The Etruscans "believed that every race had a set span of time to run and that they themselves had been allotted ten saecula, a period of unequal length, which was based upon the life-span of the longest living survivor, starting at the end of the previous saeculum.…The Etruscans believed their first saeculum had begun sometime during the eleventh or tenth century B.C." They were quite correct. Eventually a new order emerged with Etruscans holding posts under the Roman government and many turning to religious administration. By the first century BC, Etruria was just another part of the Roman Empire and her future lay with the power of Rome. She was gone almost as fast as she had risen. Etruscan culture rapidly flourished for the span of a millennium; and accomplished what many cultures take many millennia to do. In a sense, the Etruscans are much like our own American culture excluding the whole disappearance fact. We are the youngest country in the world and were given little expectation for success at our humble beginning. The rapid growth of our contemporary American nation along with the melting pot of cultures, peoples, and ideas has led us to the pinnacle of civilization and a major world power. In addition, we certainly share a similar lack of morals, economic ideals, and the tendency to copy our contemporaries. The Etruscans, as mysterious as they may be, are a quite familiar breed and the essence of their elusive culture certainly continues in spirit. Joie de vivre! (UPenn; Macnamara, 17).