Abstract
‘Imperial epilogue’ looks at the demise of the Etruscan era and analyses when it actually happened and what we can glean from evidence. Land redistributions, the transformation of the language from spoken to a subject of study, the decline of towns, and a generalized absence of funerary evidence suggests that the Etruscans simply disappeared. The difficulty of writing about this period is in finding a balance. This is well illustrated by the current debate over the fall of the Roman empire—was it sudden and catastrophic, or gradual and characterized by continuity and transformation?
