Padanian Etruria
In the 8th century BC the Etruscans expanded their power to Northern and Southern Italy, specifically towards Emilia and Campania, there they founded Etruscan dominions who are modernly known under the names of Padanian Etruria and Campanian Etruria. Moving from the northern city-states of the Tuscanian Dodecapolis they swept into the Po valley through the Apennine passes.
History
The Greek and Latin ancient writers tell us that an Etruscan expansion into Southern Italy, present day Campania region, and northwards into the Po Valley[1] occurred yet in the 9th century BC.
Following their usual methods, the Etruscan conquerors in the colonial areas overlapped themselves over the ancient inhabitants of the conquered regions imposing their culture and their political institutions. Consequently, as in Tuscany, the cities they founded in the Po valley and along the Adriatic coast formed a Dodecapolis (a federation or league of twelve cities), but, as for the original Tuscanian Dodecapolis, we do not really know which cities were part of it. Inside Padanian Etruria, it is supposed they were ‘’Felsina’’ (Bologna), Spina and Marzabotto, while we can only guess about Ravenna, Cesena, Rimini, Modena, Parma, Piacenza, Mantua and possibly, but improbably, Milan.
The founder of these cities and of their League had been Ocnus, brother or son of Aulestes (or Auletes), according some authors, Tarchon according others. More probably, as the archaeological evidence suggests, both the traditions have to be accepted but must also be ascribed to two different moments of profound change in the political and economic framework of the Padanian Etruria.
A "First etruscan colonization," referred to the legendary Tarchon, can be traced to the early Iron Age (9th century BC). It was aimed to find new lands for agricultural uses; a "Second colonization", dated to the mid-6th century BC, can be attributed to the as much legendary Ocnus. The latter colonization involved the reorganization of the entire Padanian region in order to increase its utility for the etruscan businesses and trades.
During the 6th century BC Etruria experienced significant social, political and economic transformations. The formative process of the city-states had concluded, within these polities the power of the great aristocratic families was matched and then replaced by that of a new social class of men whose wealth was based mainly on trade.
The protagonists of this process were people of the northern cities of Tuscany. The Padanian Etruria is transformed in best way to serve the new commercial purposes: the trade routes are reinforced and developed, the previous settlements became real cities, better linked amongst them by a closer collaborative relationship, developing in an effective etruscan Dodecapolis.
The cities of Padanian Etruria
From the late 9th century BC, the humam settlement in the Lower Po valley, previously organized in small groups of huts scattered throughout the country and mostly inhabited by Umbrians or other Italics, centers in some major urban areas as Bologna, the main city of Padanian Etruria, and Verucchio, then flourishing settlement in the heart of Romagna, by initiative of the etruscan colonists.
Felsina
![[icon]](/enwiki/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small} | This section is empty. You can help by adding to it. (January 2011) |
Verucchio
| This section is empty. You can help by adding to it. (January 2011) |
Forcello di Bagnolo San Vito
| This section is empty. You can help by adding to it. (January 2011) |
Mantua
| This section is empty. You can help by adding to it. (January 2011) |
Adria
| This section is empty. You can help by adding to it. (January 2011) |
Spina
Spina was an Etruscan port city on the Adriatic at the ancient mouth of the Po, south of the lagoon which would become the site of Venice. Spina may have had a Hellenised indigenous population.[2]
Conclusion
The Po Valley had been always crucial to the Etruscan civilization, as it also witnessed the rise of Villanovan culture (9-8th century BC), who probably was at the origin of the Etruscans. The roman epithet Princeps Etrurie ("the main city of Etruria") who was given to the emilian Felsina illustrates the crucial importance of the Padanian Etruria for the whole of the Etrurian Leagues from the late 6th century BC.
With the descent of the Gauls over the Italian peninsula, between the 5th and 4th century BC, the Etruscans progressively became a minority in both the cities and in the rural areas of Padanian Etruria. The last manifestations of their civilization ended permanently with the Romanization of the Po Valley during the 2nd century BC.