Clusium
- one of the oldest and most important towns of Etruria, the residence of Porsenna, previously called Camars or Camers, now Chiusi, Liv. 5, 33, 4 sq.; 10, 25, 11; Varr. ap. Plin. 36, 13, 19, § 91; Verg. A. 10, 167 al.; Müll. Etrusk. 1, p. 102; 1, p. 233 sq.; 2, p. 342.—Hence,
- II Clūsīnus, a, um, adj., pertaining to Clusium, of Clusium: vulgus, Sil. 8, 480: fontes (cold baths), Hor. Ep. 1, 15, 9: far (of special whiteness and excellence), Col. 2, 6, 3: siligo, Plin. 18, 9, 20, § 87: pultes, Mart. 13, 8.—In plur.: Clūsīni, ōrum, m., the inhabitants of Clusium, Liv. 5, 33, 1: novi, veteres, Plin. 3, 5, 8, § 52.
CLU´SIUM(Κλούσιον: Eth. Clusīnus: Chiusi), an inland city of Etruria, one of the most ancient and powerful in that country, and without doubt one of the twelve which formed the Etruscan confederation. [On this point, see ETRURIA] It was situated about 20 miles S. of Cortona, on a gentle hill rising above the valley of the Clanis, near a small lake, to which it gave name (ἡ περὶ Κλούσιον λίμνη, Strab. 5. p. 226): this is still called the Lago di Chiusi. Strabo says it was distant 800 stadia (100 Roman miles) from Rome; this agrees very nearly with the Antonine Itinerary, which gives the distance by the Via Cassia at 102 miles, and must be very near the truth. (Strab. l. c.; Itin. Ant. p. 285.) All accounts agree in representing Clusium as a very ancient city, and in accordance with this belief Virgil places it among the cities of Etruria that assisted Aeneas against Turnus ( Aen. 10.167). We are told that its original name was Camars, whence it has been inferred that it was originally an Umbrian city (a fact in itself highly probable), and that it obtained the name of Clusium when it fell into the hands of the Etruscans. (Cluver. Ital. p. 567; Müller, Etrusker, vol. 1. p. 102.) Servius (ad Aen.10.167) derives its name from Clusius, a son of Tyrrhenus, which may be thought to favour this view; but no dependence can be placed on such statements. When Clusium first appears in history it was one of the most important and powerful of the Etruscan states; but there is no authority for supposing it, as some authors have done, to have been the metropolis of Etruria, or to have exercised any more than a temporary and occasional superiority over the other cities of the League. The prominence that it assumed under the rule of Porsena was evidently owing in great part to the personal abilities and reputation of that monarch (Liv. 2.9), and neither Livy nor Dionysius represent him as commanding any other forces than those of his own state, though later rhetorical writers call him rex Etruscorum.(Liv. l. c.;Dionys. 5.21; Flor. 1.10; Plut. Popl. 16.) At an earlier period also Dionysius speaks of the Clusians as uniting with four other Etruscan cities (Arretium, Volaterrae, Rusellae, and Vetulonia) in a league against Tarquin the Elder, where all five appear on a footing of perfect equality. (Dionys. 3.51.) It is impossible to say how much of the legendary history of the siege of Rome by Porsena can be received as historical, but there seems no reason to doubt the fact of his expedition, and much ground for supposing that it really ended in the capture of Rome. (Niebuhr, vol. i. pp. 546--548.) He subsequently seat an army under his son Aruns to attack Aricia, but the young prince was defeated and killed. (Liv. 2.14; Dionys. 5.36.) From this time we hear no more of Clusium till the invasion of the Senonian Gauls in B.C. 391, an event which was believed to have been brought about by a citizen of Clusium, who sought to avenge his private dishonour by betraying his country to the barbarians. The Gauls, however, though they in the first instance laid siege to Clusium, were soon induced to turn their arms against Rome, and the former city thus escaped from destruction. (Liv. 5.33, 35, 36; Dionys. Exc. Mai, 13.14--17; Diod. 14.113; Plut. Camill. 