Chapter II: Front Matter (2)

ETHYL CHLORIDE, or HYDROCHLORIC ETHER, C2H5Cl, a chemical compound prepared by passing dry hydrochloric acid gas into absolute alcohol. It is a colourless liquid with a sweetish burning taste and an agreeable odour. It is extremely volatile, boiling at 12.5 deg. C. (54.5 deg. F.), and is therefore a gas at ordinary room temperatures; it is stored in glass tubes fitted with screw-capped nozzles. The vapour burns with a smoky green-edged flame. It is largely used in dentistry and slight surgical operations to produce local anaesthesia (q.v.), and is known by the trade-name kelene. More volatile anaesthetics such as anestile or anaesthyl and coryl are produced by mixing with methyl chloride; a mixture of ethyl and methyl chlorides with ethyl bromide is known as somnoform.

ETHYLENE, or ETHENE, C2H4, or H2C:CH2, the first representative of the series of olefine hydrocarbons, is found in coal gas. It is usually prepared by heating a mixture of ethyl alcohol and sulphuric acid. G.S. Newth (_Jour. Chem. Soc._, 1901, 79, p. 915) obtains a purer product by dropping ethyl alcohol into syrupy phosphoric acid (sp. gr. 1.75) warmed to 200 deg. C., subsequently raising the temperature to 220 deg. C. It can also be obtained by the action of sodium on ethylidene chloride (B. Tollens, _Ann._, 1866, 137, p. 311); by the reduction of copper acetylide with zinc dust and ammonia; by heating ethyl bromide with an alcoholic solution of caustic potash; by passing a mixture of carbon bisulphide and sulphuretted hydrogen over red-hot copper; and by the electrolysis of a concentrated solution of potassium succinate,

(CH2.CO2K)2 + 2H2O = C2H4 + 2CO2 + 2KOH + H2.

It is a colourless gas of somewhat sweetish taste; it is slightly soluble in water, but more so in alcohol and ether. It can be liquefied at -1.1 deg. C., under a pressure of 421/2 atmos. It solidifies at -181 deg. C. and melts at -169 deg. C. (K. Olszewski); it boils at -105 deg. C. (L.P. Cailletet), or -102 deg. to -103 deg. C. (K. Olszewski). Its critical temperature is 13 deg. C., and its specific gravity is 0.9784 (air = 1). The specific gravity of liquid ethylene is 0.386 (3 deg. C.). Ethylene burns with a bright luminous flame, and forms a very explosive mixture with oxygen. For the combustion of ethylene see FLAME. On strong heating it decomposes, giving, among other products, carbon, methane and acetylene (M. Berthelot, _Ann._, 1866, 139, p. 277). Being an unsaturated hydrocarbon, it is capable of forming addition products, e.g. it combines with hydrogen in the presence of platinum black, to form ethane, C2H6, with sulphur trioxide to form carbyl sulphate, C2H4(SO3)2, with hydrobromic and hydriodic acids at 100 deg. C. to form ethyl bromide, C2H5Br, and ethyl iodide, C2H5I, with sulphuric acid at 160-170 deg. C. to form ethyl sulphuric acid, C2H5.HSO4, and with hypochlorous acid to form glycol chlorhydrin, Cl.CH2.CH2.OH. Dilute potassium permanganate solution oxidizes it to ethylene glycol, HO.CH2.CH2.OH, whilst fuming nitric acid converts it into oxalic acid. Several compounds of ethylene and metallic chlorides are known; e.g. ferric chloride in the presence of ether at 150 deg. C. gives C2H4.FeCl3.2H2O (J. Kachtler, _Ber._, 1869, 2, p. 510), while platinum bichloride in concentrated hydrochloric acid solution absorbs ethylene, forming the compound C2H4.PtCl2 (K. Birnbaum, _Ann._, 1868, 145, p. 69).

ETIENNE, CHARLES GUILLAUME (1778-1845), French dramatist and miscellaneous writer, was born near Saint Dizier, Haute Marne, on the 5th of January 1778. He held various municipal offices under the Revolution and came in 1796 to Paris, where he produced his first opera, _Le Reve_, in 1799, in collaboration with Antoine Frederic Gresnick. Although Etienne continued to write for the Paris theatres for twenty years from that date, he is remembered chiefly as the author of one comedy, which excited considerable controversy. _Les Deux Gendres_ was represented at the Theatre Francais on the 11th of August 1810, and procured for its author a seat in the Academy. A rumour was put in circulation that Etienne had drawn largely on a manuscript play in the imperial library, entitled _Conaxa, ou les gendres dupes_. His rivals were not slow to take up the charge of plagiarism, to which Etienne replied that the story was an old one (it existed in an old French _fabliau_) and had already been treated by Alexis Piron in _Les Fils ingrats_. He was, however, driven later to make admissions which at least showed a certain lack of candour. The bitterness of the attacks made on him was no doubt in part due to his position as editor-in-chief of the official _Journal de l'Empire_. His next play, _L'Intrigante_ (1812), hardly maintained the high level of Les Deux Gendres; the patriotic opera _L'Oriflamme_ and his lyric masterpiece _Joconde_ date from 1814. Etienne had been secretary to Hugues Bernard Maret, duc de Bassano, and in this capacity had accompanied Napoleon throughout his campaigns in Italy, Germany, Austria and Poland. During these journeys he produced one of his best pieces, _Brueys et Palaprat_ (1807). During the Restoration Etienne was an active member of the opposition. He was seven times returned as deputy for the department of Meuse, and was in full sympathy with the revolution of 1830, but the reforms actually carried out did not fulfil his expectations, and he gradually retired from public life. Among his other plays may be noted: _Les Deux Meres, Le Pacha de Suresnes_, and _La Petite Ecole des peres_, all produced in 1802, in collaboration with his friend Gaugiran de Nanteuil (1778-1830). With Alphonse Dieudonne Martainville (1779-1830) he wrote an _Histoire du Theatre Francais_ (4 vols., 1802) during the revolutionary period. Etienne was a bitter opponent of the romanticists, one of whom, Alfred de Vigny, was his successor and panegyrist in the Academy. He died on the 13th of March 1845.

