Ancient Etruscan town.
It was located about 10 mi (16 km) northwest of Rome , near modern Veio. An important city of the Etruscan confederation and the foremost 6th-century producer of Etruscan terra-cotta sculptures, it had hegemony over Rome in the 7th–6th centuries BC. A subsequent series of wars ended in its destruction by Rome in 396 BC after a 10-year siege. Under Augustus it was made a municipium, and up to the 3rd century AD it continued as a religious centre.