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The Umbrians are vaguely extended by H. iv. 49. 2 to the ‘river Alpis’, i. e. to the Alps. The story, here first given (cf. App. XV, § 6), of the Lydian origin of the Etruscans is familiar, especially from Horace (Odes, iii. 29. 1 et pass.). It was rejected with contempt in the early days of criticism (cf. Mommsen, R. H. i. 128 seq.), and the Etruscans were brought into Italy by land from the north. Modern archaeology is now accumulating evidence which confirms Greek tradition; it tends to show that native Italian civilization in the north developed without interruption from abroad, while Etruscan civilization in Central Italy was introduced by sea (like that of Carthage), and resembles that of the later Aegean periods, e.g. in its Cyclopean walls. (Cf. A. and A. pp. 304 seq. and (for a fuller statement of the evidence) App. I. 13.)

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