There have been three hypotheses as to the origins of the Etruscan civilization in the Early Iron Age: either by autochthonous development in situ out of the Villanovan culture of Etruria in northern and central Italy, or via an eastern (Anatolian or Thessalian) colonization of Italy. The third hypotheses was reported by Livy and Pliny the Elder, and puts the Etruscans in the context of the Rhaetian people to the north and other populations living in the Alps.Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome (Ab Urbe Condita), Book 5 The first Greek author to mention the Etruscans, whom the Ancient Greeks called Tyrrhenians, was the 8th-century BC poet Hesiod, in his work, the Theogony. He mentioned them as residing in central Italy alongside the Latins.Hesiod, Theogony 1015. The 7th-century BC Homeric Hymn to DionysusHomeric Hymn to Dionysus, 7.7–8 referred to them as pirates.John Pairman Brown, Israel and Hellas, Vol. 2 (2000) p. 211 Unlike later Greek authors, such as Herodotus and Hellanicus, these earlier Greek authors did not suggest that Etruscans had migrated to Italy from elsewhere.
