European Kingdoms

Volsci (Italics)

Indo-Europeans - Italic Tribes (Intro) Anatolian Tribes Balkans Tribes Baltic Tribes Celtic Tribes Germanic Tribes Italic Tribes Indo-Iranian/Aryan Tribes Slavic Tribes Tocharians (Intro)

What are generally known as West Indo-European tribes arrived at the eastern edge of Central Europe around 2500 BC. Their northern group later became the proto-Celts of the Urnfield culture while the southern group seemingly migrated westwards and southwards, reaching Iberia, Illyria, and northern Italy.

Already further divided into semi-isolated tribes, they became more civilised in their habits and available forms of technology due to contact with southern Greeks and Etruscans. In the period between the eleventh to eighth centuries BC some of those groups in Illyria crossed by sea into the Italian peninsula and settled along the south-eastern coast.

Those who had entered peninsular Italy via the north Italian piedmont gradually migrated southwards to occupy much of the rest of eastern and central Italy. These tribes all formed part of a general group which are known as Italics, seemingly part of the main population of West Indo-Europeans prior to the emergence of Celtic culture.

The Volsci (or Volscians) group of Italics during the Italian Iron Age were first located on the upper River Liris, but were driven into the fertile lands to the south of Rome. They were neighboured to the north by the Latins and Marsi, to the east by the Carracini and Pentri tribes of the Samnites, and to the south by the Etruscan-dominated regions of the Opici.

Once south of Rome, they found themselves alongside the Hernici, and beyond them the Aequi, with the Aurunci and Samnites to the south. The Oscan-Umbrian group of which the Volsci were part are largely accepted as being Indo-Europeans (perhaps proto-Celts) who migrated into the peninsula from the north.

Along with other ancient writers, Strabo and Pliny claimed the Aequi, Hernici, Sabini, and Volsci as divisions of the Opici or their Ausones stem. They also stated that the Picentes and Samnites were originally tribes of the Sabellians. This was a collective of central Italian tribes during the Iron Age, comprising the Marrucini, Marsi, Sabini, and Vestini.

Principal author(s): Page created: Page last updated:

(Information by Peter Kessler, with additional information by Edward Dawson, from Samnium and the Samnites, E T Salmon, from Researches into the Physical History of Mankind, Vol 3, Issue 1, James Cowles Prichard, from Geography, Ptolemy, from Pliny's Natural History in Thirty-Seven Books, Volumes 1-3, Pliny (the Elder), from An Historical Geography of Europe, Norman J G Pounds (Abridged Version), from The Roman History: From Romulus and the Foundation of Rome to the Reign of the Emperor Tiberius, Velleius Paterculus, J C Yardley, & Anthony A Barrett, from A Genetic Signal of Central European Celtic Ancestry, David K Faux, from The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World, David W Anthony, from The History of Rome, Volume 1, Titus Livius (translated by Rev Canon Roberts), from The Histories, Herodotus (Penguin, 1996), from Encyclopaedia Britannica (Eleventh Edition, Cambridge (England), 1910), from Encyclopaedia of the Roman Empire, Matthew Bunson (1994), from Basic Romance Linguistics, E Bourcier, from Research in Popular Latin and its links with Romance languages, N Korletyanu, from Brief Historical Grammar of the Latin Language, W Lindsey, from The Corpus of Oscan Inscriptions, I Tsvetaev, from A Historical Grammar of the Latin Language, I Tronsky, and from External Links: The Natural History, Pliny the Elder (John Bostock, Ed), and The Beaker phenomenon and the genomic transformation of northwest Europe (Nature), and Massive migration from the steppe was a source for Indo-European languages in Europe (Nature.com), and Indo-European Chronology - Countries and Peoples, and Indo-European Etymological Dictionary, J Pokorny, and Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, William Smith (1854, Perseus Digital Library), and The Natural History, Pliny the Elder (John Bostock, Ed), and Geography, Strabo (H C Hamilton & W Falconer, London, 1903, Perseus Online Edition), and The Princeton Encyclopaedia of Classical Sites, and L'Arbre Celtique (The Celtic Tree, in French), and Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz or Dictionnaire Historique de la Suisse or Dizionario Storico dell Svizzera (in German, French, and Italian respectively), and Le Alpi (Università di Trento), and Pleiades (Ancient World Mapping Center and Institute for the Study of the Ancient World).)

early 6th cent BC

The Latin League forms as a way for the local states to share common interests such as religious worship and the defence of the region. Fertile and wealthy Latium is an inviting target to enemies such as the Aequi, Etruscans, and Volsci.

This map shows the greatest extent of Etruscan influence in Italy, during the seventh to fifth centuries BC, including the Campania region to the south (click or tap on map to view full sized)

The cities of the Latin League share commercial treaties and provide rights of commerce, intermarriage, and settlement to its citizens. It is these rights which form the basics of later Roman politics and treaties.

c.580 BC

By this stage, the Samnites are undoubted masters of the central southern Apennines, probably having evicted or absorbed any remaining Opici and pushing their remnants towards the Tyrrhenian coast of Italy.

The Opici appear quickly to disintegrate as a recognisable group, although they survive for a few more centuries as a weak and unimportant people located between Rome and the Samnites.

