FANUM VOLTUMNAE
FANUM VOLTUMNAE,
VOLTUMNA a place in Etruria, at which it was the custom of the Etruscans to hold the general meetings of the deputies from the different states of the confederation. (
Liv. 4.23,
61,
5.17,
6.2.)
It is evident, from its name, that it was originally a temple or sanctuary, and it is even probable that the meetings in question had at first a purely sacred character, but gradually assumed a political signification.
There is no reason to suppose there was ever a
town upon the spot, though there appears to have been a kind of fair at these annual meetings, at which traders assembled from the neighbouring parts of Italy. (
Liv. 6.2.)
The situation of this national sanctuary is nowhere indicated, nor, indeed, does any mention of it occur after the fall of Etruscan independence: hence the sites which have been assigned to it are wholly conjectural.
The opinion most commonly received would place it at
Viterbo: others have fixed it at
Castel d'Asso, in the same neighbourhood; and Dennis places it at
Monte Fiascone, 9 miles from
Bolsena, on the banks of the lake which derives its name from that city.
There are certainly circumstances which would appear to connect the Fanum Voltumnae with Volsinii, and render it probable that it was somewhere in that neighbourhood. (Dennis,
Etruria, vol. i. pp. 516--522.)
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E.H.B]
