Before Rome became a superpower, the Etruscans dominated central Italy. Much of what we consider 'typically Roman' was actually inherited from them: the toga, the gladiatorial games, the use of the arch in architecture, and even the Roman alphabet (which the Etruscans adapted from the Greeks). Unlike the later Romans, Etruscan women enjoyed high status, feasting alongside men and owning property. They were masters of divination, believing they could read the will of the gods in the flight of birds or the livers of sacrificed animals. Their wealthy city-states were eventually absorbed by the rising Roman Republic, but their cultural DNA remained the foundation of the Roman Empire.