city state · Italy

Felsina

600 BCE – 350 BCE (approx.) · capital Felsina

The leading Etruscan city of the Po valley, on the site of Bologna, until the Boii Gauls took it in the 4th century BCE.

Origins

Felsina grew from the Villanovan villages around modern Bologna, the area that gave the Villanovan culture its name, from the 9th century BCE. In the 6th century BCE it became a city at the centre of an Etruscan expansion north of the Apennines; Pliny called it the chief of Etruria's cities in the region.

Rule and society

Felsina controlled farmland in the Po plain and the passes over the Apennines to Etruria, and traded with the Veneti, the Celts and the Greek port of Spina. Its cemeteries, such as the Certosa, contain the bronze Certosa situla and horseshoe-shaped stone grave stelae carved with journeys to the afterlife. Little is known of its government.

Decline and legacy

Celtic Boii overran Felsina around the mid-4th century BCE, and the town became Bononia. Rome conquered the Boii and founded the Latin colony of Bononia in 189 BCE, from which modern Bologna descends.

Connections (1)

  • Felsina was conquered by Boii350 BCE

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Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Felsina. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/felsina
MLA
“Felsina.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/felsina. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Felsina.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/felsina.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Felsina’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/felsina (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