The Volsci were an ancient Italic people

Ancient Italic peoples

Ancient people of Italy are all those people that lived in Italy before the Roman domination.Not all of these various people are linguistically or ethnically closely related...

, well known in the history of the first century of the Roman Republic

Roman Republic

The Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization where the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 508 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and...

. They then inhabited the partly hilly, partly marshy district of the south of Latium

Latium

Lazio is one of the 20 administrative regions of Italy, situated in the central peninsular section of the country. With about 5.7 million residents and a GDP of more than 170 billion euros, Lazio is the third most populated and the second richest region of Italy...

, bounded by the Aurunci

Aurunci

The Aurunci were an Italic population which lived in southern Italy from around the 1st millennium BC. Of Indo-European origin, their language belonged to the Oscan group...

 and Samnites on the south, the Hernici

Hernici

The Hernici were an ancient people of Italy, whose territory was in Latium between the Lago di Fucino and the Sacco River , bounded by the Volsci on the south, and by the Aequi and the Marsi on the north....

 on the east, and stretching roughly from Norba

Norba

Norba, an ancient town of Latium , Italy. It is situated 1 mile northwest of the modern town of Norma, some 1575 ft. above sea-level, on the west edge of the Volscian Mountains or Monti Lepini...

 and Cora

Cora

Cora may refer to:* Cora people, an indigenous ethnic group of Western Central Mexico** Cora languagePeople:* Cat Cora, an Iron Chef on Food Network's Iron Chef America* Tom Cora, American cellist...

 in the north to Antium

Anzio

Anzio is a city and comune on the coast of the Lazio region of Italy, about south of Rome.Well known for its seaside harbour setting, it is a fishing port and a departure point for ferries and hydroplanes to the Pontine Islands of Ponza, Palmarola and Ventotene...

 in the south.

Description by the ancient geographers

Strabo

Strabo

Strabo, also written Strabon was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus , a city which he said was situated the approximate equivalent of 75 km from the Black Sea...

 says that the Volsci formed a sovereign state near the site of Rome. It was placed in the Pomentine plain, between the Latins

Latins (Italic tribe)

The Latins were a people of ancient Italy who included the inhabitants of the early City of Rome. From ca. 1000 BC, the Latins inhabited the small part of the peninsula known to the Romans as Old Latium , that is, the region between the river Tiber and the promontory of Monte Circeo The Latins (or...

 and the Pontine marshes

Pontine Marshes

thumb|250px|Lake Fogliano, a coastal lagoon in the Pontine Plain.The Pontine Marshes, termed in Latin Pomptinus Ager by Titus Livius, Pomptina Palus and Pomptinae Paludes by Pliny the Elder, today the Agro Pontino in Italian, is an approximately quadrangular area of former marshland in the Lazio...

, which took their name from the plain.

Language and culture

The Volsci spoke Volscian

Volscian language

Volscian was a Sabellic Italic language, which was spoken by the Volsci and closely related to Oscan and Umbrian.It is attested in an inscription found in Velitrae , dating probably from early in the 3rd century BC; it is cut upon a small bronze plate , which must have once been fixed to some...

, a Sabellic Italic language, which was closely related to Oscan

Oscan language

Oscan is a term used to describe both an extinct language of southern Italy and the language group to which it belonged.The Oscan language was spoken by a number of tribes, including the Samnites, the Aurunci, the Sidicini, and the Ausones. The latter three tribes were often grouped under the name...

 and Umbrian

Umbrian language

Umbrian is an extinct Italic language formerly spoken by the Umbri in the ancient Italian region of Umbria. Within the Italic languages it is closely related to the Oscan group and is therefore associated with it in the group of Osco-Umbrian languages...

, but also to Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

, more distantly.

In the Volscian territory lay the little town of Velitrae (modern Velletri

Velletri

Velletri is an Italian town of 53,298 inhabitants. It is a comune in the province of Rome, on the Alban Hills, in Lazio - Italy. It is bounded by other communes of Rocca di Papa, Lariano, Cisterna di Latina, Artena, Aprilia, Nemi, Genzano di Roma, Lanuvio...

), the home town of the ancestors of Caesar Augustus. From this town comes an inscription dating probably from early in the 3rd century BC; it is cut upon a small bronze plate (now in the Naples Museum), which must have once been fixed to some votive object, dedicated to the god Declunus (or the goddess Decluna).

