y of the Lydians, and then by confounding (Thucydides
is the first who has demonstrably done so) the Torrhebian pirates,
whether rightly or wrongly, with the bucaneering Pelasgians who
roamed and plundered on every sea, there has been produced one of
the most mischievous complications of historical tradition. The
term Tyrrhenians denotes sometimes the Lydian Torrhebi--as is the
case in the earliest sources, such as the Homeric hymns; sometimes
under the form Tyrrheno-Pelasgians or simply that of Tyrrhenians,
the Pelasgian nation; sometimes, in fine, the Italian Etruscans,
although the latter never came into lasting contact with the
Pelasgians or Torrhebians, or were at all connected with them by
common descent.

Settlements of the Etruscans in Italy

It is, on the other hand, a matter of historical interest to
determine what were the oldest traceable abodes of the Etruscans,
and what were their further movements when they issued thence.
Various circumstances attest that before the great Celtic invasion
they dwelt in the district to the north of the Po, being conterminous
on the east along the Adige with the Veneti of Illyrian (Albanian?)
descent, on the west with the Ligurians. This is proved in particular
by the already-mentioned rugged Etruscan dialect, which was still
spoken in the time of Livy by the inhabitants of the Raetian Alps,
and by the fact that Mantua remained Tuscan down to a late period.
To the south of the Po and at the mouths of that river Etruscans
and Umbrians were mingled, the former as the dominant, the latter
as the older race, which had founded the old commercial towns of
Atria and Spina, while the Tuscans appear to have been the founders
of Felsina (Bologna) and Ravenna. A long time elapsed ere the
Celts crossed the Po; hence the Etruscans and Umbrians left deeper
traces of their existence on the right bank of the river than they
had done on the left, which they had to abandon at an early period.
All the regions, however, to the north of the Apennines passed too
rapidly out of the hands of one nation into those of another to
permit the formation of any continuous national development there.

Etruria

Far more important in an historical point of view was the great
settlement of the Tuscans in the land which still bears their name.
Although Ligurians or Umbrians were probably at one time(5) settled
there, the traces of them have been almost wholly effaced by the
Etruscan occupation