John Reich

This book delivers exactly what the title promises: it is a survey of the peoples who lived in Italy before the Roman conquest. The focus is on archaeology, which is a necessity, since the written sources were mostly written by Romans, who were not really much interested in the other peoples of Italy. At the end of every chapter is a pictorial focus on an aspect of those cultures. I found the ancient culture of Sardinia especially fascinating. The Etruscans are covered, but so are Samnites show more and others, as well as an quick look at the Greeks of Apulia. Strangely, there is nothing on the natives of Sicily.

Note that the book is necessarily dated, representing understanding in the late 1970s. Fascinating nonetheless. show less