The whole must have been laid out at once, and the smaller remains seem to show that this was done by Etruscans.

In the fourth century the place was sacked by the Gauls, and though there was later occupation,[44] its extent is doubtful.[45] Further excavation is, however, needed to confirm this generally accepted interpretation of the place.

Nothing has been noted elsewhere in Etruria or its confines to connect the Etruscans with any rectangular form of town-plan.

At Veii, for example, most of the Etruscan city has lain desolate and unoccupied ever since the Romans destroyed it, but the site shows no vestige of streets crossing at right angles or of oblong blocks of houses.

At Vetulonia the excavated fragment of an Etruscan city shows only curving and irregular streets.[46] Nor is there real reason to believe that the 'Etruscan teaching' learnt by Rome included an art of town-planning (p.