The Silva Arsia was 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 developed by a people of Etruria in ancient Italy with a common language and culture who formed a federation of city-states. After conquering adjacent lands, its territory covered, at its greatest extent, rou ...

(

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 in ...

), 2.7.2). At the

Battle of Silva Arsia The Battle of Silva Arsia was a battle in 509 BC between the republican forces of ancient Rome and Etruscan forces of Tarquinii and Veii led by the deposed Roman king Lucius Tarquinius Superbus. The battle took place near the Silva Arsia (the Ar ...

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

Veii Veii (also Veius; it, Veio) 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 ...

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 (; c. 254 – 184 BC), commonly known as Plautus, 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 ...

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

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arsia, Silva Forests of Italy