DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0022
xxii INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE ETRUSCANS, [intkoduotion.
save her stern virtues, her thirst of conquest, and her indomitable
courage, which were peculiarly her own; for verily her sons
were mighty with little else but the sword—
Stolidum genus—
Bellipotentes sunt magi' quam sapientipotentes.1
The external history of the Etruscans, as there are no direct
chronicles extant, is to be gathered only from scattered notices
in Greek and Roman writers. Their internal history, till of
late years, was almost a blank, but by the continual accumula-
tion of fresh facts it is now daily acquiring form and substance,
and promises, ere long, to be as distinct and palpable as that of
Egypt, Greece, or Rome. For we already know the extent and
peculiar nature of their civilization—their social condition and
modes of life—their extended commerce and intercourse with
far distant countries—their religious creed, with, its ceremonial
observances in this life, and the joys and torments it set forth
in a future state—their popular traditions—and a variety of
customs, of all which, History, commonly so called, is either utterly
silent, or makes but incidental mention, or gives notices imper-
fect and obscure. We can now enter into the inner life of the
Etruscans, almost as fully as if they were living and moving
before us, instead of having been extinct as a nation for more
than two thousand years. "We can follow them from the cradle
to the tomb,—we see them in their national costume, varied
according to age, sex, rank, and office,—we learn their style of
adorning their persons, their fashions, and all the eccentricities
of their toilet,—we even become acquainted with their peculiar
physiognomy, their individual names and family relationships,—
we know what houses they inhabited, what furniture they used,—
we behold them at their various avocations—the princes in the
council-chamber—the augur, or priest, at the altar, or in solemn
procession—the warrior in the battle-field, or returning home in
triumph—the judge on the bench—the artisan at his handicraft—
the husbandman at the plough—the slave at his daily toil,—we
see them in the bosom of their families, and at the festive board,
1 Old Ennius (Ann. VI. 10) said this perceiving how applicable it was to the
of the iEacidse, or race of Pyrrhus, not Romans.
save her stern virtues, her thirst of conquest, and her indomitable
courage, which were peculiarly her own; for verily her sons
were mighty with little else but the sword—
Stolidum genus—
Bellipotentes sunt magi' quam sapientipotentes.1
The external history of the Etruscans, as there are no direct
chronicles extant, is to be gathered only from scattered notices
in Greek and Roman writers. Their internal history, till of
late years, was almost a blank, but by the continual accumula-
tion of fresh facts it is now daily acquiring form and substance,
and promises, ere long, to be as distinct and palpable as that of
Egypt, Greece, or Rome. For we already know the extent and
peculiar nature of their civilization—their social condition and
modes of life—their extended commerce and intercourse with
far distant countries—their religious creed, with, its ceremonial
observances in this life, and the joys and torments it set forth
in a future state—their popular traditions—and a variety of
customs, of all which, History, commonly so called, is either utterly
silent, or makes but incidental mention, or gives notices imper-
fect and obscure. We can now enter into the inner life of the
Etruscans, almost as fully as if they were living and moving
before us, instead of having been extinct as a nation for more
than two thousand years. "We can follow them from the cradle
to the tomb,—we see them in their national costume, varied
according to age, sex, rank, and office,—we learn their style of
adorning their persons, their fashions, and all the eccentricities
of their toilet,—we even become acquainted with their peculiar
physiognomy, their individual names and family relationships,—
we know what houses they inhabited, what furniture they used,—
we behold them at their various avocations—the princes in the
council-chamber—the augur, or priest, at the altar, or in solemn
procession—the warrior in the battle-field, or returning home in
triumph—the judge on the bench—the artisan at his handicraft—
the husbandman at the plough—the slave at his daily toil,—we
see them in the bosom of their families, and at the festive board,
1 Old Ennius (Ann. VI. 10) said this perceiving how applicable it was to the
of the iEacidse, or race of Pyrrhus, not Romans.