PORSENA, or PORSENNA, a Lars (or "mighty lord"), king of the Etru rian city of Clusium. According to the legend narrated by Livy, he received the Tarquins on their expulsion from Rome (ac.) 508, and after endeavoring in vain to effect their restoration by negotiation, advanced with an army to Rome. He would have entered the city with the flying Romans had not Horatius Codes disputed the passage until the bridge was broken down. Porsena then besieged Rome, and a famine was produced in the city, when another Roman youth, Mucius Scmvola, gave striking proof of his patriotism. (See ScmvotA). A truce was now agreed upon, and the Romans sent 10 young men, and as many girls, as hostages to the Etrurian camp. The latter escaped to Rome by swimming across the Tiber, but the consul Publicola conveyed them back again to Porsena, and was on this occasion treated with the greatest indignity by the Tar quins. Indignant at the perfidy of the Tar quins, and respecting the magnanimity of the Romans, Porsena separated himself from the former, and concluded peace with the latter without taking away their hostages. To relieve
the wants of the Romans without offending their pride by a formal present, he left behind at his departure his camp with all its stores, and in remembrance of his magnanimity the senate erected to him a monument, and pre sented him with an ivory chair and sceptre, a golden crown and a royal robe. Thencefor ward Porsena lived in undisturbed friendship with the Romans. The accounts in Dionysius (v, 33), Plutarch 19) and Livy ('Hist.
xxxiv, 13) will be found to be incon sistent with one another. Modern critics have held that Rome was completely conquered by Porsena, and that the gifts they are represented as offering from gratitude were really a tribute indicating subjection. Aruns, the son of Porsena, was defeated by a league of the Latin cities, after which the Romans are believed to have recovered their independence. According to Pliny, Porsena forbade the Romans the of iron, except for agricultural purposes.