His _Oeuvres_ (6 vols., 1846-1853) contain a notice of the author by
L. Thiesse.

ETIQUETTE, a term for ceremonial usage, the rules of behaviour observed in society, more particularly the formal rules of ceremony to be observed at court functions, &c., the procedure, especially with regard to precedence and promotions in an organized body or society. Professions, such as the law or medicine, observe a code of etiquette, which the members must observe as protecting the dignity of the profession and preventing injury to its members. The word is French. The O. Fr. _estiquette_ or _estiquet_ meant a label, or "ticket," the true English derivative. The ultimate origin is Teutonic, from _sticken_, to post up, stick, affix. Cotgrave explains the word in French as a billet for the benefit or advantage of him that receives it, a form of introduction and also a notice affixed at the gate of a court of law. The development of meaning in French from a label to ceremonial rules is not difficult in itself, but, as the _New English Dictionary_ points out, the history has not been clearly established.

ETNA (Gr. [Greek: Aitne], from [Greek: aitho], burn; Lat. _Aetna_), a volcano on the east coast of Sicily, the summit of which is 18 m. N. by W. of Catania. Its height was ascertained to be 10,758 ft. in 1900, having decreased from 10,870 ft. in 1861. It covers about 460 sq. m., and by rail the distance round the base of the mountain is 86 m., though, as the railway in some places travels high, the correct measurement is about 91 m. The height cannot have been very different in ancient times, for the so-called Torre del Filosofo, which is only 1188 ft. below the present summit, is a building of Roman date. The shape is that of a truncated cone, interrupted on the west by the Valle del Bove, a huge sterile abyss, 3 m. wide, bounded on three sides by perpendicular cliffs (2000 to 4000 ft.). Its south-west portion, which is the deepest, was perhaps the original crater. There are also some 200 subsidiary cones, some of them over 3000 ft. high, which have risen over lateral fissures. On the slopes of the mountain there are three distinct zones of vegetation, distinguished by Strabo (vi. p. 273 ff.). The lowest, up to about 3000 ft., is the zone of cultivation, where vegetables, and above them where water is more scanty, vines and olives flourish. Owing to its extraordinary fertility it is densely populated, having 930 inhabitants per sq. m. below 2600 ft., and 3056 inhabitants per sq. m. in the triangle between Catania, Nicolosi and Acireale. The next zone is the wooded zone, and is hardly inhabited, only a few isolated houses occurring. The lower part of it (up to about 6000 ft.) consists chiefly of forests of evergreen pines (_Pinus nigricans_), the upper (up to about 6800 ft.) of birch woods (_Betula alba_). A few oaks and red beeches occur, while chestnut trees grow anywhere between 1000 and 5300 ft. In the third and highest zone the vegetation is stunted, and there is a narrow zone of sub-Alpine shrubs, but no Alpine flora. In the last 2000 ft. five phanerogamous species only are to be found, the first three of which are peculiar to the mountain: _Senecio Etnensis_ (which is found quite close to the crater), _Anthemis Etnensis, Robertsia taraxacoides, Tanacetum vulgare_ and _Astragalus siculus_. No trace of animal life is to be found in this zone; for the greater part of the year it is covered with snow, but by the end of summer this has almost all melted, except for that preserved in the covered pits in which it is stored for use for cooling liquids, &c., in Catania and elsewhere. The ascent is best undertaken in summer or autumn. From the village of Nicolosi, 9 m. to the N.W. of Catania, about 7 or 8 hours are required to reach the summit. Thucydides mentions eruptions in the 8th and 5th centuries B.C., and others are mentioned by Livy in 125, 121 and 43 B.C. Catania was overwhelmed in 1169, and many other serious eruptions are recorded, notably in 1669, 1830, 1852, 1865, 1879, 1886, 1892, 1899 and March 1910.

According to Lyell, Etna is rather older than Vesuvius--perhaps of the same geological age as the Norwich Crag. At Trezza, on the eastern base of the mountain, basaltic rocks occur associated with fossiliferous Pliocene clays. The earliest eruptions of Etna are older than the Glacial period in Central and Northern Europe. If all the minor cones and monticules could be stripped from the mountain, the diminution of bulk would be extremely slight. Lyell concluded that, although no approximation can be given of the age of Etna, "its foundations were laid in the sea in the newer Pliocene period." From the slope of the strata from one central point in the Val del Bue he further concluded that there once existed a second great crater of permanent eruption. The rocks erupted by Etna have always been very constant in composition, viz. varieties of basaltic lava and tuff containing little or no olivine--the rock type known as labradorite. At Acireale the lava has assumed the prismatic or columnar form in a striking manner; at the rock of Aci it is in parts spheroidal. The Grotte des Chevres has been regarded as an enormous gas-bubble in the lava. The remarkable stability of the mountain appears to be due to the innumerable dikes which penetrate the lava flows and tuff beds in all directions and thus bind the whole mass together.

From the earliest times the mountain has naturally been the subject of legends. The Greeks believed it to be either the mountain with which Zeus had crushed the giant Typhon (so Pindar, Pyth. i. 34 seq.; Aeschylus, _Prometheus Vinctus_, 351 seq.; Strabo xiii. p. 626), or Enceladus (Virgil, _Georg._ i. 471; Oppian, Cyn. i. 273), or the workshop of Hephaestus and the Cyclopes (Cic. _De divin._ ii. 19; cf. Lucil., _Aetna_, 41 seq., Solin, 11). Several Roman writers, on the other hand, attempted to explain the phenomena which it presented by natural causes (e.g. Lucretius vi. 639 seq.; Lucilius, _Aetna_, 511 seq.). Ascents of the mountain were not infrequent in those days--one was made by Hadrian.

