But above all, the Etruscans were famous for their open displays of affection between men and women. It shocked the ancient world.

The Greeks who knew the Etruscans from very early on before Rome was, anything before Rome was, saw that the Etruscan people gave a position to women that the Greeks certainly wouldn’t. Not only were women part of the entire house, women reclined at banquets with men which, for a Greek, was absolutely unthinkable.

It is no shame for the Etruscans to be seen having sexual experiences, for this too is normal there. It seems to be the local custom. ---Posidonious

And they show no shame in sensuous acts. While the torches are still lit, servants bring in courtesans, sometimes even their own wives, and they all engage in lovemaking, publicly. ---Theopompus.

The Greeks, and later the Romans, loved to embroider scandalous stories about the decadence of the Etruscans. They were almost certainly untrue. But it is true that the Etruscans created memorable portraits of sensual pleasure. After the Etruscans, the idea of portraying such intimacy between men and women disappeared from western art for almost 2,000 years.

The change began with the Romans who grew up in their shadow. The first Romans were primitive, tough backwoodsmen. They resented the Etruscans but had everything to learn from them, including the darker sides of civilization. Like all ancient people, the Etruscans were rigidly divided by class. Brutal rituals enforced the power and prestige of the nobility. Etruscans staged games at the funerals of important men. The losers were killed. Their blood celebrated the prestige of the dead man and was an offering to his spirit. The wrestlers were slaves captured in warfare. Their lives were worth nothing. Only their deaths were significant. The practice of human sacrifice was common in the ancient world. The Etruscans were no exception. The blood of slaves and captives watered the ground at state rituals throughout the Mediterranean. Romans inherited the Etruscan taste for sacrificial blood. Gladiatorial combat was the Roman equivalent of these gory celebrations of power.

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