Vetulonia
- a town of Etruria, Sil. 8, 485.—Hence,
- 1 Vĕtŭlōnĭi, ōrum, m., the inhabitants of Vetulonia, Plin. 2, 103, 106, § 227.—
- 2 Vetŭlōnĭenses, ĭum, m., the inhabitants of Vetulonia, Plin. 3, 5, 8, § 52.
VETULO´NIA or VETULO´NIUM (Οὐετουλώνιον, Ptol. 3.1.49: Eth. Vetulonienses), one of the twelve principal cities of the Etruscan confederation (Dionys. 3.51; Plin. Nat. 3.5. s. 8). Yet we hear nothing of its political history; and all we know respecting it is, that it, was reputed to be the town in which the Etruscan insignia of magistracy, afterwards adopted by the Romans, such as the lictors, fasces, sella curulis, toga praetexta, &c., as well as the trumpet, were first used. (Sil. It. 8.483, sqq.; cf. Dionys. 3.61; Strab. 5. p. 220; Macr. S. 1.6; Flor. 1.5; &c.)
The destruction of Vetulonia, and the silence of history respecting it, have caused even its site to be a matter of doubt. Thus it has been sought at near Viterbo (Annio, Antiqq. Var. Volum. ), at Massa Marittima, the ancient Massa Veternensis (Ammian. 14.11.25), or in a dense wood 5 miles to the W. of that town (Ximenes, ap. Inghirami, Ricerche di Vetulonia, p. 62; cf. Targioni-Tozzetti, Viaggi in Toscana, 4. p. 116); on the site of Vulci (Luc. Buonaparte, Ann. Inst. 1829, p. 188, sqq.; and Valeriani, Mus. Chius. 1. p. 68); on the hill of Castiglione Bernardi, near Monte Rotondo (Inghirami, Ricerche di Vetulonia, Ambrosch), and at Orbetello (Ermolao Barbaro, ap. Dempster, Etrur. Reg. 2.56). But till very recently the opinion most commonly adopted was that of Leandro Alberti, an antiquary of the 16th century, who placed it on Monte Calvi (Descriz. d'Italia, p. 27), in a wood called Selva di Vetleta; and who has been followed by Cluverius (Ital. Ant. 2.2. p. 472), by Müller (Etrusker, 1. p. 211), &c. It is now, however, generally admitted that Vetulonia is to be identified with the remains of a city, discovered in 1842 by Sig. Pasquinelli, an Italian engineer, at Magliano, a village between the Osa and the Albegna, and 8 or 10 miles to the N. of Orbetello. To Mr. Dennis (Cities and Sepulchres of Etruria, vol. ii. ch. 48), however, is to be assigned the credit of first identifying these remains as those of the lost Etruscan city. Their site agrees with what we learn respecting that of Vetulonia. Pliny and Ptolemy (lI. cc. ) agree in placing the latter among the inland colonies of Etruria; yet Pliny (Plin. Nat. 2.103. s. 106) also describes it as being not far from the sea, and as having hot springs, the Aquae Vetuloniae, in its neighbourhood. Now, all the necessary conditions are fulfilled by the remains alluded to. The circuit of the walls, about 4 miles, shows it to have been an important city; its situation with regard to the sea agrees with the account of Pliny; and near Telamonaocio, at a distance of only 200 or 300 yards from the coast, and in the vicinity of the newly found city, warm springs still exist. For other reasons which led Mr. Dennis to the opinion which he formed, the reader is referred to his work before cited, and to his paper in the Classical Museum, vol. 2. p. 229, seq. For coins of Vetulonia, see Eckhel, vol. i. pt. 1. p. 94.
[T.H.D]A small center NW of Grosseto, situated on a height that dominates the plain of Grosseto, at one time below sea level. It ranks with Rusellae as one of the most ancient and prosperous cities of N Etruria. The broad marine inlet below had become a lake by Roman times (lacus Prile), and later a marsh. Here must have been the port, placed in a protected corner of the gulf, opposite Rusellae 16 km away.
The city is mentioned by Dionysios of Halikarnassos (Arch. 3.51); Silius Italicus (Pun. 8.484-489); Pliny (HN 3.51); and Ptolemy (Geogr. 3.1.49). Two mediaeval documents, dated 1181 and 1204 respectively, refer to Vetulonia and its territory. After the Middle Ages the name Vetulonia was replaced until 1887 by the name Colonna di Buriano.
