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Tarquinia (), formerly Corneto, is an old city in the province of Viterbo, Lazio, Central Italy, known chiefly for its ancient
Etruscan __NOTOC__ Etruscan may refer to: Ancient civilization *The Etruscan language, an extinct language in ancient Italy *Something derived from or related to the Etruscan civilization **Etruscan architecture **Etruscan art **Etruscan cities **Etruscan ...
tombs in the widespread necropoleis, or cemeteries, for which it was awarded UNESCO World Heritage status. In 1922, it was renamed after the ancient city of Tarquinii (Roman) or Tarch(u)na (Etruscan). Although little is visible of the once-great wealth and extent of the ancient city, archaeology is increasingly revealing glimpses of past glories.


Location

The Etruscan and Roman city is situated on the long plateau of La Civita to the north of the current town. The ancient burial grounds (necropoleis), dating from the Iron Age (9th century BC, or Villanovan period) to Roman times, were on the adjacent promontories including that of today's Tarquinia.


History


Etruscan city

Tarquinii (
Etruscan __NOTOC__ Etruscan may refer to: Ancient civilization *The Etruscan language, an extinct language in ancient Italy *Something derived from or related to the Etruscan civilization **Etruscan architecture **Etruscan art **Etruscan cities **Etruscan ...
''Tarch(u)na'') was one of the most ancient and important Etruscan cities; the ancient myths connected with Tarchuna (those of its eponymous founder Tarchon—the son or brother of
Tyrrhenus In Etruscan mythology, Tyrrhenus (in el, Τυῤῥηνός) was one of the founders of the Etruscan League of twelve cities, along with his brother Tarchon. Herodotus describes him as the saviour of the Etruscans, because he led them from Lydia ...
—and of the infant oracle Tages, who gave the Etruscans the '' disciplina etrusca''), all point to the antiquity and cultural importance of the city. Basing on archaeological finds, Tarchuna eclipsed its neighbours well before the advent of written records. It is said to have been already a flourishing city when
Demaratus of Corinth Demaratus ( el, Δημάρατος), frequently called Demaratus of Corinth, was the father of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, the fifth King of Rome, and the grandfather or great-grandfather of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the seventh and last Roman king ...
brought in Greek workmen. Descendants of Demaratus, Lucius Tarquinius Priscus and
Lucius Tarquinius Superbus Lucius Tarquinius Superbus (died 495 BC) was the legendary seventh and final king of Rome, reigning 25 years until the popular uprising that led to the establishment of the Roman Republic.Livy, ''ab urbe condita libri'', I He is commonly known ...
, became kings of ancient Rome. Numerous Roman religious rites and ceremonies derived from Tarchuna, and even in imperial times a collegium of sixty haruspices continued to exist there. The emergence of Tarchuna as a trading power as early as the 8th Century BC was influenced by its control of mineral resources located in the Tolfa Hills to the south of the city and midway to the Caeretan port of Pyrgi. In 509 BC, after the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, the family of Tarquinius Superbus went into exile in Caere. He sought to regain the throne at first by the Tarquinian conspiracy and, when that failed, by force of arms. He convinced the cities of Tarchuna and Veii to support him and led their armies against Rome in the Battle of Silva Arsia. Although the Roman army was victorious, it is recorded by Livy that the forces of Tarchuna fought well on the right wing, initially pushing back the Roman left wing. After the battle the forces of Tarchuna returned home. At the end of the 5th century and during the first half of the 4th century BC a brief revival took place, both in the political and artistic sphere, probably under the ascendancy of the
Spurinna Spurinna may refer to: * Titus Vestricius Spurinna (c. 24–after 105 AD), two-time Roman consul and friend of Pliny the Younger * Members of the gens Spurinnia * Spurinna, a haruspex who warned Julius Caesar about the Ides of March The Ides o ...
family, whose members contributed to the renewed expansion of Tarchuna and the repopulation and growth of towns in the hinterland. The Spurinnas' tomb, known as the Tomba dell'Orco, is decorated with frescoes of a banquet uniting members of the family who are identified by inscriptions. The Spurinna family was prominent in Tarquinii up to the 1st century AD. Two fragmented slabs, known as the Elogia Tarquiniensis, pay tribute to Velthur Spurinnas and Aulus Spurinnas, and give a rare glimpse of Etruscan history, including the mention of one King Orgolnium of Caere, recalling the family name of Urgulanilla, which included among its members the wife of the emperor
Claudius Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (; 1 August 10 BC – 13 October AD 54) was the fourth Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Nero Claudius Drusus, Drusu ...
. During this period, Tarchuna overtook Caere and other Etruscan cities in terms of power and influence. In this period colossal walls were built around the city in response to threats from the Celts and from Rome. Tarchuna, not affected by Celtic invasions, finally colonised all its previously held territories in about 385 BC. This new flourishing state allowed a rapid recovery of all activities. Large burial monuments decorated by paintings, with sarcophagi and funerary sculptures in stone, reflect the eminent social position of the new aristocratic classes, but several inscriptions on walls and sarcophagi show the gradual process of an increasingly democratic transition was taking place. However, during the 4th century BC when Tarchuna's expansion was at its peak, a bitter struggle with Rome took place. In 358 BC, the citizens of Tarchuna captured and put to death 307 Roman soldiers; the resulting war ended in 351 BC with a forty years' truce, renewed for a similar period in 308 BC.