See Sartorius von Waltershausen, _Atlas des Aetna_ (Leipzig, 1880); E.
Chaix, _Carta Volcanologica e topographica dell' Etna_ (showing lava
streams up to 1892); G. de Lorenzo, _L'Etna_ (Bergamo, 1907).

ETNA, a borough of Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., in the western part of the state, on the W. bank of the Allegheny river (about 5 m. from its junction with the Monongahela), and about 2 m. N. of the city of Pittsburg, of which it is a suburb. Pop. (1880) 2334; (1890) 3767; (1900) 5384 (1702 foreign-born); (1910) 5830. It is served by the Pennsylvania railway and by electric lines. Among its industrial establishments are rolling mills, tube and pipe works, furnaces, steel mills, a brass foundry, and manufactories of electrical railway supplies, boxes, asbestos coverings, enamel work and ice. The city's industrial history dates from 1820, when a small factory for the manufacture of scythes and sickles was set up. Natural gas, piped from Butler county, was early used here as a fuel in the iron mills. Etna, formerly called Steuart's Town, was incorporated as a borough in 1869.

ETON, a town of Buckinghamshire, England, on the north (left) bank of the river Thames, opposite Windsor, within which parliamentary borough it is situated. Pop. of urban district (1901) 3301. It is famous for its college, the largest of the ancient English public schools. The "King's College of Our Lady of Eton beside Windsor" was founded by Henry VI. in 1440-1441, and endowed mainly from the revenues of the alien priories suppressed by Henry V. The founder followed the model established by William of Wykeham in his foundations of Winchester and New College, Oxford. The original foundation at Eton consisted of a provost, 10 priests, 4 clerks, 6 choristers, a schoolmaster, 25 poor and indigent scholars, and the same number of poor men or bedesmen. In 1443, however, Henry considerably altered his original plans; the number of scholars was increased to 70, and the number of bedesmen reduced to 13. A connexion was then established, and has been maintained ever since, though in a modified form, between Eton and Henry's foundation of King's College, Cambridge. One of the king's chief advisers was William of Waynflete, who had been master of Winchester College, and was appointed provost of Eton in 1443. Among further alterations to the foundation in this year was the establishment of _commensales_ or commoners, distinct from the scholars; and these under the name of "oppidans" now form the principal body of the boys. The college survived with difficulty the unsettled period at the close of Henry's reign; while Edward IV. curtailed its possessions, and was at first desirous of amalgamating it with the ecclesiastical foundation of St George, Windsor Castle. In 1506 the annual revenue amounted to L652; and through benefactions and the rise in the value of property the college has grown to be very richly endowed. In 1870 commissioners under an act of 1868 appointed the governing body of the college to consist of the provost of Eton, the provost of King's College, Cambridge, five representatives nominated respectively by the university of Oxford, the university of Cambridge, the Royal Society, the lord chief justice and the masters, and four representatives chosen by the rest of the governing body. By this body the foundation was in 1872 made to consist of a provost and ten fellows (not priests, but merely the members of the governing body other than the provost), a headmaster of the school, and a lower master, at least seventy scholars (known as "collegers"), and not more than two chaplains or conducts. Originally it was necessary that the scholars should be born in England, of lawfully married parents, and be between eight and sixteen years of age; but according to the statutes of 1872 the scholarships are open to all boys who are British subjects, and (with certain limitations as to the exact date of birth) between twelve and fifteen years of age. A number of foundation scholarships for King's College, Cambridge, are open for competition amongst the boys; and there are besides several other valuable scholarships and exhibitions, most of which are tenable only at Cambridge, some at Oxford, and some at either university. The teaching embraces the customary range of classical and modern subjects; but until the first half of the 19th century the normal course of instruction remained almost wholly classical; and although there were masters for other subjects, they were unconnected with the general business of the school, and were attended at extra hours.

The school buildings were founded in 1441 and occupied in part by 1443, but the whole original structure was not completed till fifty years later. The older buildings consist of two quadrangles, built partly of freestone but chiefly of brick. The outer quadrangle, or school-yard, is enclosed by the chapel, upper and lower schools, the original scholars' dormitory ("long chamber"), now transformed, and masters' chambers. It has in its centre a bronze statue of the royal founder. The buildings enclosing the inner or lesser quadrangle contain the residence of the fellows, the library, hall and various offices. The chapel, on the south side of the school-yard, represents only the choir of the church which the founder originally intended to build; but as this was not completed Waynflete added an ante-chapel. The chapel was built upon a raised platform of stone, as was the hall, in order to lift it above the flood-level of the Thames. It contains some interesting monuments of provosts of the college and others, and at the west end of the ante-chapel is a fine marble statue of the founder in his royal robes, by John Bacon. A chantry contains the tomb of Roger Lupton (provost 1503-1535), whose most notable monument is the fine tower between the school-yard and the cloisters to the east; though other parts of his building also remain. The space enclosed by two buttresses on the north side of the chapel, at the point where steps ascend to the north door, is the model of the peculiar form of court for the game of fives which takes name from Eton, with its "buttress" (represented by the projecting balustrade), the ledges round the walls, and the step dividing the floor into two levels. From the foundation of the college the chapel was used as the parish church until 1854, and not until 1875, after the alteration of the ancient constitution had secularized the foundation, was the parish of Eton created into a separate vicarage. The chapel does not accommodate the whole school; and a new chapel, from the designs of Sir Arthur Blomfield, is used by the lower school. The library contains many manuscripts (notably an Oriental and Egyptian collection) and rare books; and there is also a library for the use of the boys. The college in modern times has far outgrown its ancient buildings, and new buildings, besides the lower chapel, include the new schools, with an observatory, a chemical laboratory, science schools and boarding-houses. In 1908 King Edward VII. opened a fine range of buildings erected in honour of the Old Etonians who served in the South African War, and in memory of those who fell there. The architect was Mr L.K. Ball, an old Etonian. The buildings include a school hall, a domed octagonal library, and a classical museum.

