Etruscan Terracotta Head of a Young Man 5th C. BCE

April 05, 2020

Etruscan Terracotta Head of a Young Man 5th C. BCE

"As for the Volaterrani, their country is washed by the sea and their settlement is in a deep ravine; in the ravine there is a high hill, which is precipitous on all sides and flat on the crest, and it is on this hill that the walls of the city are situated. The ascent from the base to the crest is fifteen stadia, an ascent that is sharp all the way up, and difficult to make. This is where some of the Tyrrheni and of those who had been proscribed by Sulla assembled; and, on filling out four battalions, they withstood a siege for two years, and even then retired from the place only under a truce. As for Poplonium, it is situated on a high promontory that makes an abrupt descent into the sea and forms a peninsula; it too sustained a siege at about the same time as Volaterrae. Now although the town is wholly desert except for the temples and a few dwellings, the port-town, which has a little harbour and two docks at the base of the mountain, is better peopled; and in my opinion this is the only one of the ancient Tyrrhenian cities that was situated on the sea itself; and my reason is the country's lack of harbours — precisely the reason why the founders would avoid the sea altogether, or else would throw forward defences towards the sea, so as not to be exposed, a ready prey, to any who might sail against them."

-Strabo, Geography: Book 5, Chapter 2.6