A Brief History by the Victor

Abstract

The extent of Etruscan influence on early Rome is nearly impossible to determine because ancient authors have masked Rome's Etruscan heritage. The primary written sources preserve a complex and often disguised account of Rome's debt to Etruria but Etruscan origins are obscured to such a degree that the arguments over the magnitude of Etruscan influence range from claims that the influence is minor to advocacies for a wholesale Roman import of Etruscan ideas and technology. Modern scholars have attempted to add to the list present in the primary sources by using archaeological and linguistic evidence but there is no consensus for an accepted set of Etruscan borrowings. By investigating the primary sources, I argue that the seemingly disordered Roman treatment of Etruscan influences is not accidental and that the complexity of the tradition illustrates the willingness of ancient authors to remove all traces of Etruscan recognition from Roman rituals.