n was not one of the old
twelve cities-- and the movement of the Etruscans in historical
times was from north to south, it seems probable that they migrated
into the peninsula by land. Indeed the low stage of civilization,
in which we find them at first, would ill accord with the hypothesis
of immigration by sea. Nations even in the earliest times crossed
a strait as they would a stream; but to land on the west coast of
Italy was a very different matter. We must therefore seek for the
earlier home of the Etruscans to the west or north of Italy. It is
not wholly improbable that the Etruscans may have come into Italy
over the Raetian Alps; for the oldest traceable settlers in the
Grisons and Tyrol, the Raeti, spoke Etruscan down to historical
times, and their name sounds similar to that of the Ras. These
may no doubt have been a remnant of the Etruscan settlements on
the Po; but it is at least quite as likely that they may have been
a portion of the people which remained behind in its earlier abode.

Story of Their Lydian Origin

In glaring contradiction to this simple and natural view stands
the story that the Etruscans were Lydians who had emigrated from
Asia. It is very ancient: it occurs even in Herodotus; and it
reappears in later writers with innumerable changes and additions,
although several intelligent inquirers, such as Dionysius, emphatically
declared their disbelief in it, and pointed to the fact that there
was not the slightest apparent similarity between the Lydians and
Etruscans in religion, laws, manners, or language. It is possible
that an isolated band of pirates from Asia Minor may have reached
Etruria, and that their adventure may have given rise to such tales;
but more probably the whole story rests on a mere verbal mistake.
The Italian Etruscans or the -Turs-ennae- (for this appears to
be the original form and the basis of the Greek --Turs-einnoi--,
--Turreinoi--, of the Umbrian -Turs-ci-, and of the two Roman forms
-Tusci-, -Etrusci-) nearly coincide in name with the Lydian people
of the --Torreiboi-- or perhaps also --Turr-einoi--, so named from
the town --Turra--, This manifestly accidental resemblance in name
seems to be in reality the only foundation for that hypothesis--not
rendered more trustworthy by its great antiquity--and for all the
pile of crude historical speculations that has been reared upon
it. By connecting the ancient maritime commerce of the Etruscans
with the pirac