- chapter 8: A long twilight –
Rome was therefore able to pursue its advance in Etruria either by diplomatic
means or by war: the following year, in 280, a new triumph is celebrated by P. Tiberius
Coruncanius de Vulcentibus et Volsiniensibus, the two cities of Vulci (Fig. 8.6) and Volsinii
whose territory was to the north, in direct contact with that of Tarquinia. The other
Etruscan cities, caught between the advance of Rome to the south and the threat of the
Gauls and Ligurians to the north, appear to have preferred to deal with the Romans. The
case of Arezzo is signifi cant in this respect: the only Etruscan city, in 311, to refuse to
Figure 8.5 The inscriptions found in the vicinity of the forum of Tarquinia, known under the name
of elogia, commemorate, at an unknown date between Tiberius and Trajan, some episodes of the glorious
past of the great local family of the Spurinna: here, the expeditions led by Aulus Spurinna, four centuries
earlier, to drive out of power Ogulnius the king of Caere, to put down a revolt of slaves at Arezzo and to
conquer nine Latin strongholds (Tarquinia, Museo Archeologico Nazionale; Rasenna 1986, Fig. 6).Figure 8.6 The François Tomb of Vulci, at the very beginning of the Hellenistic era, compares the
deeds of the Trojan War with those of the local aristocracy in their fi ght against Rome: here, Marce
Camitlnas kills Cnaeve Tarchunies Rumach, a Tarquin of Rome (Villa Albani; Torelli-Sgubini Moretti
2008, p. 191).