About the time of the Persian wars, the Etruscans excited the fears and attention of the Greeks, as masters of the Tyrrhenian sea; although Dionysius is mistaken in supposing that the Greeks named the whole west of Italy Tyrrhenia after them: that name belongs to the period of the genuine Tyrrhenians. When they were confined to Tuscany, and even there had become dependent on the sovranty of Rome, their renown passed away, and the contemporaries of Polybius held their former greatness to be fabulous. In Roman history they are of importance only in the period from the kings to the Gallic conquest; afterward in comparison with the Sabellian tribes they are quite inglorious. By, the Greeks they are mentioned mostly to their discredit, sometimes as pirates, sometimes as gluttons; by the Romans only as aruspices and artists: it is not a traditional opinion which has taught the moderns, that, without regard to the extent their empire once had, they were one of the most remarkable nations of antiquity. The ruins of their cities, the numerous works of art which have been discovered, the national spirit of the Tuscans who saw in them ancestors they were proud of; even the tempting enigma of a language utterly unknown; all this has drawn the attention of the moderns toward them above every other Italian tribe; and the Etruscans are at present incomparably more celebrated and honoured, than they were in the time of Livy.