VOLCEIUM
VOLCEIUM or VOLCENTUM (Eth. Volcentanus, Plin.; Volceianus, Inscr.: Buccino), a municipal town of Lucania, situated in the mountains W. of Potentia, a few miles from the valley of the Tanager. The name is variously written by ancient authors. Livy mentions the Volcentes as a people who in the Second Punic War revolted to Hannibal and received a Carthaginian garrison into their town, but, in B.C. 209, returned to the Roman alliance. (Liv. 27.15.) There can be no doubt that these are the same people as the Volcentani of Pliny, who are enumerated by that author among the municipal communities of the interior of Lucania (Plin. Nat. 3.10. s. 15), and it is certain that the Ulci or Volci of Ptolemy (Οὖλκοι, Ptol. 3.1.70) refers to the same place, the correct name of which, as we learn from inscriptions, was Volceii or Vulceii, and the people Volceiani. (Mommsen, Inscr. R. N. pp. 15, 16.) The discovery of these inscriptions at Buccino leaves no doubt that this town occupies the site of the Lucanian city of Volceii. (Romanelli, vol. i. p. 422; Holsten. Not. ad Cluver, p. 290.) It appears to have been a considerable municipal town under the Roman Empire, and is one of the “Praefecturae Lucaniae” mentioned in the Liber Coloniarum (p. 209). [E.H.B] [p. 2.1321]