City
Tarquinis
(near Tarquinia) (Barrington)
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Tarquinii was one of the twelve cities of the Etruscan league, probably its leading one, set on a hill above the river Marta. According to the historian Livy, Tarquinius Priscus left it for Rome, where he became king. Its ruins lie on a plateau near modern Tarquinia, a town called Corneto until 1922, and its cemeteries yielded tombs with wall paintings. In 1546 Corneto even settled a debt with the pope in six thousand pounds of ancient bronzes. On the map, the pair of towers rests on a thin rectangular base, a form found elsewhere only at Utica.