15--17.) Near a century later Clusium witnessed a second invasion of the same barbarians, the Senones having, in B.C. 295, made a sudden irruption into Etruria, and cut to pieces a Roman legion which was stationed there. (Liv. 10.25, 26; Plb. 2.19.) During the wars of the Romans with the Etruscans, we hear but little of Clusium, the Clusini being only once mentioned, in conjunction with the Perusians, among the enemies of Rome (Liv. 10.30); and we have no account of the period at which they passed under the Roman yoke. The city is next mentioned in B.C. 225 during the great Gaulish war, when those formidable invaders for the third time appeared under its walls, shortly before their decisive defeat at Telamon. (Plb. 2.25.) During the Second Punic War, the Clusians were active in supplying corn and timber for the fleet of Scipio (Liv. 28.45); and in the civil wars of Sulla and Marius they appear, in common with many other cities of Etruria, to have espoused the cause of the Marian party. Two successive battles were fought in the immediate neighbourhood of Clusium, in both of which the partisans of Sulla were victorious. (Vellei. 2.28; Appian. B.C. 1.89; Liv. Epit. lxxxviii.) Very little is known of Clusium under the Roman empire, but inscriptions attest its continued existence as a municipal town, and Pliny distinguishes the Clusini noviand Clusini veteres,whence it would appear that, like Arretium, it must have received a fresh colony of citizens who enjoyed separate rights; but the period and circumstances of this are wholly unknown. The name of Clusium is still found in the Itineraries, as well as in Ptolemy: it early became the see of a bishop, a distinction which it has retained without. interruption to the present day; and it appears certain that it never ceased to be inhabited. Dante speaks of it as in his time going fast to decay, but it has considerably revived, and is now a flourishing though small city, with about 3000 inhabitants. (Plin. Nat. 3.5. s. 8; Ptol. 3.1.49; Itin. Ant. p. 285; Tab. Peut. ; Gori, Inscr. Etr. vol. ii. pp. 399--424; Dennis's Etruria, vol. 2. p. 331.)
Chiusiretains but very few vestiges of her early greatness in the form of ruins or remains of edifices; but some portion of her walls are still visible, which in their style of construction resemble those of Perusia and Tuder; and a few fragments of architectural decorations are scattered through the buildings of the modern town. But the numerous sepulchres which have been excavated in the neighbourhood have yielded a rich harvest of Etruscan relics,--sepulchral urns, pottery, bronzes, and other objects. Many of these are interesting as exhibiting apparently the purest specimens of Etruscan art, unaltered by Greek influences; much of the pottery in particular is of a very peculiar style, a coarse, black, unbaked ware, of uncouth forms, grotesque decorations, rude workmanship, and no artistic beauty.The figures with which it is adorned are in relief, and represent for the most part monsters: and uncouth figures of a very Oriental character. The painted vases, on the other hand, which have also been found here in considerable numbers, though much less than at Tarquinii and Vulci, uniformly represent subjects from the Greek mythology, and bear the obvious impress of Greek art. The urns in stone and terra-cottaresemble those found at Volterra, and belong for the most part to a late period. Several of the sepulchral chambers also have their walls painted in a style very similar to those of Tarquinii. (For a full description of these works of art,. see Dennis's Etruria, vol. ii. pp. 325--384.)
About 3 miles NNE. of Chiusiis a hill of conical form, called the Poggio Gajella, which has been proved, by recent excavations, to have been converted in ancient times into a vast sepulchral monument,. containing numerous tombs, and a number of labyrinthine passages, penetrating in all directions into the heart of the hill. This has been supposed by some writers to be no other than the celebrated tomb of Porsena, of which a marvellous account has been preserved to us by Pliny from Varro; but the only resemblance is the fact that in that case also there was a labyrinth in the basement of the tomb. The description of the superstructure or external monument (which was probably taken by Varro from some Etruscan author) can hardly be received as other than fabulous, and is justly treated as such by Pliny himself, though some modern writers have believed it literally, and attempted a restoration of the monument in accordance with it. (Plin. Nat. 36.13. s. 19; Müller, Etrusker, vol. 2. p. 224; Abeken, Mittel-Italien, pp. 244, 245; Dennis, l. c.,pp. 385--400, where the opinions of numerous modern authors on this much controverted subject are cited and referred to.)
