# Volsinii

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Ancient Etruscan cities

This article is about the two ancient Roman towns. For other uses, see [Volsinii (disambiguation)](/source/Volsinii_(disambiguation)).

[Bolsena](/source/Bolsena) at the site of Roman Volsinii.
[42°38′41″N 11°59′09″E / 42.64472°N 11.98583°E / 42.64472; 11.98583](https://geohack.toolforge.org/geohack.php?pagename=Volsinii&params=42_38_41_N_11_59_09_E_)

[Orvieto](/source/Orvieto), candidate for the location of Etruscan Velzna. Etruscan antiquities there are extensive.
[42°43′N 12°06′E / 42.717°N 12.100°E / 42.717; 12.100](https://geohack.toolforge.org/geohack.php?pagename=Volsinii&params=42_43_N_12_06_E_)

**Volsinii** or **Vulsinii** ([Etruscan](/source/Etruscan_language): **Velzna** or **Velusna**; [Greek](/source/Ancient_Greek): **Ouolsinioi**, Ὀυολσίνιοι;[1] Ὀυολσίνιον[2]), is the name of two ancient cities of [Etruria](/source/Etruria), one situated on the shore of Lacus Volsiniensis (modern [Lago di Bolsena](/source/Lago_di_Bolsena)), and the other on the [Via Clodia](/source/Via_Clodia), between [Clusium](/source/Clusium) ([Chiusi](/source/Chiusi)) and [Forum Cassii](/source/Forum_Cassii) ([Vetralla](/source/Vetralla)).[3] The latter was [Etruscan](/source/Etruscan_civilization) and was destroyed by the Romans in 264 BC following an attempted revolt by its slaves, while the former was founded by the Romans using the remainder of the Etruscan population rescued from the razed city.[4]

Modern [Bolsena](/source/Bolsena), [Italy](/source/Italy), in the region of [Lazio](/source/Lazio), descends from the Roman city. The location of the Etruscan city is debated. [Umbrian](/source/Umbria) [Orvieto](/source/Orvieto), about 14 km (8.7 mi) from Bolsena, is a strong candidate.

## Location

The [Byzantine](/source/Byzantine_Empire) historian [Joannes Zonaras](/source/Joannes_Zonaras) states that the Etruscan Volsinii lay on a steep height;[5] while [Bolsena](/source/Bolsena), the modern town on the site of Roman Volsinii, is situated in the plain. Scholars of the 19th century debated the location of this elevated site. [Wilhelm Ludwig Abeken](/source/Wilhelm_Ludwig_Abeken)[6] looked for it at [Montefiascone](/source/Montefiascone), 14 km (8.7 mi) from Bolsena at the southern extremity of the lake; while [Karl Otfried Müller](/source/Karl_Otfried_M%C3%BCller)[7] believed it was at [Orvieto](/source/Orvieto), 17 km (11 mi) away, and adduced the name of that place in Latin, *Urbs Vetus*, the "old city," as an argument in favour of his view. British explorer and writer [George Dennis](/source/George_Dennis_(explorer))[8] was of the opinion that there was no reason to believe that it was so far from the Roman city, and that it lay on the summit of the hill, above the [amphitheater](/source/Amphitheater) at Bolsena, at a spot called *Il Piazzano*.[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*] He adduced in support of this hypothesis the existence of a good deal of broken pottery there, and of a few caves in the cliffs below.

### Fanum Voltumnae

Main article: [Fanum Voltumnae](/source/Fanum_Voltumnae)

Fanum Voltumnae was the chief sanctuary of the Etruscans. Numerous sources refer to a league of the "Twelve Peoples" of Etruria, which met annually at the Fanum, possibly for the purpose of electing priests.[9][10] The exact location of this shrine is still unknown, though it may have been in an area near modern [Orvieto](/source/Orvieto), believed by many to be the ancient Volsinii. Professor Simonetta Stopponi of the University of Macerata, an Etruscologist, has been excavating at Orvieto since 2000. She believes that Fanum was located at this site.[11]

An Etruscan substructure, datable to the 6th-4th centuries BC, has been uncovered.

