ABSTRACT
The ancient historical traditions, both Greek and Latin, agree that the presence and domination of the Etruscans in the Italian peninsula extended well beyond what has normally been regarded as their homeland, that is, (modern) Tuscany and northern Lazio. In particular, Livy, who defines the Etruscans as the most important people, well known from the Alps to Sicily, states that after setting their roots in Etruria, they penetrated into Campania to the south and spread north, crossing the Apennines, until they occupied most of the Po Valley with a massive colonial movement whose outcome was the establishment of twelve cities, on analogy with Tyrrhenian Etruria (Livy 5.33.9–10). We are not in a position to recognize a true dodecapolis in the Po region, but the stabile presence of the Etruscans in the Po Valley and their efficient organization on a commercial as well as political and institutional framework, thus represents a consolidated historical fact that the ancient authors knew well. The conquest of the fertile lands watered by the River Po is attributed by the sources to two characters: Tarchon, the founder of Tarquinia and of the Etruscan “nation,” and Ocnus, Etruscan king of Perugia, founder of Bologna and Mantua. This dual tradition probably reflects two distinct Etruscan occupations of the Po Valley, dating back to an earlier, Villanovan stage and a more recent settlement corresponding to the sixth century bc, when the entire area underwent a reorganization that led to the establishment of new cities and the creation of a powerful trading system.