The territory of Clusium probably included several smaller and dependent towns. Etruscan remains have been found at the modern towns of Cetona, Sarteano, Chianciano, and Montepulciano, all of them situated within a few miles of Chiusi; but we have no trace of the ancient names of any of these places. The district adjoining the city (probably the valley of the Clanis) was celebrated, in ancient as well as modem times, for its great fertility, and the excellence of its wheat and spelt. (Plin. Nat. 18.7. s. 12; Colum. 2.6.3.) Horace also alludes to its possessing sulphureous springs, frequented for medicinal purposes ( Ep. 1.15. 9).
[E.H.B]Now Chiusi; a town of Etruria, on the banks of the Clanis. Its more ancient name was Camers. The Gauls under Brennus besieged it, but marched to Rome without taking it. It was at Clusium that Porsenna held his court; and near this city he erected for himself the splendid mausoleum or labyrinth of which Pliny has transmitted to us a description on the authority of Varro. See Labyrinthus.
The oldest inland settlement of the Villanovans and one of the chief cities of Etruria, it lies 800 stades (ca. 130 km) N of Rome (Strab. 5.2.9) in the hilly country between lake Trasimene on the NE and the extinct volcanoes of M. Amiata and Radicofani on the SW. Its territory stretched NW to the river Ombrone and S to the Paglia. The city itself crowns an isolated hill dominating the Val di Chiana to the N. In antiquity the Clanis (Chiana) flowed S into the Paglia and the Tiber system and was navigable, so the stories of Clusium's early associations with Rome may be true. It was linked to the coastal cities by two routes: one up the Fiora, around the N end of lake Bolsena, crossing the Paglia at Acquapendente, which accounts for the early influence of Vulci, Tarquinia, and Caere on Clusium; the other route, down the Orcia to the Ombrone, which may explain coins that link its name with Populonia and Vetulonia as issues of a commercial league. The fertility of the region was famous in antiquity, it was also rich in iron and copper, and its hot springs are still appreciated.
Clusium first appears in Roman chronicles as one of five Etruscan cities that promised to help the Latins against Tarquinius Priscus (Dion. Hal. 3.51). The city's most famous son, Lars Porsenna, attacked and captured Rome in the first years of the Republic but did not restore the Etruscan Tarquins to the throne (Livy 2.9-13; Dion. Hal. 5.21-35). Its most notorious citizen, Arruns, enticed the Gauls into Etruria with his merchant's samples of figs, wine, and olive oil (Livy 5.33; Dion. Hal. 13.10-12). Whether or not the story is true, the Senones did invade Etruria and besiege Clusium in 387 B.C. Clusium sent to Rome for help, and the Romans' intervention led to the capture and sack of their city by the Gauls the same year (Livy 5.35; Diod. 14.113-14; Plut. Vit. Cam. 15). Clusium appears next, allied with other Etruscan cities against Rome, in the third Samnite war and was finally subdued in 295 (Livy 10.30). In 205, as an ally, it furnished timber and grain for Scipio's fleet (Livy 28.45). During the war with Marius, Sulla won a cavalry battle near Clusium (Vell.Pat. 2.28) and fought an indecisive engagement with Carbo (App. BCiv. 1.89). After the war, Clusium seems to have received a colony of Sulla's veterans: Pliny speaks of Clusini Veteres and Clusini Novi (HN 3.52), and there are inscriptions from the city referring to duoviri and one from the base of a statue erected to Sulla in 80 B.C. The city continued to exist in quiet comfort under the Empire, as many later inscriptions and a fine head of Augustus capite velato attest; the life of the city seems, in fact, unbroken from Villanovan times.
