Those Darned Etruscans: Coins Of The Rasna

The following is an article excerpt from Coinweek

THE PEOPLE WHO LIVED IN TUSCANY before the Romans are often described as "enigmatic" or "mysterious." We know them as "Etruscans"[1] from the name that the Romans called them; they called themselves "Rasna." The last speakers of the Etruscan language probably died out in the first century of the common era. The consensus of linguistic scholars is that Etruscan is unrelated to other known languages. A single Etruscan book - a third-century BCE ritual calendar - survived in fragmentary strips because the linen it was written on was recycled in Ptolemaic Egypt to wrap a mummy[2]. The Roman Emperor Claudius (r. 41-54 CE) wrote a 20-volume history of the Etruscans in Greek, now lost.

Blessed with fertile volcanic soil and abundant ores of iron and copper (along with forested hills providing charcoal to refine and work these metals), the Etruscans prospered, reaching a peak of cultural expression and political power in the sixth century BCE. A line of Etruscan kings ruled in Rome until they were overthrown about 509 BCE, and the Romans adopted many customs and institutions from Etruria.

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