The Volsci, an Italic people belonging to…

The Volsci, an Italic people belonging to the Osco-Sabellian group of tribes, had lived in the valley of the upper Liris River around 600 BCE.

Later events, however, drove them first westward and then south to the fertile, partly hilly, partly marshy district of the south of Latium, bounded by the Aurunci and Samnites on the south, the Hernici on the east, and stretching roughly from Norba and Cora in the north to Antium in the south.

The Volsci speak Volscian, a Sabellic Italic language, which is closely related to Oscan and Umbrian, but also to Latin, more distantly.

They are among the most dangerous enemies of Rome.

Knowledge of the Volsci depends largely upon Roman accounts of their mutual wars.

To increase their pressure against Rome and the Latins, the Volsci have frequently allied themselves with the Aequi.

Rome and the Latins in turn have in 486 BCE joined in alliance with the Hernici, who live between the Aequi and the Volsci.

In this year, the Romans briefly take Antium, the capital of the Volsci.