Volsinii
or
Vulsinii. Now Bolsena; called
Velsĭna or
Velsunna by the Etruscans. One of the most
ancient and most powerful of the twelve cities of the Etruscan Confederation, was situated on
a lofty hill on the northeastern extremity of the lake called after it Lacus Volsiniensis and Vulsiniensis (Lago di Bolsena). The
Volsinienses carried on war with the Romans in B.C. 392, 311, 294, and 280, but were on each
occasion defeated, and in the last of these years appear to have been finally subdued. Their
city was then razed to the ground by the Romans, and its inhabitants were compelled to settle
on a less defensible site in the plain, that of the modern Bolsena.