No information has been handed down concerning the occupation of Vetulonia by the Romans, though this must have happened peacefully about 241 B.C. during the construction of the Via Aurelia, on which Vetulonia came to hold a dominant position. Following the Lax Julia the VetuIonian population was ascribed to the tribus Scaptia (Plin. HN 3.52). A number of inscriptions (CIL IV, 2375b; II, 41 and 2382-86) attest to the survival of the Etruscan city until the 2d c. A.D.
An abundance of archaeological material attests the Vitality of Vetulonia, with alternating periods of prosperity and decline, from the 8th c. B.C. to the 2d c. A.D. The city, whose sphere included elements of a Villanovan population evidenced by cinerary urns with biconical ossuaries, flourished mainly from the end of the 8th c. B.C. to the end of the 6th c. B.C. After that it apparently declined until Roman times (3d c. B.C.) when it again became a center of some importance. Nothing precise is known of the territorial expansion of the older Vetulonia, but its flourishing, especially in the 7th c. B.C., was certainly due to exploitation of the mines of Massetano. For this reason it is probable that the small settlements bordering the Lago dell'Accesa, S of Massa Marittima, became its dependents.
The entire perimeter of the circuit wall is not clearly defined, but from parts still visible, including the so-called Mura dell'Arce of large polygonal blocks incorporated between two medieaval towers, it probably extended ca. 5 km. Of the actual Etruscan city little is known as exploration has been limited to a quantity of shafts and galleries cut in the living rock, and to several walls and rooms found beneath modern houses. The exceptional extent of its necropoleis suggests that a large city occupied the highest summit, where the present town is situated, as well as two other heights to the NW known as Costa Murata and Castelvecchio. A small part of the city from the Hellenistic and Etrusco-Roman periods to the NE of the modern town was excavated at the end of the last century and recently re-exposed, the so-called Scavi Città. Along a winding paved street generally following an EW path (decumanus), flanked by a sidewalk and drain, shops and houses are aligned, separated by cross streets which climb toward Poggiarello Renzetti and divide the inhabited area into blocks. Still visible are traces of brick pavement in opus spicatum or in small rhomboids. Walls of crude sun-dried bricks, notable traces of which remain, must have surmounted the unmortared foundation walls. Beyond the decumanus a tunnel with a light-well is visible. It led in through a large hole to a quadrangular basin with beveled corners, whose plaster of cement and pozzolana is still preserved, today covered over to preserve it. Another rectangular basin formed of large stone blocks, squared and chiseled, communicated with the drain of the decumanus.
Besides the Scavi Città, in the level zone called La Banditelle, mosaics belonging to a Roman villa have been found, as well as ruins of Roman buildings in brick and cement. In the zone between the Convento and La Banditelle probably lay the center and the forum of Roman Vetulonia. An inscription dedicated to Caracalla has been found here and two inscriptions belonging to a society in honor of Mars. There is also evidence from several recent test trenches. Recent excavations in the area called Costia dei Lippi have brought to light terrace walls of notable strength and remains of buildings flanking a paved Roman road, which seem to indicate occupation of this quarter of the city during the Hellenistic period. Remains of buildings from the Hellenistic and Etrusco-Roman periods were found at Costa Murata under the present school building, and recent excavations have turned up other structures closely related to the first, as well as a monumental building, probably a temple.
On the highest hills closest to the city were the Villanovan necropoleis. Around these burials, at a lower level on the same hills, following in immediate topographical and chronological succession the primitive Villanovan pits, have been found the circular tombs characteristic of Vetulonia. These are datable to the 7th c. B.C., and they abound in objects of bronze, gold, silver, and pottery, all characterized by the orientalizing style.
Of the monumental tholos tombs from the most recent orientalizing period along the Via dei Pepolcri, two of the most interesting are visible today: the Tomba della Pietrera and the Tomba del Diavolino. Other smaller tumulus-covered chambered tombs have been excavated but are no longer visible, with the exception of the Tomba del Belvedere, recently reworked and restored, and a small tomb called the Tomba della Fibula. The material found in the latter is on exhibit in the Antiquarium of Vetulonia.
BIBLIOGRAPHYI. Falchi, Vetulonia e la sua necropoli antichissima (1891); D. Levi, “Carta Archeologica di Vetulonia,” StEtr 5 (1931) 13-40; G. Radke, RE VIIIA 2 (1958) 1874-80; EAA 7 (1966) 1157-61 (A. Talocchini).
A. TALOCCHINI