ependent
bands of adventurers. These failed to assimilate the conquered populations
and after a few generations were overthrown by native revolutions or
outside invasions, especially since there was no Etruscan nation to
protect them in time of need. Thus failure to develop a strong national
state was the chief reason why the Etruscans did not unite Italy under
their dominion, as they gave promise of doing in the course of the sixth
century.

*The significance of the Etruscans in the history of Italy.* Our general
impression of the Etruscans is that they were a wealthy, luxury-loving
people, quick to appreciate and adopt the achievements of others, but
somewhat lacking in originality themselves. Cruel, they took delight in
gladiatorial combats, especially in Campania, where the Romans learned
this custom. Bold and energetic warriors, as their conquests show, they
lacked the spirit of discipline and cooeperation, and were incapable of
developing a stable political organization. Nevertheless, they played an
important part in the cultural development of Italy, even though here
their chief mission was the bringing of the Italian peoples into contact
with Hellenic civilization.

III. THE GREEKS

*Greek colonization.* As early as the eighth century the Greeks had begun
their colonizing activity in the western Mediterranean, and, in the course
of the next two centuries, they had settled the eastern and southern
shores of Sicily, stretched a chain of settlements on the Italian coast
from Tarentum to the Bay of Naples, and established themselves at the
mouth of the Rhone and on the Riviera. The opposition of Carthage shut
them out from the western end of Sicily, and from Spain; the Etruscans
closed to them Italy north of the Tiber; while the joint action of these
two peoples excluded them from Sardinia and Corsica.

In the fifth century these Greek cities in Sicily and Italy were at the
height of their power and prosperity. In Sicily they had penetrated from
the coast far into the interior where they had brought the Sicels under
their domination. By the victory of Himera, in 480 B. C., Gelon of
Syracuse secured the Sicilian Greeks in the possession of the greater part
of the island and freed them from all danger of Carthaginian invasion for
over seventy years. Six years later, his brother and successor, Hieron, in
a naval battle off Cyme, struck a crushing blow at the Etruscan naval
power a