient tribes that inhabited in the 1st millennium BC. northwest of the Apennine Peninsula - an area called in ancient times Etruria (modern Tuscany). The Etruscans are the creators of a civilization that preceded the Roman one and had a significant impact on it. The origin of the Etruscans remains unclear. The evidence of Herodotus about the Lydian origin of the Etruscans, and the similarity of geographical names in Etruria with those that we find on the territory of Asia Minor, indicate that the Etruscans came from the East, possibly from Asia Minor. Probably, the process of the formation of the Etruscans was completed by the 8th century. BC. Their influence in the 6th c. BC. spread throughout almost all of Italy. But the period of power of the Etruscans was not long: the Greeks in 524 and 474 BC. defeated them near Cum, putting an end to their maritime dominance, the Romans expelled the Tarquinii around 509. Then the tribes of the Samnites ousted the Etruscans from Campania (about the 5th century). Around 400, their Podan possessions were invaded by the Gauls. The lack of political and military unity among the Etruscans led to the fact that in the wars with Rome they gradually lost their cities (already in 396 Veii fell - a city once as powerful as Rome; in 358 the city fell under Roman rule Caere, in 308 - Tarquinia). From 310, the Romans began to conquer central and eastern Etruria, and by 282 BC. in a position dependent on Rome was all of Etruria.

In the VI century. BC e. Etruscan influence increased markedly in Rome. This is reflected primarily in the tales of the Etruscan Tarquinian dynasty, to which the last Roman kings belonged. In the 19th century during the excavations of the Etruscan city of Caere, from where, according to legend, Tarquinius arrived in Rome, a tomb of the Tarquinian family was discovered and many Etruscan inscriptions were found. Considering that just in the VI century. BC e. account for the flourishing and power of the Etruscan federation, it is quite reasonable to assume that for some time Rome was subject to the Etruscans.

In addition, for the Romans, the Etruscans were a model in applied arts and construction. Firstly, the Romans borrowed high construction techniques and the original types of a number of structures. According to K. Kumanetsky's "History of Culture of Ancient Greece and Rome" Etruscan features of the most ancient temples (for example, the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus in Rome, which was consecrated in 509 BC) - a three-part cella, podium, accentuation of the main facade by a portico and stairs - later became characteristic features of Roman religious architecture.

From them, the Romans adopted a number of features of the political organization, the structure and armament of the army, insignia (signs of power) of state officials.

Secondly, spreading their style in the conquered provinces, the Romans at the same time easily assimilated the artistic principles of the Etruscans and Greeks. In the most ancient period, the art of Rome developed within the framework of the Middle Italic archaeological cultures of the Iron Age. At the time of the formation of the actual ancient Roman artistic culture, in the VIII - IV centuries. Don. e. Roman architecture was greatly influenced by Etruscan architecture.

Another sphere of manifestation of Etruscan influence is religion and mythology. So, through Etruria came to Rome the legend of the wanderings of the Trojan hero Aeneas - the ancestor of the founders of Rome - Romulus and Remus. In the future, the mythology of the Romans was mainly associated with the legends about Aeneas, Romulus and the kings who replaced him. In the "History of the Culture of Ancient Greece and Rome" by K. Kumanetsky, the historian Titus Livius directly reports that the Romans borrowed this from the Etruscans.

Note that in the same place, in Etruria, for the first time they began to use such emblems of patrician dignity as a golden ball worn around the neck and a toga with a purple border.

Close to the Etruscan cult of the boundaries of the city is the Roman cult of the god Terminus. In addition, the Romans had the god Term, who was the patron of the boundary boundary, boundary stones between land plots, as well as the boundaries of the city and state. According to legend, the Etruscans were given the laws of land surveying by the nymph Vegoya, and these laws were considered the sacred foundation of Etruria. Therefore, we have every reason to believe that the sacred rites of the Romans, associated with the god Terminus, were borrowed from the Etruscans, especially since the cult of the god Terminus and the sacred ceremonies associated with it were introduced in Rome by King Numa Pompilius, who was one of the first kings of Rome, and although he was a Sabin, he was most likely familiar with Etruscan religious customs and rituals.

A clear demonstration of borrowings is the custom of magnificently celebrating military triumphs, because the Etruscans saw in the victorious commander the embodiment of their highest deity: like this deity - the sky god Tin, the winner in a golden diadem, with an ebony rod, in a purple tunic embroidered with images of palm trees, rode on golden chariot in the sanctuary.

Another sphere of influence of the Etruscans was the development of crafts. Based on A.V. Podosinova N.I. Shaveleva "Introduction to the Latin language and ancient culture" it can be said that the Romans owe their skill in making weapons to the Etruscans, because. rich deposits of iron on the Elbe, the extraction of copper, silver and tin were used by the Etruscans primarily for the manufacture of weapons, which had no equal.

The Etruscans were masters of jewelry, they knew granulation and filigree, but they were especially famous for bronze casting. It is the Etruscans who own the famous Capitoline she-wolf (beginning of the 5th century BC), preserved to this day in Rome as the greatest relic, because it resembles the famous legend about the creation of Rome.

However, as a result of the study, we found that the Etruscan influence manifested itself in various areas of ancient Roman society: construction, applied arts, legends, mythology, crafts, and the practice of triumphs. The most widespread and voluminous in terms of content is the borrowing by the Romans from the Etruscans of the architecture of temples with facing, handicraft technology, and the practice of building cities.

In literature, one can identify the least degree of influence of the Etruscans on Roman civilization. This is where the Greek influence comes into play.

But in general, thanks to the intervention of the Etruscan civilization, Roman culture formed a new system of thinking, in which striving for the sphere of the spiritual principle, pragmatism, and rationality triumphed, thereby paving the way for the formation of both the culture of the Middle Ages and the culture of the New Age.

Bibliography

1. Kazimierz Kumanetsky. History of culture of Ancient Greece and Rome.1990.
2. History of Ancient Rome. ON THE. Mashkin. - M.: Vyssh.shk., 2006. - 751.:ill. - (Series "Classics of historical science")
3. Culturology for technical universities. Rostov-on-Don: Phoenix, 2001.
4. Kravchenko A.I. Culturology. - M.: Academic Project, 2001.p. 231-251.
5. Podosinov A.V., Shchaveleva N.I. Lingua Latina: An introduction to the Latin language and ancient culture. T.1.

Description

Roman culture was formed under the influence of the cultures of many peoples, primarily the Etruscans and Greeks. Using foreign achievements, the Romans surpassed their teachers in many areas, raising the general level of their own development to unprecedented heights.
The object of this study is the process of formation of early Roman culture. Within this process, elements of the Etruscan civilization are distinguished that influence the formation of Roman culture, which is the subject of the study.