Roman city

When Tarchuna came under Roman domination is uncertain, as is also the date at which it became a '' municipium''; in 181 BC its port,
Gravisca Gravisca (''Cravsca'' in Etruscan and ''Graviscae'' Latin) was the port of the Etruscan city of Tarquinii, situated 8 km west of the city center. The Etruscan settlement, occupied ca. sixth to third centuries BC, had four principal occupation ...
e (modern
Porto Clementino Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...
), in an unhealthy position on the coast (due to malaria from nearby marshes), became a Roman '' colonia'' that exported wine and had coral fisheries. Little is known about Tarquinii in Roman times, but the flax and forests of its extensive territory are mentioned by classical authors, and Tarquinii offered to furnish Scipio with sailcloth in 195 BC. A bishop of Tarquinii is mentioned in 456 AD.


Post-Roman era

The ancient city had shrunk to a small fortified settlement on the "Castellina" location during the early Middle Ages, while the more strategically placed Corneto (possibly the "Corito" mentioned in Roman sources) grew progressively to become the major city of the lower Maremma sea coast, especially after the destruction of the port of
Centumcellae Civitavecchia (; meaning "ancient town") is a city and ''comune'' of the Metropolitan City of Rome in the central Italian region of Lazio. A sea port on the Tyrrhenian Sea, it is located west-north-west of Rome. The harbour is formed by two pier ...
(modern Civitavecchia). The last historic references to Tarquinii are from around 1250, and the last remains were destroyed in 1305. The importance of Tarquinii to archaeologists lies mainly in its
necropolis A necropolis (plural necropolises, necropoles, necropoleis, necropoli) is a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek ''nekropolis'', literally meaning "city of the dead". The term usually im ...
, situated to the southeast of the medieval town, on the hill named "Monterozzi". The oldest tombs are , or shaft graves, containing the ashes of the dead in an urn. The oldest of them probably pre-Etruscan; in some of these tombs are hut-shaped urns, many of which contain well-preserved paintings of various periods; some show close kinship to archaic Greek art, while others are more recent, and one may belong to the middle of the 4th century BC. Sarcophagi from these tombs, some showing traces of painting, were preserved in the municipal museum, as were numerous Greek vases, bronzes and other objects. The name of Corneto was changed to Tarquinia in 1922. Reversion to historical place names (not always accurately), was a frequent phenomenon under the Fascist Government of Italy as part of the nationalist campaign to evoke past glories.


