The Etruscans

The Etruscans

• Could they have come from Troy?

• Romulus and Remus

The Etruscans

• The Latins were the first people to live in the area that eventually became Rome.

• The Latins were primarily farmers.

• The Latins are still there today.

The Etruscans

• What we know of the Etruscans we know from the necropolis that they left behind

– City of the dead

– A cemetery

The Etruscans

• Etruscan society had three classes of people

• The Aristocrats– Landowners– Priests– Nobles

The Etruscans

• The Middle Class• Farmers• Merchants• Workers

The Etruscans

• Lower class• The enslaved people • Acrobats

The Etruscans

• When the Etruscans founded a city they used soothsayers to show where the boundaries of the city should be.

The Etruscans

• They built their cities of brick.

• Etruscans figured out how to make bridges using the arch.

The Etruscans

• The Etruscan alphabet was based on the Greek alphabet

• Etruscan writing has never been translated.

The Etruscans

• Slaves fought against each other as part of the Etruscan burial rites.

• Losers were buried with the dead as their servants.

The Etruscans

• The Etruscan symbol of power was called a fasces

• Symbolized the power of life and death like the crook and flail

The Etruscans

• Etruscans built the first temple on one of the seven hills of Rome, the Capitoline.

The Etruscans

• The Etruscans believed the spirits of the dead returned to the earth three times a year.