The principal annual celebration is held on the 4th of June, the birthday of King George III., who had a great kindness for the school. This is the speech-day; and after the ceremonies in the school a procession of boats takes place on the Thames. In the sport of rowing Eton occupies a unique position among the public schools, and a large proportion of the oarsmen in the annual Oxford and Cambridge boat-race are _alumni_ of the school. Another annual celebration is the occasion of the contest between collegers and oppidans at a peculiar form of football known as the wall game, from the fact that it is played against a wall bordering the college playing-field. This game takes place on St Andrew's Day, the 30th of November. The field game of football commonly played at Eton has also peculiar rules. The annual cricket match between Eton and Harrow schools, at Lord's ground, London, is always attended by a large and fashionable gathering. A singular custom termed the _Montem_, of unknown origin, but first mentioned in 1561, was observed here triennially on Whit-Tuesday. The last celebration took place in 1844, the ceremony being abolished just before it fell due in 1847. It consisted of a procession of the boys in a kind of military order, with flags and music, headed by their "captain," to a small mound called Salt Hill, near the Bath road, where they levied contributions, or "salt," from the passers-by and spectators. The sum collected sometimes exceeded L1000--the surplus, after deducting certain expenses, becoming the property of the captain of the school. The average number of pupils at Eton exceeds 1000.

See E.S. Creasy, _Memoirs of Eminent Etonians, with Notices of the
Early History of the College_ (1850); _Sketches of Eton_ (1873); Sir
H.C. Maxwell Lyte, _History of Eton College from 1440 to 1875_ (1875);
J. Heneage Jesse, _Memoirs of Celebrated Etonians_ (1875); _The Eton
Portrait Gallery_, by a Barrister of the Inner Temple (1875); A.C.
Benson, _Fasti Etonienses_ (1899); L. Cust, _History of Eton College_
(1899).

ETRETAT, a watering-place of France, in the department of Seine-Inferieure, on the coast of the English Channel, 161/2 m. N. by E. of Havre by road. Pop. (1906) 1982. It is situated between fine cliffs in which, here and there, the sea has worn archways, pinnacles and other curious forms. The small stream traversing the valley, at the extremity of which Etretat lies, flows underground for some distance but rises to the surface on the beach. A Roman road and aqueduct and other Roman and Gallic remains have been discovered. The church of Notre-Dame, a Romanesque building, with a nave of the 11th century and a central tower and choir of the 13th century, is a fine example of the Norman architecture of those periods. Fishing is carried on, though there is no port and the fishermen haul their boats up the beach; the old hulks (_caloges_) serve as sheds and even as dwellings. Etretat sprang into popularity during the latter half of the 19th century, largely owing to the frequent references to it in the novels of Alphonse Karr.

ETRURIA, an ancient district of Italy, the extent of which varied considerably, and, especially in the earliest periods, is very difficult to define (see section Language). The name is the Latin equivalent of the Greek [Greek: Turrenia] or [Greek: Tursenia], which is used by Latin writers also in the forms _Tyrrhenia, Tyrrhenii_; the Romans also spoke of Tusci, whence the modern Tuscany (q.v.). In early times the district appears to have included the whole of N. Italy from the Tiber to the Alps, but by the end of the 5th century B.C. it was considerably diminished, and about the year 100 B.C. its boundaries were the Arnus (Arno), the Apennines and the Tiber. In the division of Italy by Augustus it formed the seventh _regio_ and extended as far north as the river Macra, which separated it from Liguria.

_History_.--The authentic history of Etruria is very meagre, and consists mainly in the story of its relations with Carthage, Greece and Rome. At some period unknown, prior to the 6th century, the Etrurians became a conquering people and extended their power not only northwards over, probably, Mantua, Felsina, Melpum and perhaps Hadria and Ravenna (Etruria Circumpadana), but also southwards into Latium and Campania. The chronology of this expansion is entirely unknown, nor can we recover with certainty the names of the cities which constituted the two leagues of twelve founded in the conquered districts on the analogy of the original league in Etruria proper (below). In the early history of Rome the Etruscans play a prominent part. According to the semi-historical tradition they were the third of the constituent elements which went to form the city of Rome. The tradition has been the subject of much controversy, and is still an unsolved problem. It is practically certain, however, that there is no foundation for the ancient theory (cf. Prop. iv. [v.] 1. 31) that the third Roman tribe, known as Luceres, represented an Etruscan element of the population, and it is held by many authorities that the tradition of the Tarquin kings of Rome represents, not an immigrant wave, but the temporary domination of Etruscan lords, who extended their conquests some time before 600 B.C. over Latium and Campania. This theory is corroborated by the fact that during the reigns of the Tarquin kings Rome appears as the mistress of a district including part of Etruria, several cities in Latium, and the whole of Campania, whereas our earliest picture of republican Rome is that of a small state in the midst of enemies. For this problem see further under ROME: _History_, section "The Monarchy."

