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 THE ETRUSCAN ORNAMENT.  5* 
truscan was the name given to a people who lived in what is now called Tuscany
at the time when Rome was founded. It is impossible to trace the origin of
their descent, but it appears as if they had wandered down from the north,
and took forcible possession of the country about the year ioo.o B. C. in
which they afterwards 
Scene of a banquet settled and which was inhabited by non 
 (Marta, l'art etrusque). Ayrian Ligurian Nanaturian and other 
  races. The period of the highest develop 
ment of the Etruscans dates from 8oo to 400 B. C. They were s~ju~t~i~ by
the Romans, after which they gradually disappear from history, the only traces
of their once having existed being some few architectural monuments, chiefly
tombs, which have come down to us. Although the monuments left behind by
the Etruscans show most decided traces of Grecian influence, still, the hypothesis
that the Etruscans were of Grecian origin cannot be accepted on that account.
The racial differences between them and the Grecians were so marked, they
were so totally different in their physical constitution fro the latter,
that it is impossible to regard the Etruscans as of origin. It is possible
that in their wanderings towards Italy they came into intimate contact with
the Grecians, and thus brought with them the elements of Grecian art into
their adopted country. Theif art was in all probability subject to influences
proceeding from Phoenicia and Carthage, but more especially to ancient Ionic
influence. They understood, however, how to change all these influences in
such a way as to give them the stamp of their own national art. 
 At the period of their subjugation by the Romans, the Etruscans had brought
their own art to such a high state of development that it was able to exercise
~n influence by no means small on the development of Roman art which was
at that time in its infancy. Roman art came afterwards, of course, entirely
under the influence of Grecian art.