After the rise of Rome and her eventual conquest of the Italian Peninsula (after wars such as the Samnite Wars, Social Wars), was there ever a strong Etruscan or Samnite or other tribe identity? Later in the Empire era and at the height of Roman power, were there people in Italy who identified themselves as these tribes? Did it ever play into politics or even question Roman authority?
The Etruscan language was dying out by the early imperial period. One of the endeavors Claudius undertook when he was a scholar (before he became emperor) was to write a history of the Etruscan people and compile a codex of the Etruscan language (interesting in that it appears to be a non-indoeuropean isolate) with the help of the last living speakers. These works however, did not survive into the present, instead just references to them.