[raygun]

I’ve always been fascinated by the Etruscans. They were a mystery already by Claudius’ day. The language having been long dead in contrast to Phoenician (which some then contemproary scholars had a vague understanding of).

[Verginius Rufus]

I don't think the language had died out by Claudius' time. He wrote a history of the Etruscans in Greek, which would be very useful to have.

Part of a speech by Claudius survives on a bronze tablet found in Lyon in the 16th century. He goes off on a tangent talking about the Etruscan traditions concerning the figure the Romans called Servius Tullius (6th of the traditional 7 kings of Rome).