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The Battle of Alalia (540 BCE) was a Pyrrhic victory for the Greeks who defeated a joint Etruscan and Carthaginian force in a naval battle off the coast of Corsica. The victorious but weakened Greeks were soon forced to withdraw from the area. These Greeks then escaped to southern Italy where they apparently brought some of their spoils of victory. A recent dig at Velia near Paestrum, Italy south of Naples unearthed arms and other interesting artifacts including an Etruscan helmet. These are thought to date to the Battle of Alalia: “Alongside the pottery, the temple floor also contained several bronze and iron weapons. There are, Scelza says, many fragments of weapons, including what appear to be pieces of a large decorated shield and two splendid helmets in a perfect state of preservation: one Etruscan of the "shell" type, which experts call Negau from the Slovenian location where they were found for the first time, and the other of the Chalcidian type.” https://www.ansa.it/english/news/2022/02/01/helmets-arms-from-battle-of-alalia-found-at-velia_e9385207-5c62-4383-9222-127ca87c0222.html https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Alalia Here is a similar Etruscan (also called Negau) helmet found at the Etruscan necropolis of Vulci 75 miles from Rome. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.laprensalatina.com/unusual-inscription-found-inside-2400-year-old-etruscan-helmet/amp/

Has anyone come across any papers or books on violent street crime/ organized crime in ancient Rome. There may just be little literary evidence of it, but I can only imagine an honor based society, aggressive, and hyper-masculine with no real police force would be pretty lawless. I can only assume you had to meet violence with violence, and gather friends around you who would back you up. And it seems like the only protection you had was not to be a easy target. And as far as I can see, you had to get your own revenge for a murdered family member, or have some connections. It also seems to me that in this environment the patronage system could sometimes end up working like modern organized crime. Anyone have insights or resources on this topic?

I'd love to read a systemized research book on this topic too. Many modern researchers seem to give an extremely gullible view on the ancient world, as if it was run by gods almost and everything was arranged in perfect order, so people would sniff flowers under the blue sky and play badminton. They were killing each other on the forum in the center of the city next to the building of their senate, and crowds were watching this all day long! The number of people that fell victim on the arena of Colloseum is estimated as 200,000 at least (wild animals are not even included in the calcs). They got only 25% emperors who died by natural death, meaning that there was a 3:1 chance to be murdered. They got pirates all over the place in the mediterranean. They even burnt their old senate building, and noone could do nothing. In fact, before Numa Pompilius they officially practised human sacrifices. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Crime_and_punishment_in_ancient_Rome

Thanks.