After the expulsion of the Tarquins the chief events in Etruscan history are the vain attempt to re-establish themselves in Rome under Lars Porsena of Clusium, the defeat of Octavius Mamilius, son-in-law of Tarquinius Superbus, at Lake Regillus, and the treaty with Carthage. This last event shows that the Etruscan power was formidable, and that by means of their fleet the Etruscans held under their exclusive control the commerce of the Tyrrhenian Sea. By this treaty Corsica was assigned to the Etruscans while Carthage obtained Sardinia. Soon after this, decay set in. In 474 the Etruscan fleet was destroyed by Hiero I. (q.v.) of Syracuse; Etruria Circumpadana was occupied by the Gauls, the Campanian cities by the Samnites, who took Capua (see CAMPANIA) in 423, and in 396, after a ten years' siege, Veii fell to the Romans. The battle of the Vadimonian Lake (309) finally extinguished Etruscan independence, though for nearly two centuries still the prosperity of the Etruscan cities far exceeded that of Rome itself. Henceforward Etruria is finally merged in the Roman state.

ETRUSCAN ANTIQUITIES

The large recent discoveries of Etruscan objects have not materially altered the conclusions arrived at a generation ago. It is not so much our appreciation of the broad lines of the manners and arts of the Etruscans that has altered as our understanding of the geographic and social causes which made them what they were. One great difficulty in the study of the remains is that a very large portion of them have been found by unofficial excavators who have been naturally unwilling to tell whence they came, and that certain other excavations, such as those carried out by Comm. Barnabei for the Villa Giulia museum, have been carried out under conditions which help but little towards increasing our knowledge.[1] The increase has, however, been steady, even if not all one could wish.

_Ethnology_.--The origin of the Etruscans will most likely never be absolutely fixed,[2] but their own tradition (Tacitus, _Ann._ iv. 55) that they came out of Lydia seems not impossible. Herodotus (i. 94) and Strabo (v. 220) tell of Lydians landing at the mouth of the Po and crossing the Apennines into Etruria. Thus it seems certain that though the earliest immigrants, known to the later Etruscans as the _Rasena_, may have come down from the north, still they were joined by a migration from the east before they had developed a civilization of their own, and it is this double race that became the Etruscans as we know them in tradition and by their works. To give a date to the migration of the Rasena from the north, for which the only evidence is the fact that the Etruscan language is found in various parts of north Italy,[3] is impossible, but we can perhaps give an approximate one to the coming of the Lydians or Tyrrhenians (Thuc. iv. 109; Herod. i. 57). We know that there was a great wave of migration from Greece to Italy about 1000 B.C., and as the earliest imported Greek objects found in the tombs cannot be dated many generations later than this, this year may be considered as giving us roughly the time when the real Etruscan civilization began.

It has been, and still is, a common mistake to speak of the Etruscans as though they were closely confined to that part of Italy called Etruria on the maps, but it is quite certain that in the early stages of their development they were differentiated from the Umbrians on the north-east and the Latins on the south in ways due rather to the locality than to race or essential character.[4] To primitive peoples open seas or deserts are a greater hindrance to intercourse than mountains or rivers, and even these did not cut off Etruria from the neighbouring regions of Italy. The Apennines that separated her from Umbria were not difficult to cross, and the Tiber which formed the boundary between her and Latium has been a far greater element of separation in the minds of modern authors than it ever was in reality. Narrow, not particularly swift, often shallow, such a stream can never have caused more than a moment's delay to the hardy Etruscans. When Rome was founded, the river of course could be used like a moat round a castle as a means of defence, but that is very different from its being a permanent bar to the spread of a given culture. The fact that the alphabets used in other parts of Italy besides Etruria are derived from the Etruscan or from similar Grecian sources, that Rome was ruled by Etruscan kings, that the temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline was decorated by Etruscan artists (Livy x. 23; Pliny, _H.N._ xxxv. 157), that the decorations of the temple found by Signor Mazzoleni near Conca (_Notizie degli scavi_, 1896) are of the same kind as others found in Etruria, show that the influences which grew to their clearest development in the region west of the Tiber had a marked effect over a broader region than is usually admitted. This too was the belief of the Greek historians, many of whom considered Rome as a Tyrrhenian city.[5]

_Cities and Organization_.--The chief cities of Etruria proper were Veii, Tarquinii, Falerii, Caere, Volci, Volsinii, Clusium, Arretium, Cortona, Perusia, Volaterrae (Volterra), Rusellae, Populonium and Faesulae. That the country was thickly settled is made plain by the ruins that have been found. It was governed by kings who were elected for life, but whose power depended largely on the leaders (_lucumones_) of the separate states or regions and on the aristocracy (Censorinus, _De die natali_, iv. 13). Later the office of king was abolished and replaced by annual magistrates (Livy v. 1). Below the aristocracy came the free people, who were divided into _curiae_ (Serv. _ad Aen._ x. 202), and then the slaves. There can be little doubt that the early organization of the people at Rome was typical of Etruria (Niebuhr, _Roem._ Gesch. 2nd ed. i. 389).

A league of twelve cities is mentioned by the ancients (Livy iv. 23), whose delegates met at the temple of Voltumna, but we are not told which cities formed the league, and there can be little doubt that the list changed from time to time. A glance at the map makes clear some of the general relations of these cities to one another and to the outer world. They are well spread all over the country, and by no means only along the coast. None of the important ones is among the mountains. This means that the earliest inhabitants of the country were not roving traders like the Mycenaean Greeks, and that the cities drew their wealth and strength from agricultural pursuits, for which the country was well suited, as the three rivers, Arnus, Umbro and Tiber, with their feeders (not to mention several lesser streams), channel it in all directions. We get a hint as to the government of the cities from the fact that many of the Roman forms and apanages of office were derived from the Etruscans (Dion. Hal. iii. 61); for instance, the diadem worn by those honoured with a triumph, the ivory sceptre and the embroidered toga (Tertull. _De Cor._ 13), and so too the golden bulla and the praetexta (Festus, s.v. "Sardi"). Such things give us an idea as to the aristocratic basis of the government. Of the actual laws we know something also. Cicero (_Div._ ii. 23) tells the story of the miraculous uncovering by a ploughboy of a child who had the wisdom of a sage, and how the child's words were written down by the amazed folk, and became their archives and the source of their law. Coming down to historic times we find that their code, known as the libri _disciplinae Etruscae_, consisted of various parts (Festus, s.v. "Ritualis"). There were the _libri haruspicini_ (Cic. _Div._ i. 33, 72), which dealt with the interpretation of the will of the gods by means of sacrifice; the _libri fulgurales_, which explained the messages of the gods in the thunder and lightning; and finally the _libri rituales_, which held the rules for the conduct of daily life--how to found cities, where to place the gates, how to take the census, and the general ordering of the people both in peace and war.

