Vulci was one of the greatest Etruscan city-states, in an area that had been intensely populated during the Palaeolithic Age. Small villages already existed in the Bronze Age and as these grew they formed what was to become the city of Vulci.
By the end of the 6th Century B.C. the city's dominion reached inland to the Lake Bolsena area, to Grosseto and Monte Amiata in the North and Cerveteri in the South. Such was its importance politically, that Vulci even influenced the decisions of the kings down in Rome.

However, the defeat of the Etruscan fleet off Cumae in 474 B.C. led to a gradual decline in trade. Vulci was defeated by the Romans in 280 B.C. and annexed to the Sabatine tribe, thus becoming a Roman municipium.
A bishopric in the 4th Century A.D., Vulci was finally abandoned at the beginning of the 10th Century following repeated invasions by the Saracens.

ETRUSCAN MUSEUM