TARQUINIA (anc. TARQUINII), a town of Italy, in the province of Rome, 62 m. north-west by rail from the city of Viterbo, 490 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1931), 7,887 (town), 8,402 (commune). It is picturesquely situated, and commands a fine view of the sea. It possesses mediaeval fortifications, and no less than 25 towers are still standing in various parts of the town, which thus has a remarkably mediaeval appearance. The castle, on the north, contains the Romanesque church of S. Maria in Castello, begun in 1121, with a fine portal of 1143, a ciborium of 1166 and a pulpit of 1208, both in "cosmatesque" work; the pave ment in marble mosaic also is fine. There are several other Romanesque and Gothic churches and other buildings. The Gothic Palazzo Vitelleschi with remarkably rich windows, con tains the fine Government museum, now including the Bruschi collection, of Etruscan antiquities from the tombs of the Etruscan city, which probably occupied the site of the Roman town, now deserted, its last remains having been destroyed by the inhabi tants of Corneto (the mediaeval name by which the town was till lately known) in 1307. Scanty remains of walling and of buildings of the Roman period exist above ground.
The importance of Tarquinia to archaeologists lies mainly in its necropolis, situated to the south-east of the mediaeval town, on the hill which, from the tumuli raised above the tombs, bears the name of Monterozzi. The tombs themselves are of various kinds. The oldest are tombe a pozzo, or shaft graves, containing the ashes of the dead in an urn, of the Villanova period, the earliest belonging to the stage known as First Benacci (see ETRUSCANS) and the latest to the middle or end of the 9th century B.C. imme
diately after the coming of the Etruscans, a few contemporary graves of whom, containing Egyptianizing scarabs and some gold and silver, have also been found. In some of these tombs hut urns, like those of Latium, are found. Next come the various kinds of inhumation graves, the earliest of which, the so-called warrior's grave, belongs to the early "Vetulonian" period, and the Bocchoris tomb to 730-690 B.C. (MacIver, Villanovans and Early Etruscans, 1924, 158-166) : the most important are rock-hewn chambers, many of which contain well-preserved paint ings of various periods.
Tarquinia was the chief of the 12 cities of Etruria, and appears in the early history of Rome as the home of Tarquinius Priscus and Tarquinius Superbus. The people of Tarquinia and Veii at tempted to restore Tarquinius Superbus after his expulsion. In 358 B.C. the citizens of Tarquinia captured and put to death 307 Roman soldiers; the resulting war ended in 351 with a 4o years' truce, renewed for a similar period in 3o8. When Tarquinia came under Roman domination is uncertain, as is also the date at which it became a municipality; in 181 B.C. its port, Graviscae (mod. Porto Clementino), with Government salt-works 4 m. S.W., in an unhealthy position on the low coast, became a Roman colony. It exported wine and carried on coral fisheries.