L’Etruria nel V secolo a.C. tra continuità e discontinuità

Between continuity and discontinuity Etruscan history was dominated by the gentilic organization, which guaranteed the stability of the institutions and assured the privilege of the ruling class, based on the ownership of land, livestock and the sources of metals. In 6th cent. BC the countryside was intensively used through extensive drainage systems with tunnels and canals. The power reached by the Etruscan elites allowed them to attend the Greek sanctuaries and in 6th-5th cent. BC the Etruscan cities of Caere and Spina were admitted to build their own thesauroi in the panhellenic sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi. A new balance of power begun in the 5th cent. BC, when are documented international conflicts in the Mediterranean and internal clashes in Etruria among cities: in the sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia the Greeks of Syracuse offered Etruscan helmets as war’s booty and at Vetulonia more than 120 Etruscan helmets of the same shape belonging to a gentilic army were destroyed and buried.