_Natural Resources and Commerce_.--Such was the country and such the laws. The people were a warrior stock with little commercial skill. Much of their wealth was due to trade, but they were not the restless, conquering blood that goes in search of new markets. They waited for the buyers to come to them. That their wealth and consequent power were gathered contemporaneously with that of Greece is shown by various facts. One of these is that Dionysius of Phocaea settled in Sicily after the Ionian revolt (in which his native city took part) had been quelled by Darius, and thence harried the Etruscans (Herod. vi. 17). Their power is also shown by the fact that they made an alliance with the Carthaginians, with the result that they obtained control of Corsica (Herod. i. 166), and this union continued for many generations.[6] That this treaty was no exceptional one is shown by Aristotle (_Pol._ iii. 96, _Op._ ii. 261), who says that there were numerous treatises, concerning their alliances and mutual rights, between the two peoples. That the Greeks held the Etruscans in considerable dread is suggested by the fact that Hesiod (_Theog._ 1011 foll.) names one of their leaders Agrios, "the Wild Man," and by the fear they had of the straits of Messina, where they imagined Scylla and Charybdis, which, unless the whirlpools were of very different character then than now, were as likely to be the pirate bands of Carthaginians and Etruscans who guarded the channel. And this explanation is strengthened by Euripides (_Med._ 1342, 1359), whose Medea compares herself to "Scylla, who dwells on the Tyrrhenian shore." The wealth that was the source of this power of the Etruscans must in the main have been drawn from agriculture and forestry. The rich land with its many streams could scarcely be surpassed for the raising of crops and cattle, and the hills were heavily timbered. That it was such material as this, which leaves no trace with the passing of time, that they sold cannot be doubted, for there is plenty of evidence that their country was visited by foreign traders of many lands, and that they bought largely of them, especially of metals. Metals also suggest that another source of their wealth was that of the middleman. Their towns were the centres of exchange, where the north and west met the south and east. They had no mines of gold or tin, but the carriers of tin, iron or amber[7] from the north met in the markets of Etruria the Phoenician and Greek merchants bringing gold and ivory and the other luxuries of the East. The quantities of gold, silver and bronze found in Etruscan tombs prove this clearly. Of these metals the only one found in unworked form, in what are practically pigs, is bronze. This in the form of _aes rude_ has frequently been found in considerable quantities, and the larger and better formed bits of metals known as _aes signatum_ are not rare. Both forms are usually spoken of as the earliest forms of money, but as the _aes rude_ generally bears no marks of valuation or of any mint, and as the _aes signatum_ is far too large and heavy for ordinary circulation, it is probable that these shapes of metal are not to be considered strictly or alone as coins, but as forms given to the alloy of tin and copper made and sold by the Etruscans to the foreigners for purposes of manufacture. This of course does not exclude their use as money. Where the copper for this bronze came from is not certain, but probably a great part was from the mines at Volaterrae. Still another proof that what the Etruscans sold was the product of their fields or crude metals imported from the north, is the fact that though in the museum at Carthage and elsewhere there are a few vases and other objects which probably come from Etruria, still such objects are extremely uncommon. On the other hand, articles obviously imported from the East are by no means uncommon in Etruria. Such are the ostrich shells from Volci,[8] the Phoenician cups from Palestrina,[9] the Egyptian glazed vases and scarabs found on more than one site.[10] All this goes to show that the Etruscans lacked in their earlier days skilful workers in the arts and crafts.

_Habits and Customs_.--The lack of literary remains of the Etruscans does not cramp our knowledge of their habits as much as might be supposed, owing to the numerous paintings that are left. These paintings are on the walls of the tombs at Veii, Corneto, Chiusi (Clusium), and elsewhere,[11] and give a varied picture of the dress, utensils and habits of the people. The evidence of many ancient authors cannot be questioned that as a race the Etruscans in historic times were much given to luxurious living. So much so in fact that Virgil (_Georg_. ii. 193) speaks of the _pinguis Tyrrhenus_ (a trumpeter at the altar) and Catullus (xxxix. 11) of the _obesus Etruscus_. Diodorus (v. 40) gives a succinct account in which he says that "their country was so fertile they derived therefrom not only sufficient for their needs but enough to supply them with luxuries. Twice a day they partook of elaborate repasts at which the tables were decked with embroidered cloths and vessels of gold and silver. The servants were numerous and noticeable for the richness of their attire. The houses, too, were large and commodious. In fact, giving themselves up to sensuous enjoyments they had naturally lost the glorious reputation their ancestors had won in war." This last remark shows that Diodorus recognized the important difference between the early Etruscans who built up the country and the later ones who merely enjoyed it. Naturally courtesans flourished in such a community. Timaeus and Theopompus tell how the women lived and ate and even exercised with the men (Athen. xii. 14; cf. iv. 38), habits which of course gave the Roman satirists many openings for attack (Plaut. _Cist._ ii. 3. 563; cf. Herod, i. 98; Strabo xi. 14). In dress they differed but little from the Romans, both wearing the toga and the tunic. Hats too, often of pointed form, were common (Serv. _ad Aen._ ii. 683), as the paintings show, but it was their shoes for which they were particularly famous. One author (Lydus, _de Magistr._ i. 17. 36) suggests that Romulus borrowed from Etruria the type of shoe he gave the senators, and this may well be true, though the form mentioned, the _kampagus_, is of late origin. At any rate [Greek: sandalia Turrenika] are frequently mentioned. From the pictures and remains we know that they had wooden soles strengthened with bronze, and that the uppers were of leather and bound with thongs.

