Volterra’s defeat is one example of the Etruscans’ relentless absorption by Rome after the defeat of the Etruscan ruler Tarquin the Proud in 509 B.C. The last episodes of the struggle were played out in the first century B.C. By the time of the emperor Augustus (27 B.C.–14 A.D.), Etruscan writing had all but disappeared from tombs, buildings, coins, statues and books—from everything except certain religious texts.