The Silva Arsia is a forest or wooded area near Rome situated where the Roman and Veientine territories abutted. Legend has it that in 509 BCE Romans heard the prophetic voice of Silvanus foretelling their victory over the

Etruscans The Etruscan civilization ( ) was an ancient civilization created by the Etruscans, a people who inhabited Etruria in List of ancient peoples of Italy, ancient Italy, with a common language and culture, and formed a federation of city-states. Af ...

(

Livy Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding i ...

), 2.7.2). At the Battle of Silva Arsia that year the forces said to have been assembled by the Etruscan Tarquin were defeated, though with the loss of the Roman consul

Lucius Junius Brutus Lucius Junius Brutus (died ) was the semi-legendary founder of the Roman Republic and traditionally one of its two first consuls. Depicted as responsible for the expulsion of his uncle, the Roman king Tarquinius Superbus after the suicide of L ...

. The forest, rich in timber essential for shipbuilding, had been seized from the Etruscans of

Veii Veii (also Veius; ) was an important ancient Etruscan city situated on the southern limits of Etruria and north-northwest of Rome, Italy. It now lies in Isola Farnese, in the comune of Rome. Many other sites associated with and in the city-st ...

by Ancus Martius. Since woodland was everywhere the province of Silvanus, there is no reason to connect the otherwise unknown ''Silva Arsia'' with the "forest of Silvanus 'Silvanus luccus''outside the walls at a distance, all overgrown with a willow grove" noted in

Plautus Titus Maccius Plautus ( ; 254 – 184 BC) was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by Livius Andro ...

' ''Aulularia'' 674.Yves Bonnefoy, Wendy Doniger, ''Roman and European Mythologies'', ''s.v.'' "Silvanus".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arsia, Silva Forests of Italy