The Etruscan civilization (Image:Speakerlink.svgiImage:Speakerlink.svgiImage:Speakerlink.svgi/rʌskən/) is the modern name given to a powerful, wealthy and refined, civilization of ancient Italy in the area corresponding roughly to Tuscany, western Umbria, and northern Lazio. As distinguished by its unique language, this civilization endured from before the time of the earliest Etruscan inscriptions (c. 700 BC) until its assimilation into the Roman Republic, beginning in the late 4th century BC with the Roman–Etruscan Wars.