The origin of the Etruscans has been the subject of controversy since antiquity. Herodotus believed that they were the descendants of populations coming from Anatolia before 800 BC, who displaced the previous inhabitants, although Dionysius of Halicarnassus had them as autochthonous. Modern research has not reached a consensus either and experts ended up considering this issue unsolvable, going on to study, how society was organized, rather than where they came from. What is known with certainty is that by the middle of the 7th century BC their main cities had already been founded, beginning immediately a period of territorial expansion that ended up dominating a large region more or less in the center of the Italic peninsula, ranging from Veneto and Lombardy to Latium and Campania, what has been called Etruria. However, in the following centuries their conquests were threatened and several Italian peoples managed to have their advances remitted. Finally, their last strongholds were taken by the Romans, who absorbed their culture and caused their dissolution. At their peak, the Etruscans were the most powerful people in pre-Roman Italy and established a thriving civilisation with a large agricultural production, a powerful fleet, a flourishing trade covering much of the Mediterranean Sea and a unique culture, where art played a great role, having a major influence on the initial formation of the art of Ancient Rome.Ancient Italic people: The Etruscans. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
