empires and dynasties: Europe ETRUSCANS Studying the ancient Etruscans can quickly make clear the problems historians have in reconstructing Europe’s past The Etruscans had their own written language, and they were for a time the rulers of Rome The Romans wrote many histories about themselves, so it would be reasonable to assume that there would be plenty of information about the Etruscans, yet they are still a mysterious people Their language is strange; it does not fit with Celtic, Latin, or Greek languages, making it hard to translate Most histories were written by outsiders— the Greeks, who regarded the Etruscans as enemies because the Etruscans had allied themselves with the Carthaginians to limit Greek trade in the western Mediterranean, and the Romans, who had fought wars against the Etruscans and typically characterized Etruscans as indolent and obese The empire of the Etruscans began to develop around 900 b.c.e in Etruria, a region of northwest-central Italy Called the “Villanovan” culture by archaeologists, it encompassed several towns and stretched from the west coast to the east coast across Italy By 600 b.c.e the towns had become the Etruscan League, a federation of city-states that cooperated in foreign and military affairs Their empire extended south past Salerno, west into Corsica, north to the Alps, and east to the northwestern Adriatic Sea An Etruscan city-state was governed by zilaths, who were members of an assembly, perhaps like community elders or like Roman senators These cities belonged to 12 divisions of the Etruscan League, each division ruled by a king Kingships seem to have been hereditary, but succession practices are not clear The Etruscan League also had a general assembly where the zilaths would meet to select a “first zilath,” who could lead the entire league, especially during wars These general assemblies seem to have selected the first zilath once a year, but some first zilaths were reelected several times A prominent Etruscan king was Porsena, ruler of the city of Clusium When the city of Rome deposed its Etruscan king Tarquinius Superbus in 510 b.c.e., Porsena provided the army that was intended to put Tarquinius Superbus back on Rome’s throne According to Roman histories, Rome was saved by heroic stands of small groups of Roman soldiers against the advance of the mighty Etruscan army Some historians doubt that the Roman histories tell the truth, suggesting that Porsena’s army actually defeated the Romans In any case, Porsena seems to have been regarded as one of the Etruscans’ great kings After Porsena’s time Etruscan power waned while the Etruscans lost wars to Carthaginian, Greek, Roman, and Celtic rivals The Etruscan city-sates retained their cultural identities even during Roman rule The Etruscans received Roman citizenship in 88 b.c.e NORICUM Noricum was a Celtic kingdom east of the Alps and north of Italy, founded around 500 b.c.e Under the influence of the Romans, the people of Noricum developed a stable economy and existed mostly in peace with the Romans Not much is 407 known about their rulers, though they seem to have followed the typically Celtic practice of appointing new kings or queens rather than having a hereditary kingship The people of Noricum originally wore trousers but adopted Roman dress By the time the Romans invaded Gaul, Noricum had adopted so many Roman customs and laws that it was absorbed into the empire with little disruption to its people’s lives GAUL Until the Germanic invasions of the fift h century c.e., the Celts were the dominant ethnic group in Europe They were given the name Celts by the Greeks; they were called Gauls by the Romans They had what historians call a “heroic culture,” meaning a warrior culture in which great military deeds are exalted The Gauls usually did not see themselves as a single political nation They were divided into numerous tribes, and they were very mobile Entire tribes of tens of thousands of people would sometimes take everything they could carry and march to settle somewhere else, sometimes pushing out the people who already lived there, who themselves would move into a new area, driving people out This movement is how the Celts came to the Romans’ attention as a danger in 390 b.c.e Celtic tribes had been driven out of their homes and had settled in northern Italy From northern Italy they raided into other territories, and in 390 b.c.e they sacked Rome This attack made them a military target for the Romans Most Celtic tribes were ruled by kings The kingship was not hereditary, though the kingship tended to remain in one family At a king or a queen’s death, the elite class of the Celts, the warriors, would choose a replacement Rulers were much more often men than women, but tales recorded by Greek writers and Roman experiences with Celtic women suggest that there were formidable women rulers among the Celts The Celtic tribes were forever fighting one other When Rome’s Julius Caesar invaded Gaul in 58 b.c.e., he took advantage of this Celtic trait, playing one tribe against another Some Celtic leaders thought that they could use the Roman army to good advantage and allied themselves with the Romans in the hope of having the Romans destroy a particularly hated enemy Out of the Celtic tribes of southern Gaul arose Vercingetorix, a member of the Averni tribe His father had been chief of the Averni but had been executed for being too ambitious, perhaps meaning that he had tried to become a tyrant rather than rule by the consent of the tribe’s warriors In 53 b.c.e Celtic tribes rebelled against Caesar, and Vercingetorix had urged the Averni to join the rebellion For this rebellion he was expelled from the tribe, yet he continued to agitate for war and drew to him many disgruntled young warriors and other warriors who were leaderless With their assistance, he seized control of the Averni government The rebellion had begun under the leadership of Indutiomarus, chief of the Treveri tribe, who had led a winter attack on a Roman camp His army was defeated, and he was hunted down and killed in 53 b.c.e Vercingetorix’s most remarkable