Lars Porsena
Encyclopedia
Lars Porsena, in Etruscan Pursenas, (sometimes spelled Lars Porsenna) was an Etruscan
Etruscan civilization
Etruscan civilization is the modern English name given to a civilization of ancient Italy in the area corresponding roughly to Tuscany. The ancient Romans called its creators the Tusci or Etrusci...

 king known for his war against the city of Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

. He ruled over the city of Clusium
Clusium
Clusium was an ancient city in Italy, one of several found at the site. The current municipality of Chiusi partly overlaps this Roman walled city. The Roman city remodeled an earlier Etruscan city, Clevsin, found in the territory of a prehistoric culture, possibly also Etruscan or proto-Etruscan...

 (Etruscan
Etruscan language
The Etruscan language was spoken and written by the Etruscan civilization, in what is present-day Italy, in the ancient region of Etruria and in parts of Lombardy, Veneto, and Emilia-Romagna...

: Clevsin). There are no established dates for his rule, but Roman sources often place the war at around 508 BC.

War against Rome

Lars Porsena came into conflict with Rome after the revolution which overthrew the monarchy of Rome in 509 BC, resulting in the exile of the semi-legendary last king of Rome, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus
Lucius Tarquinius Superbus
Lucius Tarquinius Superbus was the legendary seventh and final King of Rome, reigning from 535 BC until the popular uprising in 509 BC that led to the establishment of the Roman Republic. He is more commonly known by his cognomen Tarquinius Superbus and was a member of the so-called Etruscan...

 The deposed monarch, whose family was of Etruscan origin, had failed to retake the throne a number of times before he appealed to Porsena for assistance. Lars Porsena agreed to help. It is said that Clusium was, at the time, a very powerful Etruscan city.

At this point, however, there is divergence in the histories. According to most mainstream Roman accounts, including those of Livy
Livy
Titus Livius — known as Livy in English — was a Roman historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people. Ab Urbe Condita Libri, "Chapters from the Foundation of the City," covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome well before the traditional foundation in 753 BC...

, Lars Porsena attacked and besieged Rome, but was sufficiently impressed by particular acts of Roman bravery in defending the city that he chose to make peace. Other accounts, however, suggest that Lars Porsena actually succeeded in subduing the city, and that the Etruscans were only driven out some time afterwards. None of the accounts suggests that Lucius Tarquinius Superbus was returned to the throne, however, perhaps indicating that if Lars Porsena did indeed capture Rome, he did so with the intent of controlling it himself, not restoring the former dynasty.
The accounts of the war include a number of matters directly concerning Porsena. One story is that during Porsena's siege of Rome, a Roman youth called Gaius Mucius with the approval of the senate sneaked into the Etruscan camp with the intent of assassinating Porsena. However, when Mucius came close to the king, he could not tell apart the king from his secretary, and killed the king's secretary in error. Mucius was captured by the Etruscans, and brought before Porsena. He openly declared his identity and what had been his intent. He threatened that he was but merely the first of three hundred Roman youths who would attempt such a deed. To prove his valour, Mucius thrust his hand into one of the Etruscan camp fires, thereby earning for himself and his descendants the cognomen Scaevola. Porsena was shocked at the attempt, and dismissed Mucius from the camp. According to Livy, it was immediately after this event that the king sought peace by treaty.

Another tale of the war concerns the Roman hostages taken by Porsena as part of the treaty. One of the hostages, a young woman named Cloelia
Cloelia
Cloelia is a semi-legendary woman from the early history of ancient Rome.As part of the peace treaty which ended the war between Rome and Clusium in 508 BC, Roman hostages were taken by Lars Porsena. One of the hostages, a young woman named Cloelia, fled the Clusian camp, leading away a group of...

, fled the Etruscan camp, leading away a group of Roman virgins. Porsena demanded she be returned, and the Romans consented. Upon her return, however, Porsena being impressed by her bravery allowed her to choose half the remaining hostages to be freed. She selected from amongst the hostages the young Roman boys to be freed. The Romans honoured Cloelia with the unusual honour of a statue at the top of the Via Sacra
Via Sacra
The Via Sacra was the main street of ancient Rome, leading from the top of the Capitoline Hill, through some of the most important religious sites of the Forum , to the Colosseum....

, showing Cloelia mounted on a horse, that is as an eques.

Livy also recounts that during his own time, public auctions of goods at Rome were by tradition referred to as "selling the goods of king Porsena", and that this somehow relates to the war with Clusium. Livy concludes most likely it is because, when Porsena departed Rome, he left behind as a gift for the Romans his stores of provisions.

In 507 BC Porsena once again sent ambassadors to the Roman senate, requesting the restoration of Tarquinius to the throne. Legates
Legatus
A legatus was a general in the Roman army, equivalent to a modern general officer. Being of senatorial rank, his immediate superior was the dux, and he outranked all military tribunes...

 were sent back to Porsena, to advise him that the Romans would never re-admit Tarquinius, and that Porsena should out of respect for the Romans cease requesting Tarquinius' readmittance. Porsena agreed, telling Tarquinius to continue his exile elsewhere than Clusium. Porsena also restored to the Romans their hostages, and also the lands of Veii that had been taken from Rome by treaty. Livy records that, by these matters, a faithful peace between Porsena and Rome was created.

War with Aricia

In 508 BC, after the siege of Rome, Porsena spilt his forces and sent part of the Clusian army with his son Aruns to besiege the Latin
Latin league
The Latin League was a confederation of about 30 villages and tribes in the region of Latium near ancient Rome, organized for mutual defense...

 city of Aricia
Aricia
Aricia can refer to:*Aricia, a genus of gossamer-winged butterflies usually included in Aricia *Aricia , historical figure in ancient Britain*Aricia , minor figure in Greek mythology*Aricia, Italy...

. The Clusians besieged Aricia; however the Aricians sent for assistance from the Latin League
Latin league
The Latin League was a confederation of about 30 villages and tribes in the region of Latium near ancient Rome, organized for mutual defense...

 and from Cumae
Cumae
Cumae is an ancient Greek settlement lying to the northwest of Naples in the Italian region of Campania. Cumae was the first Greek colony on the mainland of Italy , and the seat of the Cumaean Sibyl...

, and the Clusian army was defeated in battle

Tomb

According to most accounts, Lars Porsena was buried in an elaborate tomb in (or under) the city he ruled. Porsena's tomb is described as having a 15 m high rectangular base with sides 90 m long. It was adorned by pyramids and massive bells. (Pliny the elder, Natural History, XXXVI, 19, 91ff.)

Lars Porsena's tomb, together with the rest of the city of Clusium, was razed to the ground in 89 BC by the Roman general Cornelius Sulla.

Fictional Treatment

The story of Lars Porsenna and the Roman hostage Cloelia is the basis of the libretto Il trionfo di Clelia
Il trionfo di Clelia
Il trionfo di Clelia is an 18th-century Italian opera in three acts by the Czech composer Josef Mysliveček composed to a libretto by the Italian poet Metastasio. It was common in the 1760s for composers to set Metastasian texts written decades before...

 (1762) by Pietro Metastasio.

Lays of Ancient Rome
Lays of Ancient Rome
The Lays of Ancient Rome is a once-famous collection of four lays by Thomas Babington Macaulay describing semi-mythical heroic episodes in Roman history with strong dramatic and tragic themes...

(1842) by Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859) tells the legendary story of the Roman Horatius defending the bridge into Rome against Lars Porsena's oncoming Etruscan army.
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