The earliest and richest of the Villanovan necropoleis was on Poggio Renzo to the N; others have been found to the SW at Fornace and Fonte all'Aia. All burials are cremation; the latest use a great dolium (ziro) as receptacle for ash urn and grave goods. Ziro burials continued into the 6th c. B.C., the old Villanovan urn giving way to an elaborate bronze urn with a human mask fastened to the neck and still later to an urn with a lid in the form of a head. Others had standing figures on the lid, surrounded by a ring of mourners and griffin protomes. The first inhumation burials occur in chamber tombs of the 6th c., but cremation never completely disappeared at Chiusi, and “canopic jars” (urns with a head lid) appear in archaic chamber tombs as well.
Some chamber tombs of the first half of the 5th c. were painted, like those at Tarquinia. Two inhumation tombs can still be seen, the Tomb of the Monkey on Poggio Renzo and the Tomb of the Hill (or Casuccini Tomb) E of the city. Each is approached by a long dromos; the main chamber is broader than deep, the ceiling carved to represent wooden beams like those of some of the tombs at Caere. The figures are in a frieze at the top of the walls, with scenes of banqueting, funeral games, dancers, and musicians. Except that in these tombs the banqueters are all male, the repertory is the same as in Tarquinia but the carefully drawn figures lack the Tarquinian brio.
Hellenistic tombs have a very long dromos with many loculi and a small main chamber or none at all. Sarcophagi and ash urns are found together in these. One, the Tomba della Pellegrina, excavated in 1928, dates from the mid 3d to the mid 2d c. The Tomba del Granduca, discovered by chance in 1818, is coeval but of another type, a rectangular chamber roofed with a barrel vault of cut stone. The eight burials are all cremation.
Of all Etruscan territories this has produced the most sculpture, almost all of it funerary, though scattered architectural terracottas of the Classical and Hellenistic periods have been found and some fine bronzes, both votive and decorative. The funerary sculpture begins with the figured urns of the 7th and 6th c.; in the later 6th and 5th c., ash urns were carved in the soft limestone called pietra fetida in the form of a seated (rarely standing) man or woman. The head was carved separately and the torso hollowed out to receive the ashes.
Contemporary with these ash ums but not from the same workshop are the cippi found in many tombs. These are rectangular blocks carved in relief on all sides, often surmounted by a bulbous, onion-shaped form. The reliefs are low, with delicate details of dress and furniture; the subjects are connected with the funeral: prothesis, processions and dances, games, the funeral banquet.
Stone sarcophagi of the Classical period are sometimes carved like the cippi, but others have a reclining male figure on the lid with a female figure sitting at his feet. Sometimes she is the man's wife, as on a sarcophagus in Florence where the woman lifts her veil with the gesture of Hera as a bride; in others the figure is winged, a messenger from the other world.
Hellenistic sarcophagi, of stone or terracotta, have figures like those at Tarquinia, reclining on banquet couches. The contemporary ash urns have similar covers and a front decorated with a violent mythological scene.
Material from Chiusi can best be seen in the Museo Nazionale at Chiusi and the Museo Archeologico at Florence, but there are fine collections in the Museo Archeologico in Palermo, in Berlin, and in the British Museum in London.
BIBLIOGRAPHYR. Bianchi-Bandinelli, MonAnt 30 (1925) 209-578; D. Levi, BdA 28 (1934) 49-75; id., Critica d'Arte 1 (1935) 18-26, 82-89; E. H. Dohan, AJA 39 (1935) 198-209I; E. Paribeni, StEtr 12 (1938) 57-139; 13 (1939) 179-202I; K. A. Neugebauer, Die Antike 18 (1942) 18-56; J. Thimme, StEtr 23 (1954-55) 25-147; 25 (1957) 87-160; L. Banti, The Etruscan Cities and their Culture (1973) 162-72.
E. RICHARDSON