Etruscan Religion
ETRUSCAN RELIGION. Between the beginning of the eighth century BCE and the end of the fifth century BCE, Etruria was the dominant power in central Italy. The Etruscans had built up profitable commercial relations with the Phoenicians and the Greeks, established on the island of Pithecusa (modern Ischia) in Campania, then on the mainland in the town of Cumae around 750 BCE. This wealth and these relations allowed them to develop a much more advanced level of civilization than other peoples of the region. One indication of this is that Rome was under the rule of Etruscan kings between 616 and 509 BCE. Yet it is not this image of a military and political power that the Romans retained concerning their northern neighbors; as the historian Livy remarked at the time of Emperor Augustus, they were "the people most dedicated to matters of religion" (Livy 5.1.6). Thus the Romans saw the Etruscans' intense religious nature as their distinctive characteristic.
Sources of Information on the Etruscan Religion
This appreciative judgment concerning Etruscan religion might appear surprising in that the Etruscan religion seems to be simply a rather ordinary polytheism with gods like those in the Greek or Roman pantheon.
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