Page:Early Man in Britain and His Place in the Tertiary Period.djvu/492

464 and the use of the lotus pattern. At a later time they were intimately associated with the early Greeks, and to such an extent was the intercourse carried on between them that Greek vases and statues abound in their tombs, and the terra cotta sarcophagi, in which rested the ashes of the Etruskan nobles, were copied from Greek designs. After an examination of the principal collections in Italy, it seems to me probable that there were Greek artists in the principal Etruskan cities, who carried on the business of modelling and designing, in the same fashion as the Italians of the present day carry on the manufacture of plaster casts over the whole of Europe. The Greek influence, however, is scarcely perceptible in the metal-work, which was allowed by the early Greeks themselves to be of remarkable excellence. Etruskan candelabra were famous in Athens in the days of Perikles. Pheidias gave his Minerva sandals of Etruskan fashion; and various articles in gold and bronze were imported for the use and ornament of the houses of the Greeks. The metal-work of the Etruskans was as widely distributed in ancient Greece as the Greek vases and statues were distributed throughout the Italian dominions of the Etruskans. The commerce between the two was considerable, and before the invention of coins was carried on by means of barter. Nor did the reputation of the Etruskans for metal-work diminish in much later times after their conquest by the Romans. We read in Pliny that their works of art were to be found throughout the world.

The Etruskans appear before us in the earliest records