The Etruscans were the most important, and without doubt the most remarkable of the peoples who inhabited early Italy. At the zenith of their power they controlled about a third of the peninsular and their kings held sway in Rome over a period of more than a hundred and fifty years. But after the expulsion of the Tarquins at the close of the sixth century BC they began to lose ground to the Romans; and their distinctive culture was gradually absorbed in the pan-Italic civilisation which Rome established, until almost all clear record of it faded into obscurity.
The fascination which the Etruscans have continued to exert on future ages is due in part to the mystery which enshrouds almost every aspect of their civilisation, from the vexed question of their origins and curious non-Indo-European language to the enigma of their highly complex religion—in which sooth saying played so important a part.
The lives of the Etruscans were dominated by ceremonial and they seem to have been pre-occupied with thoughts of death and fate. Nonetheless, on the evidence of their brilliantly evocative wall-paintings, they appear to have been a people with a tremendous zest for life, fond of dancing, horse-racing and every form of musical activity. Etruscan terracottas, bronzes and jewellery where renowned in antiquity and have a strikingly fresh appeal today.
In this book Professor Huergon, one of the world's leading authorities on the Etruscans, has combined the fruits of modern archaeology with a fresh analysis of the literary evidence to present a masterly reconstruction of the lives of this forgotten people.