Tarquinii

(Etruscan Tarchnal, modern Tarquinia)

A town in southwestern Etruria (now in Lazio) five miles from the Tyrrhenian Sea. By tradition Tarquinii was the oldest Etruscan city in Italy, founded by Tarchon the brother of Tyrsenus who supposedly (although this view is untenable) led the Etruscans from Lydia in western Asia Minor toward the end of the second millennium BC, shortly after the fall of Troy. Tages, who allegedly rose from the ground of Tarquinii, was believed to have taught Etruria the rules governing the relations between gods and men.

Excavations confirm that this was the earliest Etruscan center to attain metallic wealth and political power, so that the tenth and ninth centuries have been defined, with some justice, as the period of a `Tarquinian civilization.’ A number of adjoining villages were distributed over most of the Pian di Civita plateau, which is nearly surrounded by the river Marta and its tributaries. These villages rose to importance by working in bronze made from the copper of Mount Tolfa, ten miles away. In the second half of the eighth century, they coalesced into the nucleus of a city and city state. This foundation formed close links with the Greek markets of Pithecusae (Ischia) and Cumae (Cuma) in Campania, and was apparently the first place in Etruria to acquire pottery from those centers and to make painted vases on its own account.

It was believed that in the early seventh century a Greek, Demaratus, emigrated from Corinth with his whole family, settling at Tarquinii and bringing with him three fictores or modelers, that is to say terracotta sculptors; and he was said to have brought up one of his sons with a Greek and one with an Etruscan education. And indeed, even if these stories contain a certain measure of oversimplification, it can be seen that from c 675 local chamber tombs—of which nearly 7,000 have been found in Tarquinian cemeteries during the last quarter of a century alone, and a hundred are still visible—testify to a new and climactic phase of prosperity. In these graves the mid-sixth century inaugurated an extraordinary efflorescence of wall painting (such as is only very rarely to be found in Greek lands), combining Greek and Etruscan characteristics; about twenty examples, extending over a period of three hundred years, are reasonably well preserved. Stretches of the tufa city wall, enclosing a perimeter of five miles, are also extant, and the first systematic excavations of the urban center have now begun.

Although much or most of Tolfa, it appears, had been lost to Caere (Cerveteri) not long after 700, Tarquinii still controlled a wide and fertile surrounding area. These territories comprised the Marta and Mignone basins; inland, Tuscania (replacing Visentium [Bisenzio] on Lake Volsiniensis [Bolsena]) was under the control of Tarquinii; and on the coastland of the Tyrrhenian Sea it possessed three ports, later known as Graviscae (Porto San Clementino), Martanum and Rapinum, which made possible not only increased commerce with the Greeks—who had their own trading post at Graviscae until the 470s—but also the growth of a considerable Tarquinian sea power.

These widespread tentacles of the city gave rise to the story that Tarchon, after founding Tarquinii, went on to establish all the Etruscan centers in north Italy. This is a chauvinistic Tarquinian fiction; but what appears to be broadly true is that a dynasty originating from Tarquinii was established at Rome (the traditional date is 616) by Tarquinius Priscus and lasted until the expulsion of Tarquinius Superbus from that city (c 510). Incidental light is cast on the subsequent history of Tarquinii by a group of Latin elogia (statements recounting official careers) of the first century AD, honoring the family of the Spurinnas: Velthur Spurinna I, we are told, led an army to Sicily, thus becoming the first Etruscan leader to take troops overseas—either c 474, it would seem, or c 307. He also appears to have commanded a force against Caere (Cerveteri), while his son Aulus, we are told, expelled Orgolnius, the Caeretan king, and intervened forcibly at Arretium (Arezzo), probably during social disturbances at that city; he is also said to have captured nine `Latin towns.’

During Rome's decisive war against Etruscan Veii, however, Tarquinii did not do enough to save its compatriots from their downfall (c 396), and subsequently encountered Roman hostility on its own account (c 358–351, 314–311/308), suffering defeat and the imposition of stern conditions that virtually put an end to its independent existence. The Romans founded a colony at Castrum Novum c 264 (?), on land captured from Tarquinii, and in 181 established another settlement at Graviscae. A third-century temple, known as the Ara della Regina, has provided the city's most famous work of art, a terracotta pair of winged horses, once yoked to a chariot. During the imperial epoch Tarquinii was the headquarters of a Roman priesthood of sixty diviners (haruspices).