ETRUSCANS
Studying the ancient Etruscans can quickly make clear the
problems historians have in reconstructing Europe’s past. Th e
Etruscans had their own written language, and they were for
a time the rulers of Rome. Th e Romans wrote many histories
about themselves, so it would be reasonable to assume that
there would be plenty of information about the Etruscans, yet
they are still a mysterious people. Th eir language is strange; it
does not fi t with Celtic, Latin, or Greek languages, making it
hard to translate. Most histories were written by outsiders—
the Greeks, who regarded the Etruscans as enemies because
the Etruscans had allied themselves with the Carthaginians
to limit Greek trade in the western Mediterranean, and the
Romans, who had fought wars against the Etruscans and typ-
ically characterized Etruscans as indolent and obese.
Th e empire of the Etruscans began to develop around
900 b.c.e. in Etruria, a region of northwest-central Italy.
Called the “Villanovan” culture by archaeologists, it encom-
passed several towns and stretched from the west coast to the
east coast across Italy. By 600 b.c.e. the towns had become the
Etruscan League, a federation of city-states that cooperated
in foreign and military aff airs. Th eir empire extended south
past Salerno, west into Corsica, north to the Alps, and east to
the northwestern Adriatic Sea.
An Etruscan city-state was governed by zilaths, who were
members of an assembly, perhaps like community elders or
like Roman senators. Th ese cities belonged to 12 divisions of
the Etruscan League, each division ruled by a king. Kingships
seem to have been hereditary, but succession practices are not
clear. Th e Etruscan League also had a general assembly where
the zilaths would meet to select a “fi rst zilath,” who could lead
the entire league, especially during wars. Th ese general as-
semblies seem to have selected the fi rst zilath once a year, but
some fi rst zilaths were reelected several times.
A prominent Etruscan king was Porsena, ruler of the city
of Clusium. When t he cit y of Rome deposed its Etruscan k ing
Tarquinius Superbus in 510 b.c.e., Porsena provided the army
that was intended to put Tarquinius Superbus back on Rome’s
throne. According to Roman histories, Rome was saved by
heroic stands of small groups of Roman soldiers against the
advance of the mighty Etruscan army. Some historians doubt
that the Roman histories tell the truth, suggesting that Porse-
na’s army actually defeated the Romans. In any case, Porsena
seems to have been regarded as one of the Etruscans’ great
kings. Aft er Porsena’s time Etruscan power waned while the
Etruscans lost wars to Carthaginian, Greek, Roman, and
Celtic rivals. Th e Etruscan city-sates retained their cultural
identities even during Roman rule. Th e Etruscans received
Roman citizenship in 88 b.c.e.
NORICUM
Noricum was a Celtic kingdom east of the Alps and north of
Italy, founded around 500 b.c.e. Under the infl uence of the
Romans, the people of Noricum developed a stable economy
and existed mostly in peace with the Romans. Not much is
known about their rulers, though they seem to have followed
the typically Celtic practice of appointing new kings or queens
rather than having a hereditary kingship. Th e people of Nori-
cum originally wore trousers but adopted Roman dress. By
the time the Romans invaded Gaul, Noricum had adopted so
many Roman customs and laws that it was absorbed into the
empire with little disruption to its people’s lives.GAUL
Until the Germanic invasions of the fi ft h century c.e., the
Celts were the dominant ethnic group in Europe. Th ey were
given the name Celts by the Greeks; they were called Gauls by
the Romans. Th ey had what historians call a “heroic culture,”
meaning a warrior culture in which great military deeds are
exalted. Th e Gauls usually did not see themselves as a single
political nation. Th ey were divided into numerous tribes, and
they were very mobile. Entire tribes of tens of thousands of
people would sometimes take everything they could carry
and march to settle somewhere else, sometimes pushing out
the people who already lived there, who themselves would
move into a new area, driving people out. Th is movement is
how the Celts came to the Romans’ attention as a danger in
390 b.c.e. Celtic tribes had been driven out of their homes and
had settled in northern Italy. From northern Italy they raided
into other territories, and in 390 b.c.e. they sacked Rome.
Th is attack made them a military target for the Romans.
Most Celtic tribes were ruled by kings. Th e kingship was
not hereditary, though the kingship tended to remain in one
family. At a king or a queen’s death, the elite class of the Celts,
the warriors, would choose a replacement. Rulers were much
more oft en men than women, but tales recorded by Greek
writers and Roman experiences with Celtic women suggest
that there were formidable women rulers among the Celts.
Th e Celtic tribes were forever fi ghting one other. When
Rome’s Julius Caesar invaded Gaul in 58 b.c.e., he took ad-
vantage of this Celtic trait, playing one tribe against another.
Some Celtic leaders thought that they could use the Roman
army to good advantage and allied themselves with the Ro-
mans in the hope of having the Romans destroy a particularly
hated enemy.
Out of the Celtic tribes of southern Gaul arose Vercin-
getorix, a member of the Averni tribe. His father had been
chief of the Averni but had been executed for being too ambi-
tious, perhaps meaning that he had tried to become a tyrant
rather than rule by the consent of the tribe’s warriors. In 53
b.c.e. Celtic tribes rebelled against Caesar, and Vercingetorix
had urged the Averni to join the rebellion. For this rebellion
he was expelled from the tribe, yet he continued to agitate for
war and drew to him many disgruntled young warriors and
other warriors who were leaderless. With their assistance, he
seized control of the Averni government.
Th e rebellion had begun under the leadership of Indutio-
marus, chief of the Treveri tribe, who had led a winter attack
on a Roman camp. His army was defeated, and he was hunted
down and killed in 53 b.c.e. Vercingetorix’s most remarkableempires and dynasties: Europe 407