The Etruscans

Around 900 BCE, a new group of people arrived on the Italian peninsula.  Nobody knows where they come from, but archaeologists believe they probably emigrated from southwest Asia.

The Etruscans alphabet was based on the Greek alphabet.  The Etruscan gods looked human, like the Greek gods.  But the Etruscans were not Greeks.  Their language was different, and unlike the Greeks, they treated women like equals.

Like the Greeks, the Etruscans organized their towns into city-states and the city-states worked together in a league - the Etruscan League.

The league of city-states mostly cooperated in trade and in war, although sometimes they fought each other.  Their trade routes included a small town on the Tiber river, the village of Rome.  The Romans were Latins, not Etruscans, and were not a member of the Etruscan League.  However, in the early days of Rome, when Rome was a kingdom, the Romans did have many Etruscan kings.  As Rome grew stronger, the power of the Etruscans grew weaker.  Soon, the Etruscan League was gone.

After the last Etruscan king was chased out of Rome, the people vowed they would never be ruled by a king again. Rome was no longer a kingdom. In its place, a new form of government was born, a republic, the Roman Republic.

Etruscans Culture (video)

The Etruscans (quia)

Horatius at the Bridge (short story for kids)

Roman government - Kingdom, Roman Republic