Abstract
From 250 to 90 BCE, the external relationships of Etruria underwent both a process of radical simplification and a major change in nature. Before the military defeat at the hands of Rome and their incorporation into the latter's system of unequal alliances, Etruscan cities had conducted external affairs independently from one another, often with diverging perspectives and aims. The establishment of Rome’s hegemony over Etruria in the first half of the third century BCE caused Rome to become the main-if not the only- term of reference for all Etruscan cities in matters both military and political. Etruria's subordination to Rome, however, did not imply a passive acceptance of the latter's political and military perspective. The analysis of representations of enemies (Celts, Carthaginians) in Etruscan art suggests that the relationship was one of convergence rather than of coincidence. In the second century, there is no evidence for any specifically Etruscan peculiarity in the handling of external affairs, and the main evidence about the relationships with non-Etruscans comes from the cultural sphere.
