Volsinii

Volsinii or Vulsinii (Etruscan: Velzna or Velusna; Greek: Ouolsinioi, Ὀυολσίνιοι;[1] Ὀυολσίνιον[2]), is the name of two ancient cities of Etruria, one situated on the shore of Lacus Volsiniensis (modern Lago di Bolsena), and the other on the Via Clodia, between Clusium (Chiusi) and Forum Cassii (Vetralla).

Wilhelm Ludwig Abeken[6] looked for it at Montefiascone, at the southern extremity of the lake; while Karl Otfried Müller[7] believed it was at Orvieto, and adduced the name of that place in Latin, Urbs Vetus, the old city, as an argument in favour of his view; but British explorer and writer George Dennis[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 at Bolsena, at a spot called Il Piazzano.

[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.

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.

"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.

The Volsinienses, in conjunction with the Salpinates,[15] taking advantage of a famine and pestilence which had desolated Rome, made incursions into the Roman territory in 391 BC.

[21] Pliny[22] tells an absurd story, taken from the Greek writer Metrodorus of Scepsis, that the object of the Romans in capturing Volsinii was to make themselves masters of 2,000 statues which it contained.

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.

In 265 BC, when the revolutionary party began to pass laws limiting patrician political activity, the lucumones sent a clandestine embassy to Rome asking for military assistance.

A year later his successor, Marcus Fulvius Flaccus, receiving the surrender of the town through its starvation, razed it and executed the leaders of the plebeian party.

[26] 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.

74) alludes to this circumstance when he considers the fortunes of Sejanus as dependent on the favor of Nursia, or Norsia, an Etruscan goddess much worshipped at Volsinii, into whose temple there, as in that of Jupiter Capitolinus at Rome, a nail was annually driven to mark the years.

He records that lightning was drawn down from heaven by king Porsenna to destroy a monster called Volta that was ravaging its territory.