Etruscan votive head of young man 3rd-2nd C. BCE

"The Tyrrhenians, learning of the general's departure and hearing from some of the prisoners the reasons for his action, grew still more elated in mind, since it seemed that the Gods were making war upon the Romans; and they entertained great hopes of conquering them. For their augurs, who are reputed to have investigated with greater accuracy than those anywhere else the signs that appear in the sky, determining where the thunderbolts come from, what quarters receive them when they depart after striking, to which of the Gods each kind of bolt is assigned, and what good or evil it portends, advised them to engage the enemy, interpreting the omen which had appeared to the Romans on this wise: Since the bolt had fallen upon the consul's tent, which was the army's headquarters, and had utterly destroyed it even to its hearth, the Gods were foretelling to the whole army the wiping out of their camp after it should be taken by storm, and the death of the principal persons in it. "If, now," they said, "the occupants of the place where the bolt fell had remained there instead of removing their standards to the other army, the divinity who was wroth with them would have satisfied his anger with the capture of a single camp and the destruction of a single army; but since they endeavoured to be wiser than the Gods and changed their quarters to the other camp, leaving the place deserted, as if the God has signified that the calamities should fall, not upon the men, but upon the places, the divine wrath will come upon all of them alike, both upon those who departed and upon those who received them. And since, when destiny had foretold that one camp should be taken by storm, they did not wait for their fate, but of their own accord handed their camp over to the enemy, the camp which received the deserted camp shall be taken by storm instead of the one that was abandoned."

-Dionysius of Halicarnassus, The Roman Antiquities: Book 9.6

Etruscan votice head of young man 3rd-2nd C. BCE, terracotta. H. 9 in. (22.9 cm.). Ex J. F. collection, Loveland, Ohio, acquired from Royal-Athena in September 1984. On loan to the Cincinnati Art Museum, 1984-2017.

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Images from an auction site.

 

Quote:

https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Dionysius_of_Halicarnassus/9A*.html#6