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VolsciThe Volsci were an ancient Italian people, well known in the history of the first century of the Roman Republic. They then inhabited the 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 spoke Volscian, a Sabellic Italic language, which was closely related to Oscan and Umbrian, but also to Latin, more distantly. They were among the most dangerous enemies of Rome, and frequently allied with the Aequi, whereas the Hernici from 486 BC onwards were the allies of Rome. In the Volscian territory lay the little town of Velitrae (Velletri), the birthplace of Augustus. From this town we have a very interesting though brief inscription dating probably from early in the 3rd century BC; it is cut upon a small bronze plate (now in the Naples Museum), which must have once been fixed to some votive object, dedicated to the god Declunus (or the goddess Decluna).
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