VeiiItaly modern Isola Farnese

ancient Etruscan town, located about 10 miles (16 km) northwest of Rome. Veii was the greatest centre for the fabrication of terra-cotta sculptures in Etruria in the 6th century bc. According to Pliny the Elder, Vulca of Veii made the terra-cotta statues for the Temple of Jupiter on the Roman Capitol in the late 6th century bc. The town had hegemony over Rome in the 7th and 6th centuries; a subsequent series of wars ended in the destruction of Veii (396 bc). Its destruction was not total, however, and the Romans later reconstructed the city. Under Augustus in 2 bc it was made a municipium (a community that exercised partial rights of Roman citizenship), and up to the 3rd century ad it continued as a religious centre.

In origin, Veii appears to have been a conglomeration of Villanovan villages during the 9th and 8th centuries bc, the graveyards of which occupied the rocky plains around the city. One of the chambered tombs, the Grotta Campana, contains the oldest known Etruscan frescoes. The ashes of the dead were stored in burial urns surmounted by archaic terra-cotta portrait heads. Nearby are the remains of the Temple of Apollo, home of the terra-cotta statue of the “Apollo of Veii” and also a temple shrine dedicated to the neighbouring Cremera River.