Tag: Rava

• Author: Raffaele D’Amato, Andrea Salimbeti
• Illustrator: Giuseppe Rava
• Short code: ELI 223
• Publication Date: 20 Sep 2018

As most people who can remember their early history lessons will know; at some point in its early history, Rome was dominated by a people known as the Etruscans. And that there was something about a chap named Horatio and a bridge.

Because of this they rank high amongst Rome’s Italian foes as equal to the Samnites, and for Rome to flourish they had to be dealt with, and the struggle to destroy their influence contributed greatly to the founding legend of the city.

In terms of art they left a remarkable legacy, also in archeology, allowing a tentative and at times complete reconstruction of their appearance, their grave goods are as stunning as any unearthed in Italy. 

As a legacy, as well, they left their mark on Rome, just as in practically every other  acquisition they made the Romans made the Etruscans a part of their identity. And a very visible one at that, some of the most ostentatious parts of their triumphal ceremonies trace back to some Etruscan germ.

Two periods of Etruscan military development are considered in this book. The Villanovian period, which covers the earliest archeological evidence to the Classical Period where written works can be added to the artefacts, up to the fall of the Etruscan confederacy at the hands of their once servile neighbours. 

Each section is given over to an overview of the period and a much larger examination of practically every type of weapon and armour that can be associated with the Etruscans, broken into subsections. This is an Elite book, and perhaps should have been a Warrior title, but it goes a long way to forming a picture in the mind of the reader of what an Etruscan warrior looked like. There is a good deal of supposition about tactics and organisation, filling in gaps where no direct evidence exists. 

Raphael D’Amato has worked a great deal with Giuseppe Rava in the past, perhaps the best artist currently working with Osprey to illustrate a book about such legendary and epic warriors. His Etruscans ripple with flesh and muscle, bulging veins and sinews spread across trunular arms like tree branches. Skin glows behind battle reddened faces, and Lars Porsenna has perhaps never looked so Imperial as here, standing behind his superbly rendered chariot. Rava’s gleaming weapons and quite stunning hammered, bronze shields are marvellous recreations. Then at the end, to reinforce D’Amato’s and other scholar’s argument that the Roman army was much less uniform and much more culturally integrated than has been supposed, we have Etruscans marching for the Roman Republic.

A very interesting and comprehensive introduction to the arms and armour of the Etruscans.

Josh.