"Most impressive was the excavation of a round fountain area, on a slight rise above and overlooking the temples, whose decorations included the head of a lion. According to Stopponi, ‘This would have been the sacred spring.’"[11]

## History

### Volsinii veteres

Etruscan Volsinii (Velzna or Velusna; or sometimes in [Latin](/source/Latin) *Volsinii Veteres* – Old Volsinii) appears to have been one of the most powerful cities of Etruria, the cult centre of the god [Voltumna](/source/Voltumna), and was doubtless one of the 12 which formed the Etruscan confederation, as Volsinii is designated by [Livy](/source/Livy)[12] and [Valerius Maximus](/source/Valerius_Maximus)[13] as one of the *capita Etruriae* ("heads of Etruria"). It is described by [Juvenal](/source/Juvenal)[14] as seated among well-wooded hills.

Volsinii first enters Roman historiography following the fall of [Veii](/source/Veii) in 396 BC.[15] The Volsinienses, in conjunction with the Salpinates,[16] taking advantage of a famine and pestilence which had desolated Rome, made incursions into the Roman territory in 391 BC. They were defeated, and 8,000 of them were taken prisoner. However, they purchased a twenty-year truce in exchange for returning the booty they had taken, and furnishing the pay of the Roman army for a year.[17]

They appear next in 310 BC, when, in common with the rest of the Etruscan cities, except Arretium (modern [Arezzo](/source/Arezzo)), they took part in the siege of Sutrium (modern [Sutri](/source/Sutri)), a city in alliance with Rome.[18] This war was terminated by the defeat of the Etruscans at the [First Battle of Lake Vadimo](/source/First_Battle_of_Lake_Vadimo) (310 BC), a major blow to their power.[19] Three years afterwards the consul [Publius Decius Mus](/source/Publius_Decius_Mus_(consul_312_BC)) captured several of the Volsinian fortresses.[20] In 295 BC, [Lucius Postumius Megellus](/source/Lucius_Postumius_Megellus_(consul_305_BC)) ravaged their territory and defeated them under the walls of their own city, slaying 2,800 of them. Consequently they, together with Perusia (modern [Perugia](/source/Perugia)) and [Arretium](/source/Arezzo), purchased a forty-year peace by paying a heavy fine.[21]

Not more than fourteen years, however, had elapsed, when, with their allies the [Vulcientes](/source/Buccino), they again took up arms against Rome. But this attempt ended in their final subjugation in 280 BC.[22] [Pliny](/source/Pliny_the_Elder)[23] tells an absurd story, taken from the Greek writer [Metrodorus of Scepsis](/source/Metrodorus_of_Scepsis), that the object of the Romans in capturing Volsinii was to make themselves masters of 2,000 statues which it contained. The story, however, suffices to show that the Volsinians had attained great wealth, luxury, and art. This is confirmed by Valerius Maximus,[13] who also adds that this luxury was the cause of their ruin, by making them so indolent that they at length allowed the administration of their commonwealth to be usurped by slaves.[5][24][25][26]

The attempted revolution apparently began with the admission of freedmen into the army, which must have been in 280 BC. They became a powerful plebeian class, who were subsequently allowed to become members of the Senate and to hold public office. They seem to have acquired majorities, using them to shape the law. Other slaves were set free; they gave themselves all the privileges formerly reserved for the Etruscans, such as rights of intermarriage and inheritance, and aggressively insisted on them against the will of the Etruscan patrician class. There were complaints of rape and robbery.

