(modern Volterra)

Foundations

The Etruscan Velathri (Volterra). An inland city in northwestern Etruria, situated on a precipitous hill between the river Era- a southern tributary of the Arnus (Arno)- and the river Caecina (Cecina), of which the vally was rich in metals, exploited, it would appear, by Volaterrae as early as the second millennium BC.

Strabo has accurately described it when he said "it is built on a lofty height, rising from a deep valley and precipitous on every side, on whose level summit stand the fortifications of the city. From base to summit the ascent is fifteen stadia long, and it is steep and difficult throughout."

1st Millennium

After 1000, Iron Age cemeteries lying on the flanks of the hill suggest that a group of villages existed nearby; they evidently made small bronze figures.

7th Century BC

The overwhelming Balze landslide has removed the early buildings. But even before the villages coalesced into a single urban habitation, they reveal trench toms of north Italian type; and burials between the 7th and 5th centuries have yielded fragmentary discoveries.

6th Century BC

The villages amalgamated into a single city shortly before 600 - rather late, since Mediterranean influences took some time to percolate so far north- although a huge landslide (Le Balze) has concealed most of the evidence of this process from our inspection.

Her great size and the natural strength of her position mark Volaterrae as a city of first-rate importance, and give her indisputable claims to rank among the Twelve of the Confederation. Were such local evidence wanting, the testimony of Dionysius, that she was one of the five cities, which acting independently of the rest of Etruria, determined to aid the Latins against Tarquinius Priscus, would be conclusive; for no second-rate or dependent town could have ventured to oppose the views of the rest. This is the first historical mention of Volaterrae, and is satisfactory evidence as to her antiquity and early importance.

5th Century BC

A relief on a gravestone, perhaps of c 500, displays a figure of a certain Avle Tite, wearing an elaborate hairstyle in the near-eastern manner and carrying a long spear and bow or short sword. It was during the Hellenistic period, however that Volaterrae reached the height of its prosperity under the guidance, it would seem, of the Ceicna (Caecina) clan, which owned extensive lands and clay pits and salt beds, and lent its name to (or took its name from) the adjoining river, of which the metal-rich valley, containing important burial places (Casale Marittimo, Montescudaio) gave Volaterrae access to the sea; where the city evidently possessed harbors, though their locations (Vada Volterrana, Castiglioncello, or at the mouth of the Fine stream?) still remain conjectural.

Toward the north, it is possible that a chain of further ports possessed Volaterran allegiance, extending upward from Pisae (Pisa) at the Arno estuary. But Volaterrae was particularly noteworthy for its landward expansion into the interior, up the tributaries of Arno, the Era and Elsa, and along the Arno itself- where finds at Artemium (Artimino), Quinto Fiorentino and Faesulae (Fiesole) display strong Volaterran influence- and beyond the Arno in the fertile Mugello valley, and even as far north as the basin of the Po, where Misa (Marzabotto) and Felsina (Bononia, Bologna) received its imports, and two horseshoe-shaped gravestones at the latter city are inscribed with the name of the Caecina family.

4th Century BC

The characteristic art form of Volaterrae was represented by its great series of funerary urns- receptacles for ashes, since cremation persisted in northern Etruria- of which more than six hundred are to be seen in the local museum. Decorated with lively reliefs depicting scenes from Greek mythology (often portrayed with an Etruscan twist), and originally embellished with brilliant polychrome coloring and gilding, these cremation urns first made their appearance c 400 BC, but mostly date from a century or two later, when the local material of alabaster- a granular form of gypsum- came into extensive use. Volaterrae also retained its reputation as an important center of bronze work, and in the same epoch produced a characteristic type of red-figure pottery, which enjoyed widespread distrubution.

3rd Century BC

Like other Etruscan cities, the Volaterrans gradually lost their independence to Rome. In 298 they joined the Latins against the Romans, whose consul, L. Cornelius Scipio, defeated them when he encountered the Etruscan forces below this city, and so obstinate a combat ensued that night alone put an end to it, and it was not till morning did the battle show the Etruscans had retired from the field, could the Roman general claim the victory and celebrate a triumph. In 205, during the Second Punic War, Livy records their contribution of timber for ships and grain to the Roman cause. It had possession of the two great ports of Luna and Populonia.

2nd Century BC

After slave revolts at the beginning of the second century, reforms benefiting the middle class gave the city a new lease on life. The gate known as the Porta dell`Arco or Arco Etrusco, incorporated in the ancient walls, comprises a Roman vault rising from piers dating from the years around 200 BC.

1st Century BC

During the 1st Century BC, a large increase of exports to the Adriatic port of Atria (Adria), near the mouth of the Padus (Po), bears witness to a revival in the fortunes of Volaterrae, apparently under the auspices of a commercial middle class.

In common with communities elsewhere in the peninsula, it gained the Roman franchise as a citizen municipium (90/89). After holding out, however, on behalf of the followers of Marius against Sulla (82-80), it was demoted to Latin status (according to which only the elected officials were Roman citizens). But Cicero, who, according to his Letters, enjoyed close links with Volaterrae, defended a native of the town against this loss of rank (63), and its restoration to full Roman citizenship was confirmed by Julius Caesar four years later. The Caecina house still remained rich enough to dedicate a large theater at Vallebona, north of the city.

1st Century AD

Volaterrae was the birthplace of the poet Persius (AD 34-62). It remained an important township after the beginning of the Middle Ages. After the fall of the Western Empire, she suffered the fate of the neighbouring cities, and fell under the dominion of the Vandals and the Huns; but was again raised to importance by the Lombard kings, who, for a time, fixed their court here, on account of the natural strength of the site.