Conflict with ancient Rome

They were among the most dangerous enemies of ancient Rome

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

, and frequently allied with the Aequi

Aequi

thumb|300px|Location of the Aequi in central Italy.The Aequi were an ancient people of northeast Latium and the central Appennines of Italy who appear in the early history of ancient Rome. After a long struggle for independence from Rome they were defeated and substantial Roman colonies were...

, whereas their neighbours the Hernici

Hernici

The Hernici were an ancient people of Italy, whose territory was in Latium between the Lago di Fucino and the Sacco River , bounded by the Volsci on the south, and by the Aequi and the Marsi on the north....

 from 486 BC

486 BC

Year 486 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Viscellinus and Rutilus...

 onwards were the allies of Rome.

According to Rome's early semi-legendary history, Rome's seventh and last king 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...

 was the first to go to war against the Volsci, commencing two centuries of a relationship of conflict between the two states. Tarquinius took the wealthy town of Suessa Pometia

Suessa Pometia

Suessa Pometia was an ancient city of Latium, which had ceased to exist in historical times.It bordered on the Pomptinus ager or Pomptinae Paludes, to which it was supposed to have given name. Virgil reckons it among the colonies of Alba, and must therefore have considered it as a Latin city : it...

, the spoils of which he used to construct the great Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus. He celebrated a triumph for his victory.

Also, the legendary Roman warrior Gaius Marcius Coriolanus earned his cognomen

Cognomen

The cognomen nōmen "name") was the third name of a citizen of Ancient Rome, under Roman naming conventions. The cognomen started as a nickname, but lost that purpose when it became hereditary. Hereditary cognomina were used to augment the second name in order to identify a particular branch within...

 after taking the Volscian town of Corioli

Corioli

Corioli, an ancient Volscian city in Latium adiectum, taken, according to the Roman annals in 493 BC, with Longula and Pollusca, and retaken for the Volsci by Gaius Marcius Coriolanus, its original conqueror, who, in disgust at his treatment by his countrymen, had deserted to the enemy.After this...

 in 493 BC

493 BC

Year 493 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Auruncus and Viscellinus...

. The supposed rise and fall of this hero is chronicled in Shakespeare's Coriolanus

Coriolanus

Gaius Marcius Coriolanus was a Roman general who is said to have lived in the 5th century BC. He received his toponymic cognomen "Coriolanus" because of his exceptional valor in a Roman siege of the Volscian city of Corioli. He was then promoted to a general...

.

However, if Livy's

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...

 account of the war between Rome and Clusium is accurate, it can be seen that the relationship between Rome and the Volsci was not always hostile. Livy writes that, at the approach of the Clusian army in 508 BC, with the prospect of a siege, the Roman senate

Roman Senate

The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...

 arranged for the purchase of grain from the Volsci to feed the lower classes of Rome.

Incorporation of the Volsci into the Roman empire

A number of well-known Roman nobles of the late Republican period originated in former Volscian territory. Gaius Marius

Gaius Marius

Gaius Marius was a Roman general and statesman. He was elected consul an unprecedented seven times during his career. He was also noted for his dramatic reforms of Roman armies, authorizing recruitment of landless citizens, eliminating the manipular military formations, and reorganizing the...

, seven times Roman consul and military reformer, and the Roman orator and writer Cicero

Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...

 were natives of Arpinum, deep in Volscian territory. Caesar Augustus spent his early life in Velitrae, where he may have been born.

The warrior maiden Camilla

Camilla (mythology)

In Roman mythology, Camilla of the Volsci was the daughter of King Metabus and Casmilla. Driven from his throne, Metabus was chased into the wilderness by armed Volsci, his infant daughter in his hands. The river Amasenus blocked his path, and, fearing for the child's welfare, Metabus bound her to...

, a character in Virgil

Virgil

Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...

's Aeneid

Aeneid

The Aeneid is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It is composed of roughly 10,000 lines in dactylic hexameter...

, is a Volscian.

Notable Volscians

• Attius Tullus
• Cicero
  Cicero
  Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
  
  
• Camilla
  Camilla
  -People:* Camilla , including a list of people with the name* Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, the wife of Charles, Prince of Wales-Arts and literature:* Camilla , daughter of King Metabus and Casmilla in Roman mythology...
  
  featured as one of the fighters in Virgil's Aeneid, a Volscian Warrior Maiden (like the legendary Amazons). Virgil says that she can outrun the wind and run over crops so lightly she never even bent them. She could run over the waves of the sea without getting her feet wet. She fights on the side of the Latins and kills a lot of the Trojan refugees before being killed herself by the Etruscan Arruns. Source 'Virgil, his life and times' by Peter Levi, pub Duckworth, 1998