In 265 BC, when the revolutionary party began to pass laws limiting patrician political activity, the [lucumones](/source/Lucumones) sent a clandestine embassy to Rome asking for military assistance. On their return they were executed for treason, but shortly afterwards a Roman army arrived to lay siege to the town. The subsequent conflict was intense; the consul and commanding general, [Quintus Fabius Gurges](/source/Quintus_Fabius_Maximus_Gurges_(consul_265_BC)), was a casualty. A year later his successor, [Marcus Fulvius Flaccus](/source/Marcus_Fulvius_Flaccus_(consul_264_BC)), receiving the surrender of the town through its starvation, razed it and executed the leaders of the plebeian party. The first display of gladiators at Rome in 264 is believed to have featured now captive freedmen from Volsinii.[27] The Romans rescued and restored to power the remaining Etruscans of Volsinii, but decided it was necessary to remove them from that location to a new city on the shores of Lake Bolsena.[4] The new city had none of the natural defenses of the old one and was not in any way sovereign. The portable wealth from the old city was carried off to Rome.[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*]

### Volsinii novi

Attic red-figure calyx-krater, c. 460–450 BC, from Orvieto (the Niobid Krater).

This second, or Roman, Volsinii (sometimes called *Volsinii Novi* – New Volsinii) continued to exist under the [Empire](/source/Roman_Empire). It was the birthplace of [Sejanus](/source/Sejanus), the minister and favorite of [Tiberius](/source/Tiberius).[28] Juvenal (x. 74) alludes to this circumstance when he considers the fortunes of Sejanus as dependent on the favor of [Nursia](/source/Nursia), or Norsia, an Etruscan goddess much worshipped at Volsinii, into whose temple there, as in [that of Jupiter Capitolinus](/source/Temple_of_Jupiter_(Capitoline_Hill)) at Rome, a nail was annually driven to mark the years.[29][30] According to Pliny, Volsinii was the scene of some supernatural occurrences. He records that lightning was drawn down from heaven by king [Porsenna](/source/Porsenna) to destroy a monster called Volta that was ravaging its territory.[31] Even the commonplace invention of hand-mills, ascribed to this city, is embellished with the traditional prodigy that some of them turned by themselves.[32]

## Remains

This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Volsinii" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (August 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

No definite traces of the Etruscan Volsinii have been identified. Of the Roman city, some remains are still extant at Bolsena. The most remarkable are those of a temple near the Florence gate, commonly called the *Tempio di Norsia*. But the remains are of Roman work; and the real temple of that goddess most probably stood in the Etruscan city. The amphitheater is small and a complete ruin. Besides these there are the remains of some baths, sepulchral tablets, and a sarcophagus with reliefs representing the triumph of [Bacchus](/source/Dionysus). The [Monti Volsini](/source/Monti_Volsini) mountain range in northern [Lazio](/source/Lazio) takes its name from the ancient city.

## Coinage

Volsinii minted coins in antiquity. A full discussion of the coins of Volsinii may be found in Müller, *Etrusker*, vol. i. pp. 324, 333.

## Native Volsinians

- [Sejanus](/source/Sejanus), [praetorian prefect](/source/Praetorian_prefect) under [Tiberius](/source/Tiberius).

- [Musonius Rufus](/source/Musonius_Rufus) the Stoic.

- [Aulus Cornelius Palma Frontonianus](/source/Aulus_Cornelius_Palma_Frontonianus), Roman statesman.

## See also

- [Lake Bolsena](/source/Lake_Bolsena)

- [Vulsini](/source/Vulsini)

## Notes

English [Wikisource](/source/Wikisource) has original text related to this article:

**[Author:Livy](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/en:Author:Livy)**

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** [Strabo](/source/Strabo) *Geography* 5.2.9 records it under this name as a city in the interior of Tyrrhenia and says that there was a lake near ("peri") it.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** [Ptolemy](/source/Ptolemy) *Geography* iii.1.50 lists this form of the name as a city among the Tusci.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** [Antonine Itinerary](/source/Antonine_Itinerary); [Tabula Peutingeriana](/source/Tabula_Peutingeriana).

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Ihne_4-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Ihne_4-1) Ihne, Wilhelm (1871). [*The history of Rome*](https://archive.org/details/historyrome04ihnegoog) (English ed.). London: Longmans, Green, and Co. pp. [479](https://archive.org/details/historyrome04ihnegoog/page/n502)–481.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-zon_5-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-zon_5-1) Zonaras, *Annals* (or *Chronicle* or *Epitome* - he does not state a name of his own) viii. 7; *cf.* [Aristotle](/source/Aristotle) *De Mirabilibus Auscultationibus* 96.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** *Mittelitalien*, p. 34 and following.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** *Etrusker*, i. p. 451.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-8)** *Etruria*, vol. i. p. 508.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-9)** Livy v.1.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-10)** Grummond, Nancy Thomson de; Simon, Erika (2009-04-20). [*The Religion of the Etruscans*](https://books.google.com/books?id=hQtbJyFCd40C). University of Texas Press. p. 35. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-292-78233-4](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-292-78233-4).

