Rusellae
- a town of Etruria, now Rosello.
- —Hence, Rūsel-lānus (Rōsell-), a, um, adj., of or belonging to Rusellae: ager, Liv. 10, 4; 37: colonia, Plin. 3, 5, 8, § 51.—Subst.: Rūsel-lāni, ōrum, m., the inhabitants of Rusellae, Liv. 28, 45 fin.
RUSELLAE(Ῥουσέλλαι: Eth. Rusellanus: Roselle), an ancient and important city of Etruria, situated about 14 miles from the sea, and 3 from the right bank of the river Ombrone(Umbro). In common with several of the ancient Etruscan cities, we have very little information concerning its early history, though there is no doubt of its great antiquity and of its having been at a very early period a powerful and important city. There is every probability that it was one of the twelve which formed the Etruscan League (Müller, Etrusker, vol. 1. p. 346). The first mention of it in history is during the reign of Tarquinius Priscus, when it united with Clusium, Arretium, Volaterrae, and Vetulonia, in declaring war against the Roman king, apart from the rest of the confederacy,--a sufficient proof that it was at that time an independent and sovereign state. (Dionys. 3.51.) From this time we hear no more of it until the Romans had carried their arms. beyond the Ciminian forest, when, in B.C. 301, the dictator M. Valerius Maximus carried his arms, apparently for the first time, into the territory of the Rusellae, and defeated the combined forces of the Etruscans who were opposed to him. (Liv. 10.4, 5.) A few years later, in a. 100.294, the consul L. Postumius Megellus not only laid waste the territory of Rusellae, but took the city itself by storm, talking more than 2000 of the inhabitants captives (Id. 10.37). No other mention of it occurs during the period of Etruscan independence; but during the Second Punic War the Rusellani are mentioned among the populi Etruriaewho came forward with voluntary supplies to equip the fleet of Scipio (B.C. 205), and furnished him with timber and corn (Id. 28.45). It is evident that at this time Rusellae was still one of the principal cities of Etruria. We find no subsequent notice of it under the Roman Republic, but it was one of the places selected by Augustus to receive a colony (Plin. Nat. 3.5. s. 8; Zumpt, de Colon. p. 347); notwithstanding which it seems to have fallen into decay; and though the name is mentioned by Ptolemy (Ptol. 3.1.48) we meet with no later notice of it in ancient times. It did not, however, altogether cease to exist till a much later period, as it retained its episcopal see down to the twelfth century, when it vas transferred to the neighboring town of Grosseto. (Repetti, Diz. Top. vol. ii. pp. 526, 822.)
The site of Rusellae is now wholly desolate and overgrown with thickets, which render it very difficult of access. But the plan may be distinctly traced, and the line of the ancient walls may be followed in detached fragments throughout their entire circuit. It stood on the flat top of a hill of considerable elevation, about 6 miles from the modern city of Grosseto, overlooking the broad valley of the Ombroneand the level plain of the Maremma, which extends from thence to the sea. The walls follow the outline of the hill, and enclose a space of about 2 miles in circuit. They are constructed of very rude and massive stones, in some places with an approach to horizontal structure, similar to that at Volterraand Populonia; but in other parts they lose all traces of regularity, and present (according to Mr. Dennis) a strong resemblance to the rudest and most irregular style of Cyclopian construction, as exemplified in the walls of Tiryns in Argolis. (Dennis's Etruria, vol. ii. pp. 248, 249.) The sites of six gates may be traced; but there are no indications of the manner in which the gateway itself was formed. Within the walls are some fragments of rectangular masonry and some vaults of Roman construction. It is remarkable that no traces of the necropolis--so often the most interesting remnant of an Etruscan city--have yet been discovered at Rusellae. But the site is so wild and so little visited, that no excavations have been carried on there. (Dennis, l. c.p. 254.)
About 2 miles from the ruins, and 4 from Ggrosseto, are some hot-springs, now called I Bagni di Roselle. On a hill immediately above them are the mediaeval ruins of a town or castle called Mosconawhich have been often mistaken for those of Rusellae. (Dennis, l. c.)
