- chapter 8: A long twilight –
Taking into account the threat posed by the Gauls (defi nitively vanquished at Talamone
in 225 by the Romans, with the help of Etruscan auxiliaries) and by the Carthaginians
(the fi rst Punic War begins in 264, the same year as the fall of Volsinii and the founding
of Pyrgi and Paestum), the effi ciency of the Roman military could not be guaranteed
solely by the capillary network of routes that linked the various Etruscan centers. Shortly
after the mid-third century, the creation of the major north-south axes would therefore
allow the conduct of rapid operations in an area recently conquered and still unstable, and
would open to Rome direct access to areas occupied by warlike people, the Ligurians to
the north-west and the Gauls in the north-east. The fi rst of them, probably surveyed in
241, is the Via Aurelia vetus, which runs along the Tyrrhenian coast to Luni, thus linking
fi ve colonies of Rome, from Fregenae to Cosa. From 220, the Via Flaminia crosses a small
part of the Etruscan territory, in the south-east, before reaching Umbria towards Rimini.
The dating of the two pathways of the central part of the territory, which connect at the
end of their journey with the Via Flaminia, is poorly known: the Via Clodia, perhaps
in the late third century, connected Tuscania, Vulci and Cosa, the Via Cassia, probably
created in the fi rst half of the second century, linked Bolsena, Chiusi, Cortona, Arezzo,
Florence and Pisa. Finally, breaking away from the Cassia at Nepi, the Via Armerina
led directly to Perugia, crossing Umbrian territory. There is no doubt that the ancient
Etruscan road network, carefully planned and drained, continued to be used. But with
the founding of colonies and the distance that separated certain sites from the new routes
favored by traffi c and trade, the creation of these pathways contributed to unbalance
the relationship that had long existed between the territory and its population centers,
causing the depopulation or abandonment of some of them, now isolated, in favor of
others better located.
Typical, also, of Roman culture – although Etruria already knew well-developed,
but quite different, architectural forms – are the thermal baths (hygienic, therapeutic
or benefi cial, all factors of social ties) and the structures for spectacles (amphitheaters
and theaters, powerful vehicles for disseminating language), perhaps erected through an
act of benefaction by citizens of Roman ethnicity, as a symbol and vector of their social
integration (Fig. 8.7). With temples dedicated to new gods, and soon to the imperial
cult, these buildings were to diffuse in capillary fashion a lifestyle in every way similar
to that of the inhabitants of Rome. Meanwhile, inscriptions – sometimes bilingual (Fig.
8.8) – help to defi ne the progressive diffusion of Latin, slower in rural than in urban areas,
and the appearance of new families in Etruria. In this respect, the differences from site
to site are numerous: thus, in the late fi rst century at Caere, where the transition from
Etruscan to Latin had occurred a century earlier, half of the gentilicia (family/clan names)
attested are of Latin origin, while at Tarquinia this fi gure is three times lower. It is certain
that these differences betray signifi cant differences in the degree of acculturation of the
Etruscan cities.
RETENTION OF POWER AND THE CHANGING
OF THE RULING CLASSESProud of its traditions and its history, the Etruscan aristocracy played a role of the fi rst
order throughout this period. Powerfully structured, it cemented together the various
cities through marital ties and probably exerted a fascination on the Roman nobility,
conscious of its debt to Etruria, whether in the domain of signs of power, of the architecture