foes. They were called the Etruscans and they were (and still are) one
of the great mysteries of history. Nobody knew (or knows) whence they
came; who they were; what had driven them away from their original
homes. We have found the remains of their cities and their cemeteries
and their waterworks all along the Italian coast. We are familiar with
their inscriptions. But as no one has ever been able to decipher the
Etruscan alphabet, these written messages are, so far, merely annoying
and not at all useful.

Our best guess is that the Etruscans came originally from Asia Minor and
that a great war or a pestilence in that country had forced them to
go away and seek a new home elsewhere. Whatever the reason for their
coming, the Etruscans played a great role in history. They carried the
pollen of the ancient civilisation from the east to the west and they
taught the Romans who, as we know, came from the north, the first
principles of architecture and street-building and fighting and art and
cookery and medicine and astronomy.

But just as the Greeks had not loved their AEgean teachers, in this same
way did the Romans hate their Etruscan masters. They got rid of them
as soon as they could and the opportunity offered itself when Greek
merchants discovered the commercial possibilities of Italy and when the
first Greek vessels reached Rome. The Greeks came to trade, but they
stayed to instruct. They found the tribes who inhabited the Roman
country-side (and who were called the Latins) quite willing to learn
such things as might be of practical use. At once they understood the
great benefit that could be derived from a written alphabet and
they copied that of the Greeks. They also understood the commercial
advantages of a well-regulated system of coins and measures and weights.
Eventually the Romans swallowed Greek civilisation hook, line and
sinker.

They even welcomed the Gods of the Greeks to their country. Zeus was
taken to Rome where he became known as Jupiter and the other divinities
followed him. The Roman Gods however never were quite like their
cheerful cousins who had accompanied the Greeks on their road through
life and through history. The Roman Gods were State Functionaries. Each
one managed his own department with great prudence and a deep sense
of justice, but in turn he was exact in demanding the obedience of his
worshippers. This obedience the Romans rendered with scrupulous care.
But they never established t