Rusellae
Rusellae, an ancient Etrusco-Roman city located in present-day Roselle, Italy, emerged on a plateau overlooking Lake Prilius and the fertile valley of the Ombrone River. Founded in the seventh century BC, it represented a significant amalgamation of earlier villages and was fortified by impressive walls, some reaching over twenty feet in height. The city thrived due to its strategic location, benefiting from rich mining resources in the nearby Massetano region and possibly overshadowing the neighboring city-state of Vetulonia. Notably, Rusellae was involved in early minting activities, producing some of the earliest Etruscan silver coins.
Its importance continued into the Roman era, where it became a citizen colony and established a Roman forum, serving as a center for governance and commerce. Additionally, Rusellae contributed greatly to Rome’s military efforts during the Second Punic War by supplying grain and timber. However, the city faced decline due to barbarian invasions and environmental changes leading to the silting of Lake Prilius, ultimately marking the end of its prominence. Today, archaeological excavations have revealed a wealth of artifacts, including sculptures that provide insights into the daily lives and cultural practices of its inhabitants.
Subject Terms
Rusellae
(Resala in Umbrian; the modern Roselle)
A city of Etruria on a plateau that in ancient times overlooked the navigable sea lagoon Lake Prilius and the agriculturally rich valley of the river Ombrone, which flowed into the lagoon near the town. The original villages on the plateau amalgamated on a new site in the seventh century BC.
Already before 600 the new settlement was protected, at least in one sector, by a wall with stone foundations and with upper portions of unfired brick, comprising one of the oldest fortifications that have hitherto come to light in Etruria. This wall was replaced not long afterward by another of impressive dimensions, reaching a height at some points of over twenty feet and a breadth of eight or nine. The wall surrounded a perimeter of almost two miles, although the area thus enclosed was never completely filled by buildings. Traces of the habitation center have come to light on a most unusual scale for Etruria, where cemeteries usually provide most of the information. In these buildings, from c 550, unfired brick was being supplemented by baked brick, and subsequently stone came into use. Both public and private edifices have been identified. The former were set side by side in a central valley separating the two main portions of the urban area, in which the private houses were located, including some small dwellings that cast unusual light on the lives of the Etruscan poor.
The original amalgamation of the villages, that is to say the foundation of Rusellae, was probably carried out by the Etruscan city-state of Vetulonia, nine miles away on the other side of Lake Prilius (though some attribute the initiative to Vulci instead). It is a reasonable conjecture, however, that in the later sixth century Vetulonia was eclipsed and perhaps partly destroyed by Rusellae. Even before this, the Rusellans are likely to have had access to the rich mining resources of the Massetano, and the elimination of Vetulonia may have given them control over the metal supplies of the Campigliese and of the island of Ilva (Aethalia, Elba). A heap of selected tin has been found at Rusellae, and the first beside the Umbro basin provided charcoal for smelting.
The city possessed a port or ports on Lake Prilius (at or near Terme di Roselle), one of which could have issued some of the earliest Etruscan silver coins, inscribed Thezi or Thezle. Another of Rusellae's harbors, farther away, may have been Telamon (Talamone) on the river Osa, from which remarkable pedimental terracotta sculptures illustrating the myth of the Seven Against Thebes (c 180)—from a temple destroyed c 80—have now been reconstructed. The important Etruscan town of Heba (Magliano), seven miles inland, may also have been taken over from Vetulonia by Rusellae.
It was stormed by the Romans in 294, after prolonged struggles. During the Second Punic War it provided Rome with grain and ships' timber (205). As Pliny the Elder records, it became a citizen colony, either in the Second Triumvirate or subsequently during the reign of Augustus (31 BC–AD 14). A Roman forum, flanked by a basilica and a center of the imperial cult, was laid out in the central valley, and the city provided Roman consuls in AD 89 and 98. Excavations have yielded a remarkable collection of sculptures of the second and third centuries AD, comprising the memorials of a single local family, and now to be seen in the museum at Grosseto.
`We put in at the mouth of the Umbro,’ wrote Rutilius Namatianus (416). `It is a large river with a safe entrance for the tired and frightened sailor who comes there.’ There were bishops of Rusellae in the fifth century, but barbarian devastations, and the subsequent silting up of Lake Prilius (to form the present Grosseto plain), marked the end of the city's use.