This was the place where the great Roman power grew up from beginnings, the truth of which cannot now be discovered.
[Illustration: CURIOUS POTTERY.] There were several nations living round these hills--the Etruscans, Sabines, and Latins being the chief.

The homes of these nations seem to have been in the valleys round the spurs of the Apennines, where they had farms and fed their flocks; but above them was always the hill which they had fortified as strongly as possible, and where they took refuge if their enemies attacked them.

The Etruscans built very mighty walls, and also managed the drainage of their cities wonderfully well.

Many of their works remain to this day, and, in especial, their monuments have been opened, and the tomb of each chief has been found, adorned with figures of himself, half lying, half sitting; also curious pottery in red and black, from which something of their lives and ways is to be made out.

They spoke a different language from what has become Latin, and they had a different religion, believing in one great Soul of the World, and also thinking much of rewards and punishments after death.
But we know hardly anything about them, except that their chiefs were called Lucumos, and that they once had a wide power which they had lost before the time of history.