At the zenith of their power, the Etruscans controlled about a third of the peninsula and their kings held sway in Rome over a period of more than a hundred and fifty years. But after the expulsion of the Tarquins at the close of the sixth century BC they began to lose ground to the Romans; and their distinctive culture was gradually absorbed in the pan-Italic civilization which Rome established, until almost all clear record of it faded into obscurity. Heurgon seeks to lift the mystery which enshrouds almost every aspect of this civilization - from the vexed question of their origins and curios non-Indo-European language to the enigma of their highly complex religion - in which soothsaying played so important a part.