9.8 Europe: 600 to 501 b.c.  (Page 4/4)

In the south, Pompeii was an important harbor for Nola and other Etruscan towns in Campania and fragments of their black pottery have been found there. Another Etruscan settlement was near Salerno. This Etruscan activity in Campania did not last long, however, as Etruscan Capua and Greek Cumae clashed violently about 525-524 B.C. when a force of Etruscans invaded the area in what has been called the "long march". Aristodemus, ruler of Cumae, repelled the invaders and later, with the help of adjacent Latin tribes, he further defeated the Etruscans near Aricia, between 506 and 504 B.C. (Ref. 75 ) In a Greek colony in southern Italy, Pythagoras established his brotherhood and incidentally developed his famous proof of C2= A2+ B2 in a triangle. The group placed such emphasis on the theory of numbers that ultimately it involved itself in a world of mystical, mathematical abstractions.

Sardinia and the western half of Sicily were conquered and occupied by Carthage in this century and of course there were multiple Greek colonies all along southern Italian coastal areas as well as on the southern and eastern coasts of Sicily. Somewhat replacing the Eubaean influence in the Mediterranean, another Greek city-state, Phocaea, now sent its fleet west to establish trading colonies at Massalia and Alalia (now Aleria) on eastern Corsica. These Greeks were interested mainly in trade for metals, and Etruria was the final resource. The capture of the Phocaean and other Ionian homelands by the Persians actually sent floods of Greek refugees to the west and thus Etruscan art of this period displays many Ionian characteristics. The southern parts of France, Italy, Greece and Turkey are today all very similar genetically in their populations, indicating the probable influence of this early Greek colonization.

From about 540 B.C. onwards, the Caeritans, guided by lonian artists who had flooded the area, developed an impressive new school of ceramics which, among other things, produced handsome water jars with rich polychrome paintings of Greek mythological scenes. The new wave of Phocaean settlers who arrived at Alalia in mid-century extensively plundered the surrounding territories with a consequent reaction by Carthaginian and Caeritan navies. As noted earlier in this chapter when discussing Carthage, these allies were actually defeated by the Phocaeans, but the latter also lost 40 ships and soon took their families from Alalia to Rhegum, in southwest Italy. The unfortunate Phocaean sailors of the 40 captured ships were slaughtered on the adjacent shore by the Caeritans. (Ref. 92 , 75 )

NOTE: Insert Map taken from reference 97, GREEK AND CARTHAGINIAN COLONIZATION OF SICILY AND SOUTHERN ITALY

Vetulonia, to the north, seems to have reached the climax of its political power during this century as a walled city with a two mile perimeter. It had commercial relations across the Arno and Apennines and received amber from the Baltic. One of the Vetulonia dominated cities was Populonia on a peninsula projecting into the sea not far from Elba. It participated with the island in iron and copper works and eventually became the real smelting center, as the supply of wood fuel on Elba dwindled.

Still north of Vetulonia and bordering on the sea was Volaterrae, noted for its fabrication of bronzes and sculptures of volcanic stone. The central city was surrounded by a wall four and one-half miles long, and its area of influence extended over to present day Florence, where mound tombs have been excavated. Volaterrae's inland neighbor was Clusium, an area originally occupied by Italic speaking Umbrians, but which eventually became Etruscanized while yet remaining biracial. King Lars Porsenna of Clusium was considered the most powerful Etruscan of all time, and his tomb has been described as a magnificent edifice, 300 feet square. The primary products of this inland community were agricultural, even though vast irrigation and drainage projects were necessary to limit flood waters. (Ref. 75 )

Central europe

In this century there was a continuing proliferation of the Hallstatt Celtic people throughout central Europe with a thin fringe of Teutons in the north. The Scythian nomads invaded, particularly in the great Hungarian plain, and greatly influenced Celtic art and society in general. From them may have come the war-horse with the bronze bits and harnesses and the head-hunting custom, all of which were later considered a part of the Celtic tradition. Bronze Age Indo-Europeans, Scythians and Greek concepts apparently all coalesced into the new Celtic pattern, with a center at Heuneburg, on the German Danube. (Ref. 116 , 91 )

Western europe

By 500 B.C. the influx of Celts into southwestern Spain (Andalusia) was so great that the local spoken language changed from Phoenician to Celtic, but even so the Tartessian culture persisted with Carthaginians taking over the old Phoenician settlements. The Phocaean colony of Massilia was founded on the Mediterranean coast of France in 600 B.C. and it allowed commercial relations between the Celts and the Mediterranean cultures. Vinyards may have been planted on French soil about this time, after the Greeks started importing their own wine into the Marseilles area. All the Atlantic coast and Britain continued under Celtic domination. (Ref. 65 , 8 , 196 )

Scandinavia

Although in this century iron was used exclusively for farming and war, the Scandinavian tribes continued to make bronze implements, bibelots and costume jewelry of great excellence and intricacy. The populations were increasing rapidly and people were already beginning to migrate to the European continent, proper. The Finnish people continued to live in widely spread villages throughout the northern regions from northern Scandinavia to and perhaps beyond the Ural Mountains. (Ref. 88 )

Eastern europe

Finns and Lapps lived throughout the northern areas of Russia while Balts inhabited the southern coast of the Baltic Sea and on east to the Don River. South of the Balts were the early Slavs, and now through this area the Scandinavians pushed up the Vistula River as far as the Carpathians. In southern Russia the Scythians were decimated by a mysterious disease, although Darius' invasion may have had something to do with it also. In the spring of 514 B.C. Darius of Persia crossed the Bosporus with a vast army and moved through Thrace into Scythia, but his 700,000 men were very nearly consumed by the Scythians' military wizardry as they retreated using a "scorched earth" policy, so that Darius finally had to withdraw the remnants of his starving army. (Ref. 176 )

Forward to 500 to 401 B.C.

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