Please note that Mommsen uses the AUC chronology (Ab Urbe
Condita), i.e. from the founding of the City of Rome. You can
use this reference table to have the B.C. dates From: The
History of Rome, by Theodor Mommsen Translated with the sanction
of the author by William Purdie Dickson Development of Alphabets
in Italy Not less important for history than the derivation of
the alphabet is the further course of its development on Italian
soil: perhaps it is even of more importance; for by means of it
a gleam of light is thrown upon the inland commerce of Italy,
which is involved in far greater darkness than the commerce with
foreigners on its coasts. In the earliest epoch of Etruscan
writing, when the alphabet was used without material alteration
as it had been introduced, its use appears to have been
restricted to the Etruscans on the Po and in what is now
Tuscany. In course of time this alphabet, manifestly diffusing
itself from Atria and Spina, reached southward along the east
coast as far as the Abruzzi, northw