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-world-archaeology.com_11-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-world-archaeology.com_11-1) [Fanum Voltumnae: Parliament of the Etruscan League.](http://www.world-archaeology.com/features/fanum-voltumnae-parliament-of-the-etruscan-league.htm) World Archaeology 2007 Issue 26

1. **[^](#cite_ref-12)** *History of Rome*, x.37.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-lc_13-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-lc_13-1) *Factorum et Dictorum Memorabilia*, Book ix.1, "External affairs" Section 2.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-14)** *[Satires](/source/Satires_of_Juvenal)* iii.191.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-15)** Gustafsson, Gabriella (2000). *Evocatio Deorum: Historical and Mythical Interpretations of Ritualised Conquests in the Expansion of Ancient Rome*. Acta universitatis Upsaliensis. p. 55. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-91-554-4765-6](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-91-554-4765-6).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-16)** Still unknown population in Etruria, obviously near Volsinii, living in a city whose name has been variously reconstructed as *Salpis, *Salpinum, *Salapia.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-17)** [Livy](/source/Livy), *History of Rome*, v.31-32.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-18)** [Livy](/source/Livy), *History of Rome*, ix.32.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-19)** Livy ix.39.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-20)** Livy ix.41.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-21)** Livy ix.37.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-22)** Attested by very brief statements in Livy *[Epitome](/source/Epitome_of_Livy)* to Book xi and also the *[Fasti Capitolini](/source/Fasti_Capitolini)*.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-23)** *[Historia Naturalis](/source/Natural_History_(Pliny))* xxxiv.7.16.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-24)** [Florus](/source/Florus), *Epitome*, i.21.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-25)** [Aurelius Victor](/source/Aurelius_Victor), *De Viris Illustribus*, 36

1. **[^](#cite_ref-26)** [Orosius](/source/Paulus_Orosius) *Historiae adversum Paganos*, iv.5.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-27)** Welch, Katherine E. (2007). *The Roman amphitheatre: from its origins to the Colosseum* (illustrated ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 19. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-521-80944-3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-521-80944-3).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-28)** Tacitus. *Annals*. p. iv. 1, vi. 8.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-29)** Livy. *Ab urbe condita*. p. VIII.3.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-30)** Tertullian. *Apology*. p. 24.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-31)** Pliny the Elder. *Natural History*. ii. 54.{{[cite book](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Cite_book)}}: CS1 maint: location ([link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:CS1_maint:_location))

1. **[^](#cite_ref-32)** Pliny the Elder. *Natural History*. p. xxxvi. 18. s. 29.

## References

- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the [public domain](/source/Public_domain): [Smith, William](/source/William_Smith_(lexicographer)), ed. (1854–1857). *[Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography](/source/Dictionary_of_Greek_and_Roman_Geography)*. London: John Murray.

## External links

[Wikisource](/source/Wikisource) has the text of the [1911 *Encyclopædia Britannica*](/source/Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica_Eleventh_Edition) article "[Volsinii](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Volsinii)".

- Harris, W., R. Talbert, T. Elliott, S. Gillies (15 July 2021). ["Places: 413389 (Volsinii)"](http://pleiades.stoa.org/places/413389). Pleiades. Retrieved March 8, 2012.{{[cite web](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Cite_web)}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list ([link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:CS1_maint:_multiple_names:_authors_list))

- [Velzna (Roman Volsinii)](http://www.mysteriousetruscans.com/velzna.html), at MysteriousEtruscans.com

- [George Dennis on Velzna](https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Italy/_Periods/Roman/Archaic/Etruscan/_Texts/DENETR*/27.html) (chapter 27 of Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria)

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