AHC: Etruscan Empire replacing Rome

[DirtyCommie]

With a POD no earlier than 600 B.C. and no later than 500 B.C., turn the Etruscans into the uber-power in Europe by 1 A.D. and turn Rome into at least a vassal state, at most a burned skeleton of a city.

[Mongo]

Well, one obvious PoD would be for the Capuan Etruscans to defeat the alliance led by the Greek colony of Cumae (ruled by the tyrant Aristodemus) in 524 BCE instead of being defeated. It was after this that Etruscan power began to seriously diminish. 15 years later, in 509 BCE, Rome overthrew its Etruscan monarchy and instituted a republic, and I am sure that one factor was the reduced prestige of the Etruscans in general.

[robertp6165]

I actually started a timeline on basically this POD some time ago, then got sidetracked after I had brought it forward to about 200 BC. One day I do plan to return to it...but it might give you some ideas.

[Cèsar de Quart]

Originally Posted by Mongo

Well, one obvious PoD would be for the Capuan Etruscans to defeat the alliance led by the Greek colony of Cumae (ruled by the tyrant Aristodemus) in 524 BCE instead of being defeated. It was after this that Etruscan power began to seriously diminish. 15 years later, in 509 BCE, Rome overthrew its Etruscan monarchy and instituted a republic, and I am sure that one factor was the reduced prestige of the Etruscans in general.

The Etruscans were not a unified country, they were a loose confederacy of city-states and petty kingdoms.

I don't see the different lucumones (kings) and zilaths (magistrates) uniting into an Empire unless there's some external threat. The same way very few Greeks concieved a unified Greece (it was an aberration for them), I don't think any Etruscan would even want to see a unified Etruria.

If some external power forces them to, however (like Macedon did with Greece, and later Rome), there you have your timeline. I can imagine a Greek Sicilian adventurer becoming mercenary leader in the wars between city states in Etruria, stopping a Gaul / Umbrian invasion, getting power in a city state and begin conquests from there. Rome would be his ultimate achievement.