Etruscan, one of the many mysterious languages in ancient history, was a language spoken in the Toscana region of Italy and some parts of the Umbria region in Italy before and until some time after the appearance of the Roman civilization. Although a connection has been made between Etruscan and some extant languages, this mysterious language, which we have been able to only partially understand, was not similar to any language spoken in the nearby regions. Approximately 13.000 texts in Etruscan have reached us up to now, but most of these texts are short writings containing only a few sentences. 

What we know about Etruscans comes from ancient Greek and Roman sources written disparagingly about them since our understanding of the Etruscan language is quite limited. Etruscans are portrayed as libertines, without any limits when it came to the sex life, in ancient sources. If we are to accept what is written in these sources as authentic, this people were a society who practised what was deemed as inappropriate in ancient times without any shame. However, I am not writing this only in a negative sense. For instance, the Greeks of that time, when they communicated with Etruscans for various reasons, were shocked when they saw Etruscan men and women eating at the same table. For any Greek of that time, it was unacceptable for men and women to eat at the same table. In spite of all these ideas and views, it wouldn’t be wrong to call Etruscans the authentic teachers of Romans. Most of the elements that comprised the Roman civilization were of Etruscan origin. Nonetheless, Romans, who deemed Etruscans as their arch enemy, made extreme endeavours to erase Etruscans from the Apennine peninsula and were successful in the end. The first Romans were not elite sages like the later Romans. They used to live at a lower social level under the governance of Etruscans, and, envious of the ostentatious lifestyle of Etruscans, they would inspire their descendants to eradicate Etruscans once and for all. 

Etruscans, as the teachers of Romans, influenced them in a lot of ways and were truly the pioneers of the Roman civilization. Rome, a tiny settlement before the arrival of Etruscans, grew into a big and prosperous city with their intervention. We now know that a group of Etruscan kings governed Rome in the initial days of the city. Servius Tullius, one of the most important kings in this group, reigned between 578 and 535 BC, introduced the census in Rome, classified the people in Rome depending on their wealth level and established a parliamentary council where each echelon of the society was represented. According to the emperor Claudius, Servius Tullius was an Etruscan king whose real name was Mastarna. Tullius also granted the right to vote to the plebs, the lowest social class in Rome without any privileges, delivered them patches of land in order that they could sustain themselves and this diminished the poverty in Rome by a significant amount. This visionary and reformist king also divided Rome in parts called tribus, thus facilitating the collection of taxes and mobilization of troops. It is also said that he was the first Roman to introduce golden and silver coins which could truly be called the Roman currency. All the reforms that he carried out directly influenced the near and distant future of Rome. 

There are also other areas where the Etruscan civilization influenced Romans. Roman architecture and hydraulic engineering were developed primarily based on the principles learnt from Etruscans. The gorgeous aqueducts built by the Romans have their origin in Etruscan civilization from the viewpoint of technical knowledge. Cloaca Maxima, the sewer system regarded to be the first example of Roman hydraulic engineering, is said to have been constructed by the order of the Etruscan king Priscus. Roman temples of extraordinary beauty also were constructed with the inspiration from Etruscan temples. Jupiter Optimus Maximus, one of the earliest Roman temples, manifested extreme similarity to Etruscan temples, built on a podium and featuring a giant porch. What is more, the Latin alphabet was developed from the Etruscan alphabet; Romans also acquired their writing and archiving habits from Etruscans. The toga, a garment in the form of a cloak worn by the Roman noblemen, was inspired from tebenna, a similar Etruscan garment. We could see the tebenna on the fresco featuring Etruscan musicians along this article, which I shared above. The origin of the famed gladiator rituals in Rome is also the lethal games and festivities that Etruscans organized.  

The legacy of this notable civilization of the ancient world also manifests itself in some words in our day despite the fact that it was assimilated by Romans in later periods. It is estimated that some common words used in English today are of Etruscan origin. Although we cannot conclusively prove a greater number of these words to be of Etruscan origin because of the fact that the transitory language is Latin, it is pointed out that they are most probably of Etruscan origin taking the cultural legacy into account.  

One of these words is person, one of the most common words in English today. This word is derived from persone in Old French and Middle English. The word persone is derived from persona, meaning a mask in Latin. However, it is thought that the origin of this Latin word is phersu in Etruscan, also meaning a mask.  

This is a very reasonable inference. In Etruscan and Roman theatre, there was a special type of mask for each character. Each actor had to wear a mask depending on the character they were representing. Hence, the concept of a mask in Etruscan and Roman theatre was rather based on representing a special character in plays than being an accessory placed on the face. From this standpoint, it is of high probability that the word phersu in Etruscan be the origin of the word person, which we make use of today.  

I believe that today we could be making use of more words of Etruscan origin than we realize. This possibility gains an upper hand when we take into account the fact that Etruscan is a partially-understood language and that it is a language that gradually went extinct and was made to go extinct under the dominion of Romans. There could be many more words in Latin that could be Etruscan origin, but we need to be able to understand Etruscan much better in order to ensure that this be the case. The fact that Etruscan is a unique language and that we cannot discover more which could be giving us more information makes this possibility much harder to achieve.