[E.H.B]Now Grosseto; one of the most ancient cities of Etruria, situated on an eminence east of Lake Prelius and on the Via Aurelia. The walls of Rusellae still remain, and are some of the most ancient in Italy, being fine specimens of the so-called Cyclopean architecture. See Cyclops; murus.
About 9 km inland and N of Grosseto, one of the twelve cities of the Etruscan federation. Its position controlled the valley of the Ombrone at the mouth of which was probably the city's harbor. The site was perhaps sparsely occupied during the Villanovan period, but the first urban center dates to the 7th and 8th c. B.C. A second period, to which the oldest sections of the circuit walls belong, begins in the 6th c. and continues until the 4th c., probably until the Roman conquest.
Ancient sources make mention of it for the first time when, along with Chiusi, Arezzo, Volterra, and VetuIonia, it promised help to Rome against Tarquinius Priscus (Dion. Hal. 3.51). Later, it appears to have become part of various Etruscan alliances against Rome and because of that was defeated in 298 and, after a long siege, captured in 294 B.C. (Livy 10.4, 37.3). Evidently it was quickly rebuilt, for in 205 it was able to furnish grain and wood for Scipio's fleet (Livy 28.45.14). The inhabitants were inscribed in the tribus Scaptia. From inscriptions and from Pliny's list, it is known that it became a colonia, but the date is not known. (Plin. HN 3.51; Ptol. 3.1.43; CIL XI, 2618). It had a period of prosperity and new public buildings in the Julio-Claudian period. It continued to thrive into the 4th c. A.D., but in the 5th c. it appeared half-abandoned (Rut. Namat. 1.220). Later notices refer more often to the county (or district) of Roselle, which belonged to the Aldobrandeschi and later to Siena, than to the ancient city. It was the seat of a bishop, mentioned in 499 and on the occasion of the synods of 649 and 680.
The city occupies the summit of a small hill formed by two projections that enclose a central valley. Here the forum stood in the Roman period and, in the Etruscan period, the center of the city. Almost the entire circuit of the city walls (ca. 3 km) is preserved, in some places more than 7 m high. In the N and NE sections are undressed polygonal blocks. Elsewhere squared or roughhewn polygonal blocks, with various refacings, date to the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Remains of mudbrick structures of the 7th c. B.C—perhaps from an older circuit wall or from a terrace wall—have been noted beneath a section of the 6th c. walls. There are no towers; of the five gates, only the N gate has been excavated.
Excavations have brought to light some buildings of the 8th and 7th c., constructed simply of mudbrick with pavements of beaten earth. One of these buildings, surrounded by a large rectangular enclosure, is perhaps, to judge from its site and careful workmanship, a public building with a tholos inscribed in a square structure which buttresses at the corners the spring of a domical covering. Other square rooms are preserved almost to the impost of the roof. The 6th c. city, its houses with plinths of stone and with the side walls of mudbrick, spread into the valley and onto the two elevations. A district of potters on the SE hill dates to this period. The Hellenistic city, whose large central square was supported by wide terracing along the W end of the valley, in several areas crowds right up to the circuit wall with its houses and artisan shops. The Roman colony appears to have been more restricted, even after the reconstructions of the beginning of the Empire. Among these were the paved square of the forum, the basilica, the office of the Augustales decorated with statues of the Julio-Claudian emperors, and the small amphitheater set on the summit of the N hill. From the early Middle Ages only the remains of a church and various tomb groupings are extant; after that, the area was completely abandoned.
The objects discovered in the city and in the cemeteries that surround it, excavated for the most part during the last century, are kept in the museums at Grosseto and at Florence.
BIBLIOGRAPHYG. Micali, Antichi Popoli d'Italia (1832) M; G. Dennis, Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria, II (1883); R. Bianchi Bandinelli, “Roselle,” Atene e Roma 6 (1925); D. Levi in Boll. Soc. Stor. Maremmana 3 (1926); C. Laviosa in StEtr 27 (1959) see also vols. 28, 29, 31, 33, 37, 39MPI; Naumann-Hiller, RömMitt 66 (1959) MPIsee also vols. 69, 70; L. Banti, Il mondo degli Etruschi (1960); P. Bocci in StEtr 31 (1963) see also vols. 33, 39PI; EAA 6 (1965) s.v. Roselle, with complete bibliography.
C. LAVIOSA