Etruscan votive head - Unknown date

"Some say that when the time was at hand for a traditional sacrifice which devolved upon the Fabian clan, the men set out from the fortress, attended by a few clients, to perform the rites, and proceeded without reconnoitring the roads or marching ranged in centuries under their standards, but negligently and unguardedly as in time of peace and as if they were passing through friendly territory. The Tyrrhenians, having learned of their departure in advance, placed one part of their army in ambush at a spot along the road, and followed son after with the rest of their forces in regular formation. When the Fabii drew near the ambuscade, the Tyrrhenians who were lying in wait there rose up and fell upon them, some in front and others in flank, and a little later the rest of the Tyrrhenian force attacked them from the rear; and surrounding them on all sides and shooting at them, some with slings, some with bows, and others hurling javelins and spears, they overwhelmed them all with the multitude of their missiles."

-Dionysius of Halicarnassus, The Roman Antiquities: Book 9.19

Etruscan terracotta votive head, study in Villa San Michele, previously owned by Axel Munthe, Anacapri, Capri, Campania, Italy. Anacapri, Villa San Michele.

Source:

https://www.akg-images.fr/archive/-2UMEBMBTHR86M.html

 

Quote:

https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Dionysius_of_Halicarnassus/9A*.html#19