\paperw5295 \margr0\margl0 \plain \fs20 \qr \f1 \fs22 THE LEGENDARY ORIGINS\par
The ancients themselves addressed the problem of the origins of the Etruscans. Herodotu
s, the celebrated Greek historian of the fifth century BC, was the first to claim that they came from the East, to be precise from Lydia in Asia Minor. This thesis later gained considerable support and is still widely accepted in our own day. On the othe
r hand Dionysius of Halicarnassus, a Greek historian of the Augustan era, argued that the Etruscans were of indigenous origin, and that their original name had been Rasenna. A number of modern historians have put forward the claim that the Etruscans had
moved south from the Alpine regions into central Italy. Today there is less talk of their place of origin and more interest in the formation of the Etruscan nation in central Italy. A complex process of formation in which it is possible to discern and co
mpare Oriental, Continental, and indigenous elements.
