Saturnia

Saturnia (mod. Saturnia), an ancient town of Etruria Italy, about 23 m. N.E. of Orbetello and the coast. Dionysius of Halicarnassus enumerates it among the towns first occupied by the Pelasgi and then by the Tuscans. A Roman colony was conducted there in 183 B.C., and it was a praefectura, but otherwise little is known about it. Remains of the city walls, in the polygonal style, still exist, to which Roman gates were added. Roman remains have also been discovered within the town, and remains of tombs outside, originally covered by tumuli, which have now disappeared, so that Dennis wrongly took them for megalithic remains. Pitigliano, some 12 m. to the S.W., is another Etruscan site.

See G. Dennis, Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria (London, 1883), i. 496; ii. 275; A. Pasqui in Notizie degli scavi (1882), 52.

(T. As.)