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Volci

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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or Vulci, an ancient town of Etruria. The circuit of the walls measures about 4 m., and scanty traces of them and of Roman buildings within them still exist. The Ponte della Badia over the Fiora, a bridge with a main arch of 66 ft. span, 98 ft. above the stream, is also Roman. An aqueduct pa?;ses over it. The former wealth of the town is mainly proved by the discoveries made in its extensive necropolis from 1828 onwards - Greek vases, bronzes and other remains - many of which are now in the Vatican. By 1856 over 15,000 tombs had, it was calculated, been opened. These were entirely subterranean, and little is now to be seen on the site but a great tumulus, the Cucumella, and a few smaller ones. The frescoes from the Francois tomb, discovered in 1857, illustrating Greek and Etruscan myths, are now in the Museo Torlonia at Rome. Volci was one of the twelve towns of Etruria. Coruncanius triumphed over the people of Vulsinii and Volci in 280 B.C., and the colony of Cosa was founded in their territory. This seems to have led to the decline of the city, and it does not seem to have been of great importance in the Roman period, though it became an episcopal see.

See G. Dennis, Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria (London, 1883), i. 437, ii. 503; S. Gsell, Fouilles dans la necropole de Vulci (Paris, 1891), for the excavations of 1889 (with copious references to earlier publications). (T. As.)