THE EARLY AGE OF GREECE VOL.I by W.Ridgeway 1901

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WHO WERE THE MAKERS ? 249
writers regard it as a purely Tyrrhenian city founded by
Tarchon, kinsman of Tyrrhenus son of Atys, king of Lydia,
who forced by a sore famine to leave his native land, brought
a colony to this part of Italy, and founded the twelve cities of
Etruria.
But, as the Pelasgians who settled in central Italy are
said to have come from Thessaly, and there is an explicit
statement to the same effect touching the Pelasgians of Agylla,
a city
later on reduced by the Tyrrhenians, we are justified in
concluding that Tarquinii had likewise been a settlement of
the Thessalian Pelasgians in combination with the Spinambri,
probably a tribe of Aborigines (Ligyes), who later on were
subdued and absorbed by the Tyrrhenian conquerors.
Alsion (Palo) was founded by the Pelasgi ages before the
arrival of the Tyrrheni on these shores,
if we are to believe
Dionysius\ Silius Italicus ascribes its origin to the Argive
Halesus, son of Agamemnon, from whom he thought it derived
its
name'-.
But it has been just shown that the Argives who came with
Halesus were the old Pelasgian popuhitiou of Argolis. Both
traditions then make the town Pelasgian in
origin.
Pisae still retains her ancient name, site, and importance.
Dionysius-' classes her amongst the j)rimitive cities of Italy,
either taken from the Siculi or subse(piently built by the
combined Pelasgians and Aborigines. Another tradition declares
it to be an Arcadian colony, and that it was called after
Pisa in Elis^
consideration the historical fact tliat loiij^ before the Etruscan con(juest tlie
UmbriaiiH, who weie hroad-skulled, liad (n^iKjuercd tlu; doliclioccphalic Abori^int^s
(Ijigurian>) wlio nevertlicless continued to foim the bulk of the jKJpulation in
central Italy. Tlie J'clas^^ians fioni Thessaly and the Tyrrlienians from Asia
Minor were botli dolichocei)lialic like the LiKurians, beinf,' of the same lace.
Tlius the cranial evidence, taken by itself and without liistorieal sujjport, is
most misleadini,'.
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I. U,.
viii. 171).
I. If,.
250 WHO WERE THE MAKERS?
Saturnia is mentioned by Dionysius in the passage so
often quoted' along with Agylla, Pisae, and Alsion, as one of
the towns founded by the combined Pelasgians and the Aborigines,
or taken by them from the Siculi.
Cortona was a city of the Umbrians, from whom it was
taken by the united Pelasgians and Aborigines. The Pelasgian
occupation of this cit}^ is further strengthened by the legend that
lasion, son of Corythus king of Crotona, settled in Samothrace,
whence his brother JJardanus founded Troy-.
We have now seen that there are not only indications of a
connection between certain antiquities found on Etruscan soil
and the Mycenean culture, but that there is a very strong body
of traditional evidence in favour of considerable settlements in
that country of Pelasgians, who are represented in several cases
as emigrating from Greece during the Achean and before the
Dorian domination. These settlers had established themselves
by the aid of the Aborigines who helped them against the
Umbrians.
The archaeological evidence confirms the statement that
the Pelasgians had found two other races already in the land.
Later came the Tyrrhenians from Asia Minor, who by the aid
of the Aborigines as Well as of the old Pelasgian communities
extended their conijuest over the Umbrians. The Tyrrheni
gave tiioir name to the land thus acquired.
It has long been assumed that the fine artistic remains
found in this area are the outcome of the Etruscans, who are
supposed to have either im])()rted the best executed works from
Greece, as was fi'e(|nently the case, or to have had them made
on the s))