Episode 13 Etruscan Government

The Mysterious Etruscans

Dr Steven L Tuck (2016)

Film Review

Between 800 and 600 BC each Etruscan city was ruled by an elected king. Etruscan aristocrats voted to appoint one of their members as king (for life). In the late 7th century BC, some Etruscan cities were ruled by “tyrants.” The Greek word tyrant referred to a populist ruler whose from the lower classes and who worked to the detriment of the aristocracy. Athens, Syracuse, Corinth, Cerveterei and Rome all had a history of replacing aristocratic kings with populist tyrants. None were despots in the modern sense of the word tyrant.

As growing trade led to an expanding middle class, the Etruscan city-states overthrew their last kings, replacing them with participatory republican government (as Rome did). Etruscans tore down the palaces and mansions of their former aristocrats and replaced them with orthogonally planned (grid-based) cities with square homes of equal size. In Etruria, peoples assemblies met annually to elect magistrates to run their cities and priests their religious shrines.

All outward trappings of Rome’s republican government were of Etruscan origin: (eg the white toga of citizenship and the purple striped toga designating a magistrate.) Initially Rome consisted of a loose network of cities (like the Etruscan leagues), until they opted for central government. Fifty percent of magistrates elected to run Roman cities were Etruscan.

Government under the Etruscan leagues was similar to that of the US Continental Congress under the Articles of Confederation. The leagues had no power to wage war, tax or regulate trade although they were allowed to make treaties with non-Etruscan states. Following Rome’s conquest of Etruria in the 3rd century BC, each Etruscan city negotiated a separate peace with Rome.

*Prior to the 5th century, Etruscan Italy was made up of three 12-city leagues, In addition to Etruria there was a league in southern Italy (in the modern day Campania Region) and in northern Italy in the Po River Valley. Each league met annually at Etruria’s principle religious sanctuary Voltumnae (located between Orvieto and Viterbo in modern Italy) to appoint an official to oversee the league.

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https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/239710/239635