The Etruscans were an ancient people who lived from about the 8th century to the 1st century BCE.They lived in Italy, between the Tiber and Arno rivers, and were surrounded by the Apennines and the Tyrrhenian Sea, which was named after them. Inside this area (Etruia) a number of independent Etruscan city-states developed, including Caere (Cerveteri), Chiusi, Tarquinia, Veii, Clusium, Orvieto, Perugia, Volterra, Fiesole, Vulci, Arezzo, Populonia, and Vetulonia. The Etruscans adopted much from the Greek civilization, including their alphabet. They also turned Rome into a city, but the Romans assimilated the Etruscans and brought an end to their culture.

Origins
The mystery surrounding the origins of the Etruscans is mostly due to the rarity of their language, which is unrelated to any other language in Europe or the Mediterranean. Etruscan was written in the Greek alphabet, and it is known mainly from about 11,000 short inscriptions of funerary, magic, and religious texts; no Etruscan literature survives.
Many historians have argued about the origins of the Etruscans. Herodotus thought that they came from Lydia, in Anatolia; Dionysius of Halicarnassus thought they originated in Italy. Modern scholars have continued to debate the subject. Archaeological evidence supports the autochthonous (native) theory, proving continuous relationships between the Etruscans when they began to write, and their predecessors, the Villanovans. Rather than origins, therefore, most scholars now debate about a development of the Etruscan people.

History
Etruria's great wealth was based on its fertile land and rich mineral ore resources, particularly the iron found on Elba and at Populonia. Flourishing harbors encouraged trade, and most cities were protected against piracy by their distance from the coast. Famous for their seamanship, the Etruscans formed an alliance with the Phoenician colony of Carthage. In the 6th century BC, they colonized the Po Valley to the north and Campania to the south; the last three kings of Rome were Etruscans, and King Lars Porsenna of Clusium also played a part in early Roman history.
Etruscan expansion was checked by their rivals, the Greek cities of southern Italy and Sicily, who defeated them in battles (524 BC and 474 BC) near the Greek colony of Cumae. The 5th century saw the decline of their flourishing trade with Greece and the beginning of their struggle with other neighbors in Italy: the Gauls to the north and the increasingly powerful Romans. The Etruscans formed a league of 12 cities, each apparently ruled by a king, and in 413 BC helped the Athenians in their disastrous expedition against Syracuse. Etruria suffered further raids by the Gauls in the 4th century, and Veii fell to the Romans in 396 BC. In the following century, the Romans, together with Umbrians, Samnites, and Gauls, conquered Caere (273 BC) and sacked Volsinii (265 BC), carrying away 2,000 Etruscan bronze statues.
Rome received contributions from the still wealthy Etruscan cities during the 2nd Punic War (218-201 BC), for the Etruscans had by then become a part of the Roman world.