Their disintegration appears to have been speeded up by their fragmentation into various smaller groups which include the Aequi, Brutii, Hernici, Lucani, Marrucini, Marsi, Picentes, Sabini, Samnites, Vestini, and Volsci. This process occurs between the tenth and sixth centuries BC.

The Opici probably dominated much of Campania to start with, but were pushed out of the eastern parts by the Samnites, dominated themselves by the Etruscans, and then defeated by Rome

509 BC

Shortly after Lucius Tarquinius Superbus has commenced two centuries of Roman warfare by attacking the Volsci city of Suessa Pometia, Etruscan rule over Rome, and the other states in Latium, is broken.

However, rather than unify, the states of the League vie with each other for dominance. The balance of power shifts often between Rome and other influential cities such as Alba Longa and Lavinium.

495 BC

By this stage it would appear that the Volsci have already resettled in the fertile territory to the south of Rome. The Aurunci field an army in support of the Volsci against Rome. While on the march, they send envoys ahead to demand that Rome withdraws from Volsci territory.

The reply is a consular army under Publius Servilus Priscus Structus which meets them at Arricia and ends the war in a single, victorious battle. The Aurunci, or Opici, are thoroughly put down.

A romantic view of the ruins of Alba Longa, following its destruction by Rome under Tullus Hostilius in the seventh century BC

492 BC

Thanks to his defeat of the Volsci town of Corioli, the Roman patrician Gneus Marcius is given the cognomen Coriolanus. Promoted to general, he attempts to abolish the office of plebeian tribune in Rome, which he believes is responsible for a grain shortage.

The tribunes fight back with false charges of misappropriation of public funds, and he is forced into exile. Coriolanus seeks shelter with the Volsci and eventually leads an army against Rome. Town after town is captured along the way and Rome looks set to fall, until Coriolanus' mother and wife are sent to placate him.

He relents and retires, but having now committed acts of disloyalty towards both Rome and the Volsci, he is soon tried and then conveniently assassinated.

492 BC

Roman renegade and leader of the Volsci.

492 BC

Volsci co-commander.

492 BC

Coriolanus is the basis for Shakespeare's tragedy of the same name. However, many modern scholars doubt the existence of the original figure, Roman patrician Gneus Marcius, citing him instead as a kind of allegory for the state of Roman-Volsci relations at a time at which the latter is perhaps in a position to subjugate Rome entirely.

The ancient River Liris (now divided into the Liri and the Gari) along its upper length was an early home to the Volsci, and later formed Rome's border with the Samnites

486 BC

The Hernici, who live between the Aequi and Volsci, have become highly adapted to Latin culture and customs. Under pressure from their two neighbours, they join the mutual protection treaty between the Romans and Latins. The armies defending Latium now consist of Romans, Latins, and Hernici. The Aequi and Volsci remain allied in opposition to Rome.

431 - 390s BC

The Volsci control much of southern Latium, including the cities of Antium (modern Anzio), Cora (now Cori a Valle), Satricum (modern Le Ferriere), and Velitrae (modern Velletri), and they continue to pressure the Latins.

In addition, the Aequi are said to reach Rome itself, and a decisive battle between the Latins and the Volsci appears to be fought in this year. The Romans, under the command of A Postumius Tubertus, again meet the Aequi at the Algidus Pass, but this time they are victorious. With this victory the Romans are able to open an aggressive offensive which the Volsci are unable to withstand forever.

Early Rome would have looked more like a large, walled village than the collection of grand stone edifices which are more familiar from the imperial period

390s - 377 BC

By the 390s the Romans and Latins have regained control of the plains and have relegated the Aequi and Volsci to the western highlands. The sack of Rome by Celts reverses the situation for a while, but the Volsci are finally defeated with the capture of the port of Antium in 377 BC. The equally defeated Aequi are doomed to be destroyed within the century.

c.346 - 345 BC

As the final act in the revolt of the Volsci, Rome sacks and levels their town of Satricum around 346 BC. The surviving fighting men, who number about four thousand, are sold into slavery. The Aurunci choose this moment to send a force against Rome itself, which causes panic, with the senate viewing the threat as a wider conspiracy of the Latin League.

Lucius Furius Camillus is selected as dictator for the second time. He pulls together an emergency army from Rome's citizens and ends the threat at the very first battle against the Aurunci. The same army is then used to complete the conquest of the Volsci at Sora.

The former Volscian town of Satricum in the coastal plain of Latium on the road from Antium to Velitrae has been examined by archaeologists since 1977

340 - 338 BC

The Volsci join the Latin War, the last major attempt by the Latins to retain independence from Rome. They and the Sidicini ally themselves to a Latin League force which is advancing against the Samnites.

Encouraged by Rome's indifference to the Latin-Samnite conflict, the Latin League plans to attack Rome next. Rome hears of this and, following failed bargaining in the senate with ten Latin chiefs to agree a new treaty, declares war against the Latin League.

Allied to the Samnites, Rome fights for two years to defeat the Latins in a number of battles and fully subjugate. The Latin League is dissolved, and some Latin states are annexed directly to Rome, while others retain autonomy.

This is the last display of resistance by the Volsci. They are subsequently Romanised and integrated completely into Roman society and culture. This period proves to be the end for the Golasecca culture within the Italian Iron Age.

Objects which have been found in tombs in the Como region of Italy testify to the progressive opening up by the Golasecca people to exchanges with the transalpine world to the north and the central-Italic Etruscan area to the south