{"product_id":"2940013755239","title":"Etruscan Places","description":"The Etruscans, as everyone knows, were the people who occupied the middle\u003cbr\u003eof Italy in early Roman days and whom the Romans, in their usual\u003cbr\u003eneighbourly fashion, wiped out entirely in order to make room for Rome\u003cbr\u003ewith a very big R. They couldn't have wiped them all out, there were too\u003cbr\u003emany of them. But they did wipe out the Etruscan existence as a nation\u003cbr\u003eand a people. However, this seems to be the inevitable result of\u003cbr\u003eexpansion with a big E, which is the sole _raison d'étre_ of people\u003cbr\u003elike the Romans.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNow, we know nothing about the Etruscans except what we find in their\u003cbr\u003etombs. There are references to them in Latin writers. But of first-hand\u003cbr\u003eknowledge we have nothing except what the tombs offer.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSo to the tombs we must go: or to the museums containing the things that\u003cbr\u003ehave been rifled from the tombs.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMyself, the first time I consciously saw Etruscan things, in the museum\u003cbr\u003eat Perugia, I was instinctively attracted to them. And it seems to be\u003cbr\u003ethat way. Either there is instant sympathy, or instant contempt and\u003cbr\u003eindifference. Most people despise everything B.C. that isn't Greek, for\u003cbr\u003ethe good reason that it ought to be Greek if it isn't. So Etruscan things\u003cbr\u003eare put down as a feeble Greco-Roman imitation. And a great scientific\u003cbr\u003ehistorian like Mommsen hardly allows that the Etruscans existed at all.\u003cbr\u003eTheir existence was antipathetic to him. The Prussian in him was\u003cbr\u003eenthralled by the Prussian in the all-conquering Romans. So being a great\u003cbr\u003escientific historian, he almost denies the very existence of the Etruscan\u003cbr\u003epeople. He didn't like the idea of them. That was enough for a great\u003cbr\u003escientific historian.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBesides, the Etruscans were vicious. We know it, because their enemies\u003cbr\u003eand exterminators said so. Just as we knew the unspeakable depths of our\u003cbr\u003eenemies in the late war. Who isn't vicious to his enemy? To my detractors\u003cbr\u003eI am a very effigy of vice. À la bonne heure!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHowever, those pure, clean-living, sweet-souled Romans, who smashed\u003cbr\u003enation after nation and crushed the free soul in people after people, and\u003cbr\u003ewere ruled by Messalina and Heliogabalus and such-like snowdrops, they\u003cbr\u003esaid the Etruscans were vicious. _So basta! Quand le mâitre parle, tout\u003cbr\u003ele monde se tait_. The Etruscans were vicious! The only vicious people\u003cbr\u003eon the face of the earth presumably. You and I, dear reader, we are two\u003cbr\u003eunsullied snowflakes, aren't we? We have every right to judge.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMyself, however, if the Etruscans were vicious, I'm glad they were. To\u003cbr\u003ethe Puritan all things are impure, as somebody says. And those naughty\u003cbr\u003eneighbours of the Romans at least escaped being Puritans.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut to the tombs, to the tombs! On a sunny April morning we set out for\u003cbr\u003ethe tombs. From Rome, the eternal city, now in a black bonnet. It was not\u003cbr\u003efar to go--about twenty miles over the Campagna towards the sea, on the\u003cbr\u003eline to Pisa.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Campagna, with its great green spread of growing wheat, is almost\u003cbr\u003ehuman again. But still there are damp empty tracts, where now the little\u003cbr\u003enarcissus stands in clumps, or covers whole fields. And there are places\u003cbr\u003egreen and foam-white, all with camomile, on a sunny morning in early\u003cbr\u003eApril.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWe are going to Cerveteri, which was the ancient Caere, or Cere, and\u003cbr\u003ewhich had a Greek name too, Agylla. It was a gay and gaudy Etruscan city\u003cbr\u003ewhen Rome put up her first few hovels: probably. Anyhow, there are tombs'\u003cbr\u003ethere now.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe inestimable big Italian railway-guide says the station is Palo, and\u003cbr\u003eCerveteri is eight and a half kilometres away: about five miles. But\u003cbr\u003ethere is a post-omnibus.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWe arrive at Palo, a station in nowhere, and ask if there is a bus to\u003cbr\u003eCerveteri. No! An ancient sort of wagon with an ancient white horse\u003cbr\u003estands outside. Where does that go? To Ladispoli. We know we don't want\u003cbr\u003eto go to Ladispoli, so we stare at the landscape. Could we get a carriage\u003cbr\u003eof any sort? It would be difficult. That is what they always say:\u003cbr\u003edifficult! Meaning impossible. At least they won't lift a finger to help.\u003cbr\u003eIs there an hotel at Cerveteri? They don't know. They have none of them\u003cbr\u003eever been, though it is only five miles away, and there are tombs. Well,\u003cbr\u003ewe will leave our two bags at the station. But they cannot accept them.\u003cbr\u003eBecause they are not locked. But when did a hold-all ever lock?\u003cbr\u003eDifficult! Well then, let us leave them, and steal if you want to.\u003cbr\u003eImpossible! Such a moral responsibility! Impossible to leave an unlocked\u003cbr\u003esmall hold-all at the station. So much for the officials!","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47079717765360,"sku":"2940013755239","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013755239_p0.jpg?v=1763589814","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013755239","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}