Their occupations of trade and agriculture have been already mentioned. For their leisure hours they had athletic games including gladiatorial shows (Athen. iv. 153; cf. Livy ix. 40. 7; Strabo v. 250), hunting, music and dancing. All these are shown in the tomb pictures, and all, with the exception of the hunting, developed first as a part of religious service, and their importance is shown by the strictness of the rules that governed them (Cicero, _De harusp. resp._ ii. 23). Did a dancer lose step, or an attendant lift his hand from the chariot, the games lost their value as a religious service. An idea of the splendour of the triumphs that accompanied victorious generals and of the parades at the games is given by Appian (_De reb. Punic._ viii. 66) and Dionysius (vii. 92). The music that was an accompaniment of all their occupations, even of hunting (Aelian, _De natur. anim._ xii. 46), was mainly produced by the single or double flute, the mastery of which by the Etruscans was known to all the world. They also had small harps and trumpets.

For the regularization of all these duties and pleasures there was a calendar and time-division for the day. It is noteworthy that the beginning of the day was for them the moment when the sun was at the zenith (Serv. _ad Aen._ v. 738). In this they differed from the Greeks, who began their day with the sunset, and the Romans, who reckoned theirs from midnight. The weeks were of eight days, the first being market day and the day when the people could appeal to the king, and the months were lunar. The years were kept numbered by the annual driving of a nail into the walls of the temple of Nortia at Volsinii (Livy vii. 3. 7), a custom later adopted by the Romans, who used the Capitoline temple for the same purpose. In Rome this rite was performed on the Ides of September, and it is likely that it took place in Etruria on the same date, the natural end of the year among an agricultural folk. A still longer measure of time was the saeculum, which was supposed to be the length of the longest life of all those born in the year in which the preceding oldest inhabitant died (Censorinus, _De die natali_, 17. 5; cf. Zosimus ii. 1). According to later writers[12] the Etruscan race was to last ten _saecula_, and the emperor Augustus in his memoirs (Serv. _ad. Bucol._ ix. 47) says that the comet of the year 44 B.C. was said by the priests to betoken the beginning of the tenth _saeculum_. The earliest _saecula_ had been, according to Varro, 100 years long. The later ones varied in length from 105 to 123 years. The round number 100 is obviously an _ex post facto_ approximation, and the accuracy of the others is probably more apparent than real, but if we reckon back some 900 years from the date given by Augustus we arrive at just about the time when the archaeological evidence leads us to believe that the Etruscans in Italy were beginning to recognize their individuality.

_Religion_.--To retrace the religious development of the Etruscans from its mystic beginnings is beyond our power, and it is unlikely that any future discoveries will help us much. We are, however, able to draw a clear, if not a detailed, picture of the worship paid to the various divinities, partly from the direct information we have concerning them and partly from the analogies which may safely be drawn between them and the Romans.

The frequency of sacrifice among them and their belief in the short duration of the race[13] show clearly their belief in a good and a bad principle, and the latter seems to have been predominant in their minds. Storms, earthquakes, the birth of deformities, all gave evidence of evil powers, which could be appeased sometimes only by human sacrifice. We miss here the Greek joy in human life and the beauties of earth. The gods (_aesar_) were divided into two main groups, the _Dii Consentes_ and a vaguer set of powers, the _Dii Involuti_ (Seneca, _Quaest. Nat._ ii. 41), to whom even Jupiter bowed. They all dwelt in various parts of the heavens (Martianus Capella, _De nupt. Phil._ i. 41 ff.). Of the _Dii Consentes_ the most important group consisted of Jupiter (_Tinia_), Juno (_Uni_) and Minerva (_Menrva_). In some towns, such as Veii and Falerii, Juno was the chief deity, and at Perusia she was worshipped like the Greek Aphrodite in conjunction with Vulcan (the Greek _Hephaestus_). This shows that though in exterior form the Etruscan gods were influenced by the Greeks, still their character and powers betoken different beliefs. An interesting point to note about Minerva (_Menrva_) is that she was the goddess of the music of flutes and horns. The myth of Athena and Marsyas probably originated in Asia Minor, and a Pelasgian Tyrrhenian founded in Argos the temple of Athena Salpinx (Paus. ii. 21. 3). The evident connexion between Asia Minor and Etruria in these facts cannot be overlooked. Besides these deities there were Venus (_Turan_), Bacchus (_Fufluns_), Mercury (_Turms_), Vulcan (_Sethlans_). Of these, Sethlans is in a way the most important, for he shows a connexion in prehistoric times between Etruria and the East.[14] Other deities of Greek origin there were--Ares, Apollo, Heracles, the Dioscuri; in fact, as the centuries passed, the Greek divinities were adopted almost without exception. Besides these there were also many gods of Latin or Sabine origin, of whom little is known but their names; these may often be local appellations for the same god. Among these were Voltumna at Volsinii and Vertumnus at Rome, Janus, Nortia, goddess of Fortuna, Feronia, whose temple was at a town of the same name at the foot of Soracte,[15] Mantus, Pales, Vejovis, Eileithyia and Ceres. Such were the leading gods; in addition there was the world of spirits whom we know in Rome as the Manes, Lares and Penates. The latter were of four classes, pertaining to Jove, Neptune, the gods of the lower world, and to men.[16] The Lares too were of various sorts (_familiares, compitales, viales_), and with them the souls of the dead, after the performance of due expiatory rites, took their place as _dii animales_ (Serv. _ad Aen._ iii. 168 and 302). The Manes are the vaguest group of all and were confined almost wholly to the lower world (Festus, s.v. "Mundus"; Apuleius, _De deo Socratis_). Over all these ruled Mantus and Mania, the counterparts of Pluto and Persephone in Greece. As a result of this complete hierarchy of divine powers the priesthood of Etruria was large, powerful, and of such fame that Etruscan _haruspices_ were sent for from distant places to interpret the sacrifices and the oracles (Livy v. i. 6, xxvii. 37. 6).

