12. North-east of Cisalpine Gaul, at the upper extremity of the Adriatic, lay the territory of the Venetians; they were a rich and unwarlike people, and submitted to the Romans without a struggle, long before northern Italy had been annexed to the dominions of the republic.
13. Central Italy comprises six countries, Etru’ria, La’tium, and Campa’nia on the west; Um’bria, Pice’num, and Sam’nium, on the east.
14. Etru’ria, called also Tus’cia (whence the modern name Tuscany) and Tyrrhe’nia, was an extensive mountainous district, bounded on the north by the river Mac’ra, and on the south and east by the Tiber. The chain of the Apennines, which intersects middle and Lower Italy, commences in the north of Etru’ria. The chief river is the Ar’nus, Arno. 15. The names Etruscan and Tyrrhenian, indifferently applied to the inhabitants of this country, originally belonged to different tribes, which, before the historic age, coalesced into one people. The Etruscans appear to have been Celts who descended from the Alps; the Tyrrhenians were undoubtedly a part of the Pelas’gi who originally possessed the south-east of Europe. The circumstances of the Pelasgic migration are differently related by the several historians, but the fact is asserted by all.[1] These Tyrrhenians brought with them the knowledge of letters and the arts, and the united people attained a high degree of power and civilization, long before the name of Rome was known beyond the precincts of Latium. They possessed a strong naval force, which was chiefly employed in piratical expeditions, and they claimed the sovereignty of the western seas. The first sea-fight recorded in history was fought between the fugitive Phocians,[2] and the allied fleets of the Tyrrhenians and the Carthaginians (B.C. 539.)
16. To commerce and navigation the Etruscans were indebted for their opulence and consequent magnificence; their destruction was owing to the defects of their political system. There were twelve Tuscan cities united in a federative alliance. Between the Mac’ra and Arnus were, Pi’sae, Pisa; Floren’tia, Florence; and Fae’sulae: between the Arnus and the Tiber, Volate’rrae, Volterra; Volsin’ii, Bolsena; Clu’sium, Chiusi; Arre’tium, Arrezzo; Corto’na; Peru’sia, Perugia, (near which is the Thrasamene lake); Fale’rii, and Ve’ii.