Main sights


Etruscan necropolis of Monterozzi

The main necropolis of Tarchuna, part of which can be visited today, is the Monterozzi necropolis with some 6,000 tombs, at least 200 of which include beautiful wall paintings, and many of which were tumulus tombs with chambers carved in the rock below. The painted scenes are of a quality virtually unrivalled elsewhere in the Etruscan world and give a valuable insight into the secretive world of the Etruscans which is rarely documented. They show banquets with dances and music, sporting events, occasional erotic and mythical scenes. In the late period underworld demons escorting the dead on their journey to the beyond including scenes in the nether world were depicted, and also processions of magistrates and other symbols of the rank of the eminent members of the families buried there. Famous tombs include the
Tomb of the Bulls The Tomb of the Bulls ( it, Tomba dei Tori) is an Etruscan tomb in the Necropolis of Monterozzi near Tarquinia, Lazio, Italy. It was discovered in 1892 and has been dated back to either 540–530 BC or 530–520 BC. According to an inscr ...
,
Tomb of the Augurs The Tomb of the Augurs (Italian ''Tomba degli Àuguri'') is an Etruscan burial chamber so called because of a misinterpretation of one of the fresco figures on the right wall thought to be a Roman priest known as an augur. The tomb is located wit ...
and the Tomb of the Leopards. During the second half of the 4th century sculpted and painted sarcophagi of
nenfro Nenfro is a volcanic rock, gray tuff or banded trachyte (Brocchi) or leucite phonolite lava (Rosenbusch) with a soft but compact structure, typical of the Viterbo region that the Etruscans used in their sculptures of northern Lazio Cimini hills n ...
, marble and alabaster came into use. They were deposited on rock-carved benches or against the walls in the by then very large underground chambers. Sarcophagi continued until the second century and are found in such numbers at Tarquinia that they must have been manufactured locally.


The Ancient City (La Civita)

The city towered above the
Marta Marta may refer to: People * Marta (given name), a feminine given name * Märta, a feminine given name * Marta (surname) :István Márta composer * Marta (footballer) (born 1986), Brazilian professional footballer Places * Marta (river), an ...
valley and was about 6 km from the sea. La Civita is made up of two adjoining plateaux, the pian di Civita and the pian della Regina, joined by a narrow saddle.


The Temple ''Ara della Regina''

Measuring c. 44 × 25 m and dating to c. 4th–3rd century BC, it was built in tufa with wooden structures and decorations, notably the famous and exquisite frieze of winged horses in terracotta that is considered a masterpiece of Etruscan art.


City walls

The large walls were built during the city's most prosperous period in the 6th century BC and measured about 8 km long, enclosing 135 ha, and long parts of the northern section are visible.


Other sights

* Tarquinia National Museum: with a large collection of archaeological finds, it is housed in the Renaissance ''Palazzo Vitelleschi'', begun in 1436 and completed around 1480–1490. *
Santa Maria di Castello Santa Maria di Castello is a church and religious complex in Genoa, Italy. Administrated for a long time by the Dominicans, it is located in the ''Castello'' hill of the city, where in the Middle Ages a bishop's fortified castle existed. The chu ...
: church built in 1121–1208 with Lombard and Cosmatesque influences. The façade has a small bell-tower and three entrances. The interior has a nave and two aisles, divided by massive pilasters with palaeo-Christian capitals and friezes. Noteworthy are also the rose-window in the nave and the several marble works by Roman masters. * Tarquinia Cathedral: once in Romanesque-Gothic style but rebuilt after the 1643 fire, it has maintained from the original edifice the 16th-century frescoes in the presbytery, by Antonio del Massaro * San Pancrazio: Gothic-Romanesque church * ''San Giacomo'' and ''Santissima Annunziata'', churches showing different Arab and Byzantine influences * San Martino: 12th-century Romanesque church *
San Giovanni Battista San Giovanni Battista is the Italian translation of Saint John the Baptist. It may also refer to: Italian churches * San Giovanni Battista, Highway A11, a church in Florence, Italy * San Giovanni Battista, Praiano, a church in Praiano, Italy * , a ...
: 12th-century church with an elegant rose-window in the simple façade. * Communal Palace, in Romanesque style, begun in the 13th century and restored in the 16th *The numerous medieval towers, including that of Dante Alighieri * ''Palazzo dei Priori''. The façade, remade in Baroque times, has a massive external staircase. The interior has a fresco cycle from 1429.