_Art_.--The evidence drawn from tradition and custom which we have so far considered in relation to the origin and beliefs of the Etruscans has taken us into the prehistoric times much earlier than those when the handicrafts developed into true fine arts. The contents of the earliest graves[17] show but few traces of any feeling for art either in architecture or in the lesser forms of household and personal decoration. Gradually, however, as one comes down towards the more fixed historic periods, certain objects, obviously imported from the eastern Mediterranean, occur, and these are the first signs of an interest in the beauty or curiosity of things, an interest that local workmen could not yet satisfy, but which stirred them to endeavour. It was probably during the 9th century that this began, not long after the period when foreign trade began to flourish.

The history of Etruscan art has usually been wrongly estimated owing to the widespread delusion that objects found in Etruria were in the true sense products of native artists and indicative of native-grown culture. It is only recently, and not even yet completely, that the term "Etruscan" has been given up as the name for the terra-cotta vases (which were found in the 19th century by the earlier archaeologists of the modern scientific school in great quantities in the Etruscan tombs); these are now known to have been made by Greek potters. There are few books on the subject of Etruscan art. The best known is Jules Martha's _L'Art etrusque_ (2nd ed., 1889), a book which, though full of accurate data, shows absolute lack of discrimination between those works that are of Etruscan fabric and those that were brought from other lands, particularly Greece and the Greek colonies of Magna Graecia and Sicily. These latter are too generally forgotten in the study both of Greek and of Etruscan art, and all works which show the Greek spirit are vaguely supposed to have been produced on the Greek mainland. As much of the following must be to some extent controversial in character, a concrete illustration may serve to prevent misconception as to this important distinction. The beautiful throne in the Ludovisi collection representing the birth of Aphrodite is commonly spoken of as though made by some sculptor in Greece. It seems at least as likely that it comes from Sicily. Not only is the character of the modelling similar to what we find on Sicilian sculptures and coins, and not quite so sharp as on most works from Greece, but there is a lyrical feeling for nature in the pose of the figures and in the pebbled soil on which the main group stands, which seems to answer to the Sicilian feeling as we know it in poetry rather than to the Greek.

Architecture.

The houses of the earliest times were, to judge by the burial urns known from their shape as _hut-urns_, small single-room constructions of rectangular plan similar to certain types of the _capanne_ used by the shepherds to-day. Probably the walls were wattled and the roofs were certainly thatched, for the urns show plainly the long beams fastened together at the top and hanging from the ridge down each side. Tombs cut in the rock offer other and later models of house construction, but give no suggestion that the Etruscans had any artistic sense in architecture. Such tombs are mostly later than the 5th century B.C., and show the most simple form of wood construction. Posts or columns hold up the walls and the sloping roofs, the latter made of beams with boards laid lengthwise, covered by others from ridge to eave, the intervening space forming a coffer, sometimes decorated. Though the walls of such tombs are often covered with paintings, the relation of the various parts (and, let it be remembered, these tombs represent the houses of the living) shows but the coarsest sense of proportion. The elements of the decoration, such as capitals, mouldings, rosettes, patterns, are borrowed from Greece, Egypt or elsewhere, and are used redundantly and with no refinement.[18]

The temples did not differ from those in Greece in any essential principal of construction except that they were generally square, from the desire to make them answer to the _templum_ or quadripartite division of the heavens elaborated by the priests. In Roman times, "Etruscan style" was the term used for colonnades with wide intercolumniations, and this shows how the early builders used wood with its possibility of long architrave beams rather than stone as in Greece. The interior arrangements of the temple also varied from the Grecian models, for owing to the fact that the gods of Etruria were often worshipped in groups of three the cella was divided into three chambers. The decoration--metopes, friezes, acroteria, &c.--was of terra-cotta fastened by nails to the wooden walls.

Though we know that the Etruscans were famous for their games,[19] still there are no remains of _circi_, and so too, though the _satyristae_ were well known,[20] no theatres are left. They were obviously a race of no literary taste or culture. The theatre at Fiesole which is often referred to as Etruscan unquestionably dates from Roman times.

Underground tombs have already been mentioned in their relation to house-architecture, but there are the _tumuli_ such as that called _la Cucumella_ at Volci, that of the Curiatii at Albano, or that of Porsena at Clusium, which Pliny describes as one of the wonders of Italy (_H.N._ xxxvi. 19). These great walled-in mounds with their complex of interior chambers are interesting as reminiscent of tombs in Lydia, but architecturally they are barbaric and show no developed skill.

There remains one monument which has always been supposed to show a real advance made by the Etruscans in the art of architecture--the _cloaca maxima_ in Rome. This round-arched drain was supposed to have been built by Etruscans, and it was only in 1903 that Commendatore Boni in excavating the Forum proved that the drain was originally uncovered, and that the arch was built at the end of the Republic. Thus the honour, not of discovering the arch, for it was known to the East, but of popularizing its use, does not belong to the Etruscans, though they did use it at a comparatively late time for city gates, as at Volterra.[21] The false arch and dome of the Mycenaeans seems to have been familiar to them, though there are but few cases of its use on a large scale. The best-known instances are the Tullianum or Mamertine prison in Rome, the Regulini-Galassi tomb at Cervetri,[22] one at Sesto Fiorentino near Florence,[23] at Cortona,[24] at Chiusi, and also those in Latium.[25]