Why We Love the Etruscans (and Don't Love the Roma



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Board: Etruria
Topic: The Glory Days 
Topic Editor: Nesnut Hatshepsut
Topic Description: The height of Etruscan powe...

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Message: Why We Love the Etruscans (and Don't Love the Roma
Author: - tanaquil Lupus 
Date: Nov 16, 2000 20:46
      -ns) 
      [couldn't get my title in in toto] 
      I was going to post this under a different topic, but then I saw 
      Camitlnas' message "Romans Are from Mars..." & mine seemed to tie in. 

      Haruspex Velthur Valerius said at the Fanum Voltummnae that he had the 
      impression most of the group wasn't very interested in Roman history, 
      which our lauchum more or less disagreed with. 

      I think that there's something to it but that it's not so much a question 
      of lack of interest. Rather, it seems to me, there's a perception of the 
      Romans as the humorless clods of the ancient world: inartistic, nye 
      kulturnii, efficient, unsympatisch/not simpatico/ unlovable, way inferior 
      to the Greeks and the Etruscans in the arts &/or literature. And the 
      Romans have themselves to thank for starting the idea in the first place, 
      the way they slavishly admired Greek culture. The Romans are far less 
      likely to appeal to romantics than are the Etruscans and the Greeks. In 
      its extremes you can see this attitude in the excessive romanticizing of 
      D. H. Lawrence in ETRUSCAN PLACES. One dissenting opinion was that of--I 
      think it was Peter Levi (Levy?) in a book about Greece. He asked what was 
      so wrong about building good roads and what was so right about (Greeks', 
      Etruscans') inability to get their act together. 

      I confess to most of the usual prejudices. Could be we should take another 
      look at the Romans? 

      I found an old message of Camitlnas' to the effect that Etruria should 
      really have a site all its own. Yes, it should, but doesn't being buried 
      under Rome reflect what actually happened to the Etruscans? 

      'Tother night "Impecunia" told me she had an art history exam to study for 
      on Rome. I asked her whether there was anything on the Etruscans. She 
      said, "Get real, Mom! Nobody cares about the Etruscans!" 

      Well, that isn't true. WE do. But I find only the odd sentence or 
      paragraph in books about Rome and NO acknowledgment of the many Etruscan 
      contributions to Rome except in books on the Etruscans, probably not 
      widely read. 










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