Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/173

The Western Mediterranean World 117 with the Indo-European invaders of Italy. They found the west- ern Mediterranean world still without civilization. It had no architecture, no fine buildings, no fortified cities, only the rudest arts and industries, no writing, no literature, and no organized governments. 178. The Three Western Rivals confronting the Italic Tribes. Besides the Italic invaders three other rival peoples gradually came into the western Mediterranean world. The first of these was a bold race of sea rovers whom we call the Etruscans. Their origin is still uncertain, but no matter where they came from they were settled in Italy by 1000 B. c. They finally gained full control of the west coast from the Bay of Naples almost to Genoa and held the inland country to the Adriatic Sea and the Alps (see map, p. 122). The Carthaginians were the second of the three rivals of the Italic tribes. We remember how the Phoenicians carried their com- merce far into the western Mediterranean after 1000 B. c. ( 83). On the African coast opposite Sicily they established a flourishing commercial city called Carthage. It soon became the leading power in the western Mediterranean. While the Carthaginians were endeavoring to make the western Mediterranean their own, the Italic peoples saw the third of their rivals invading the West. These were the Greeks. We have already followed the Greek colonies as they founded their city-states along the coast of southern Italy and in Sicily in the eighth century B.C. (91). The strongest of all the western Greek cities was Syracuse. 179. Greek Colonies bring Civilization into the Western Mediterranean. Although the western Greeks, like those in the homeland, fought among themselves and failed to unite in a strong and permanent state, they nevertheless brought civilization to Italy. Accordingly, fifteen hundred years after the barbarous Italic tribes had first settled in Italy there grew up on the south of them a wonderful world of Greek civilization. We shall now follow the career of the barbarous Italic tribes of central Italy under the leadership of Rome, and watch them slowly gaining