Copyright 1996 by H. T. Bryer
DRUIDS and ETRUSCAN PRIESTS
| Little has been said of the similarities that existed between the Druidic and
Etruscan priesthoods. Here follows two accounts made by Romans chronicling the roles played by Druids and Etruscan priests in warfare: The first being an account by Livy (book vii,17) of a fourth century battle between the Romans and the combined forces of the Etruscan Tarquinians and Faliscans: "The Romans were at first defeated, the Roman soldiers having been terrified by the sight of the priests advancing like furies,brandishing snakes and lighted torches. The soldiers retreated in disorder to their trenches;" Tacitus describes an almost identical scene taking place when the Romans invade Celtic Briton: "Drawn up on the Seashore was a dense mass of armed warriors.- Among them bearing flaming torches, ran women with funereal robes and disheveled hair like furies, and all around stood Druids, raising their hands to heaven and calling down dreadful curses." |
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