Italy is a peninsula jutting out into the Medditerranean sea west of Greece. Italy
             has poor mineral resources and very few useful harbors, however it is wealty in both
             fertile land and precipitation. Three - quarters of the peninsula is covered in foothills
             and mountains. The alps, a mountian range to the north of Italy, cut off the peninsulas
             only land connection, which resulted, in the times of Ancient Rome, in the people
             The Etruscans were mysterious people who settled on the Italian Peninsula
             somewhere between 900 and 800 BC. No one is really certain about their origin,
             however archaeologists suspect that they came from the eastern Medditerannean. The
             Etruscans ruled in north-eastern Italy, between the Appentine mountian range and the
             Tyrrhenian Sea. Their civilization streched from the Arno River in the north to the Tiber
             River which is more towards the center of the Italian Peninsula. Te Tiber River is where
             the Roman Empire would sit years later.
             The Etruscans lived in independent city-states. In the earliest times, these
             city-states were ruled by a monarchy, but were later ruled by oligarchies that governed
             through a coucil and elected officials. The Etruscans were largely agricultural people,
             however they also had a strong miliatary,which they used to dominate te surrounding
             societies. These dominated populations were forced by the Etruscans to do their
             ricultural labor, which left time for the Etruscans to devote to commerce and industry.
             They were sophisticated people, with and alphebet based on the Greek
             alphabet, an original style in sculpture and painting, a religion based on human like
             gods, and a complicated set of rituals which they performed annually.
             While the Etruscans were concentrating on building their power over all of Italy
             and engaging in commerce, a city to their south began to the grow. This city seemed to
             immitate the Etruscans in many ways. This new kingd...