PLEASE READ ALL I GOT ON THEM, as we can read in here, Caudius wrote their history but did not survive.
Etruscans, called Tyrrhenians by the Greeks, Tusci or Etrusci by Latin speakers, a pre-Roman people of central Italy and in early times Rome's principal rivals for the control of that area. Etruscan culture came into being c.700 BC, apparently as a development from that of the early Iron Age Villanovans, which flowered briefly in that region. Politically the Etruscans made up a loose confederation of independent cities, and at the height of their power, from c.620 to c.500 BC, they controlled an empire reaching from the Po in the north to Campania in the south, including early Rome. The Roman king Tarquinius Priscus was said, probably rightly, to have been of Etruscan origin. After the expulsion of the Tarquins from Rome at the end of the sixth century, the Etruscans gradually lost their southern territory, suffering a famous defeat at Aricia c.504, and had perhaps already surrendered their northern lands to invading Celts. Their naval supremacy was destroyed in a sea-battle off Cumae in 474 when they were defeated by a fleet of Cumaeans and Syracusans under Hieron, tyrant of Syracuse. By the end of the third century BC Rome held the whole of Etruria.
The origin of the Etruscans was already a subject for antiquarian speculation in the middle of the first century AD when the emperor Claudius wrote their history (which has not survived). The Greek historian Herodotus thought they came from Lydia in Asia Minor (and the language might well be Anatolian; see below); but others (including Dionysius of Halicarnassus) have thought them indigenous to Italy. There exist thousands of inscriptions written in a Greek alphabet, mostly epitaphs, dating from the seventh century to the time of the emperor Augustus, but their language seems not to be Indo-European, nor directly related to any other, and it remains largely undeciphered, although the phonetics and morphology are understood.
Archaeology Dictionary: Etruscans
Successors to the Villanovan Culture in north central Italy (modern Tuscany) during the early 1st millennium bc, they had become a recognizable society by the 8th century—a loosely knit but powerful confederacy of city-states. They developed long-distance trade contacts to Greece, Carthage, and across the Alps into central Europe. Their cities were substantial and wealthy: for example, Populonia, Vetulonia, and Tarquinia. Their influence extended over wide areas, including Aleria, the Po Valley, and parts of Campania. The area is rich in natural resources, including gold, copper and iron, and this led to a strong and influential craft base. The Etruscan language still causes problems because although it is written in an eastern Greek alphabet many aspects of its syntax and vocabulary are uncertain. But the Etruscans were under constant pressure from communities to the north, and increasingly from Rome in the south. Between the 4th and 2nd centuries Rome conquered all of Etruria, but despite their political extinction, the Etruscans contributed much to Roman civilization in such matters as infrastructure, political and social organization, art, architecture, theatre, and engineering skills.