Volsinii

An old Etruscan city in central Italy, one of the twelve of the Etruscan league before Rome absorbed it. Musonius Rufus was born here around 25 CE to an Etruscan family of equestrian rank. The provincial origin suited the man: a Stoic teacher who cared nothing for Rome's ambitions, taught that women should study philosophy equally, and was twice exiled by emperors who found his lessons inconvenient.

Volsinii was an Etruscan city in central Italy, ancient long before Rome grew powerful. The Romans destroyed the original settlement in 264 BCE and relocated its population to a new site near Lake Bolsena, which the water now partly covers. It was a provincial town under the empire, known mostly for producing bronzes and disappearing from history. Musonius Rufus was born here around 20 CE to an Etruscan family of equestrian rank. He became the most demanding of the Roman Stoic teachers: a man who argued that women should study philosophy, that sexual pleasure is only justified by procreation, and that soft living corrupts the soul. Nero exiled him twice. He returned both times and kept teaching. The town that made him is now half underwater; his ideas survived.