The Romans established their supremacy in Tuscany at the beginning of the IIIrd century B.C. between the latest Samnite wars and the first Punic war. Sometimes their leadership was hindered by the alliance of the Etruscans with the Gauls, but it was all the same fostered by the support of some Etruscan towns as Arezzo, Cortona, Perugia. We can't state, however, that Romanization destroyed the pre-existing civilization in Tuscany as it strongly influenced the new conquerors. The Etruscan ruling class was gradually absorbed into the Roman civilization, and the language as well: in the last century B.C. the Etruscan language was almost conpletely replaced by Latin, owing to the considerable immigrations of farmers who renovated the old towns and founded new ones. In the first century, thanks to the Roman government, the country flourished. The territory was mostly governed according to a federal system that gave some formal autonomy to the towns before naturalizing all Italian citizens as Romans (91 B.C.). In addition to this, the Roman government improved public works and large communication routes as well. These linked Rome to Etruria and Cisalpine Gaul. They created the following ways: via Aurelia (along the coast), Clodia (which linked Veio toAurelia), Cassia (from Rome to Fiesole) and Flaminia (through Arezzo and the Apennine to Emilia). In spite of this in the last period of the Republican times Etruria began to suffer an increasing decline. In fact it became the site of the civil wars fought by the Romans and the area where a terrible disease, malaria, spread, especially along the coast. Besides all this Etruria had to face a crisis in the production of winter wheat (no longer profitable because of important from the East and Egypt) and in the mining industry. At the beginning of the imperial age Etruria was, for these reasons, a country on a decline and subject to an increasing depopulation. The Emperor Augustus tried, with proper laws, to give the country a better future defining it as "the VIIth region", having its borders with the Tuscan-Emilian Apennine and, to the South, with the river Tiber. At the end of the IIIrd century the Emperor Diocleziano established new regulations: Etruria, (already known as "Tuscia") was administered together with Umbria. Head og the region was a "Corrector" who seated at Florentia. Later, when the empire reached its decline, the northern part of Etruria was joined to Emilia. Tuscany (Italian Toscana), region in northern Italy, formerly a sovereign grand duchy, bordered on the north by the regions of Liguria and Emilia-Romagna, on the east by Marche and Umbria, on the south by Latium, and on the west by the Ligurian and Tyrrhenian seas. It is divided into the maritime provinces of Grosseto, Leghorn (Livorno), Lucca, and Pisa; the inland provinces of Arezzo, Florence, Pistoia, and Siena; and the province of Massa-Carrara, extending north from the sea between Liguria Region and the Apennines. The regional capital is Florence. Land and Resources Tuscany is chiefly mountainous; in addition to the Apennines it has two mountain groups, the Apuane Alps, where marble is quarried, and a group in the south, the Colline Metallifere, where iron, magnesium, borax, and quicksilver are mined. The rivers are the Arno, Cecina, Ombrone, and upper Tiber; all flow into the Tyrrhenian Sea. Except in the Maremma, a marshy region in the south, the climate is mild. Agricultural products are wheat, maize, grapes, olives, and tobacco. The most important manufactured products are wool and cotton textiles, chemicals, machinery, glass, and ceramics. Area, 22,992 sq km (8,877 sq mi); population (1991) 3,599,085. History Tuscany nearly corresponds to ancient Etruria. Its inhabitants, the Tusci, or Etruscans, were conquered by the Romans, who called the land Tuscia. It was held in turn by the Ostrogoths, the Byzantines, and the Lombards. The last were conquered by Charlemagne and placed under a Frankish duke. In 1030 Boniface II of the House of Canossa became Duke of Tuscany. After his assassination, his wife, Beatrice, governed until 1076, when her daughter, Countess Matilda, inherited the lands. Matilda supported the papal party during the investiture struggle, and she bequeathed all her dominions to the papacy. Holy Roman Emperor Henry V, however, claimed the duchy, and for more than a century the "property of Matilda" caused strife between the popes and the emperors. During this period the major cities became independent and prosperous. Pisa was by then a great maritime republic. Middle Ages In the 14th century the poet Dante, the painter Giotto, the humanist Petrarch, and the writer Boccaccio made Tuscany pre-eminent in the revival of letters and arts. The Tuscan dialect became the literary language of Italy. In 1406 Pisa submitted to Florence, which then became the major power in Tuscany. After 1434 Florence was ruled by the Medici family. Cosimo I de' Medici, who became duke in 1537, expanded the duchy by receiving Siena from Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. This gift bound the Medici to Spain, and for nearly two centuries Tuscany was under Spanish influence. Modern Times The House of Medici died out in the male line in 1737. In accordance with the Treaty of Vienna (1735), the grand duchy was then given to Francis Stephen, Duke of Lorraine, later Holy Roman Emperor Francis I. Grand Duke Ferdinand III was dispossessed by the French in 1799, but he was reinstated in 1814 and ruled until 1824. His son, Leopold II, promoted the prosperity of Tuscany. In 1848 he granted a liberal constitution to his subjects, but the tide of revolution that subsequently swept Italy carried everything before it, and in 1859 the grand duchy was occupied by the forces of Victor Emmanuel II, King of Sardinia. 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