Raffaele D'Amato

An Osprey book, mostly for military modelers. Rich in color plates, so you can accurately paint your miniatures of Lars Porsena meeting Horatius at the bridge. No maps, so if you don’t already know where Etruria is you’re out of luck. However, for military aspects of Etruscan society (and the preceding Bronze Age Villanovan culture) it’s not bad. The Etruscans were fairly militaristic – every male burial includes weapons, spears for the lower classes and swords for the upper. The Etruscans fought against Gauls encroaching from the north, Latins from the south, Greeks in their Italian colonies, but mostly each other; there seem to have been lots of Etruscan city-states that fought each other if no foreigners were available. The Etruscans established the office of lictor, later adopted by the Romans and similarly carrying the fasces, a bundle of sticks bound to an axe; however the position seems to have had a different function; a Roman lictor was a guard to a magistrate while an Etruscan lictor was sort of a herald; when several Etruscan city states agreed to cooperate in a military campaign each sent a lictor to the overall commander to show that they accepted his authority.

The Etruscans painted mural scenes in their tombs, showing that they favored colorful garments; they also wore “war paint”, with face and arms bright red for battle. Contact with Italian Greek colonies led to the adoption of hoplite-style weapons and equipment. Since this book is mostly about the Etruscan military, there’s not much mention of Etruscan women; however one of the color plates shows a fetching Etruscan lady kissing her hoplite goodbye as he goes off to smite whoever was on the smiting schedule that day.

Pricey, like most Osprey books, but worth it if modeling and miniatures interest you; however I’d get a more general book on the Etruscans for background. The other one I’ve read is Daily Life of the Etruscans, but my issue is rather out of date. More reading is necessary.… (more)