Tarquinia DOC

The
Italian wine DOC The following four classifications of wine constitute the Italian system of labelling and legally protecting Italian wine: * ''Denominazione di origine'' (DO, rarely used; ; English: “designation of origin”), * ''Indicazione geografica tipi ...
of Tarquinia produces red, white '' frizzante'' style wine. The grapes are limited to a
harvest Harvesting is the process of gathering a ripe crop from the fields. Reaping is the cutting of grain or pulse for harvest, typically using a scythe, sickle, or reaper. On smaller farms with minimal mechanization, harvesting is the most labor-i ...
yield of 12 tonnes/ha with finished wines needing a minimum 10.5% alcohol level. The reds are a blend of at least 60% Sangiovese and/or Montepulciano, up to 25%
Cesanese Cesanese Comune (more commonly known as just Cesanese) is a red Italian wine grape variety that is grown primarily in the Lazio region. The grape has three ''Denominazione di origine controllata'' (DOC) regions dedicated to it-Cesanese di Affil ...
and up to 30% of other local red grape varieties such as
Abbuoto Abbuoto is a red Italian wine grape variety that is grown primarily in the Lazio region of central Italy. Historically the grape was believed to be responsible for the Ancient Roman wine ''Caecubum'' that was praised by writers such as Pliny the E ...
. The whites are composed of at least 50%
Trebbiano Trebbiano is an Italian wine grape, one of the most widely planted grape varieties in the world. It gives good yields, but tends to yield undistinguished wine. It can be fresh and fruity, but does not keep long. Also known as ugni blanc, it h ...
and/or Giallo, up to 35% Malvasia and up to 30 other local grape varieties with the exception of Pinot grigio that is specifically excluded from the DOC wines of Tarquinia.


Twin towns

*
Jaruco Jaruco is a municipality and town in the Mayabeque Province of Cuba. Geography The town is located in the east of Havana, between San José de las Lajas and Santa Cruz del Norte. The municipality borders with Habana del Este (municipal borough of ...
, Cuba *
Rabat Rabat (, also , ; ar, الرِّبَاط, er-Ribât; ber, ⵕⵕⴱⴰⵟ, ṛṛbaṭ) is the capital city of Morocco and the country's seventh largest city with an urban population of approximately 580,000 (2014) and a metropolitan populati ...
, Malta


References


Sources

*R. Leighton, ''Tarquinia, an Etruscan City'' (Duckworth, London, 2004). * This work in turn cites: **L. Dasti, ''Notizie storiche archeologiche di Tarquinia e Corneto'' (Rome, 1878) **G. Dennis, ''Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria'' (London, 1883), i. 301 sqq. **''Notizie degli Scavi'', ''passim'', especially 1885, 513 sqq. **E. Bormann in ''Corp. Inscr. Lai.'', xi. (Berlin, 1888), p. 510 sqq. **G. Körte, "Etrusker" in Pauly-Wissowa, ''Realencyklopädie'', vi. 730 sqq.


External links

* * *
Official website
, Tarquinia - ancient history of Italy: descriptions of some Etruscan tombs

(3 chapters of George Dennis's ''Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria'')

Information about Tarquinia's Cattle Branding Festival
/ Tarquinia Tourism Information
{{Authority control Etruscan tombs World Heritage Sites in Italy Villanovan culture