Falisci

The Falisci^[a] were an Italic tribe who lived in what is now northern Lazio, on the Etruscan side of the Tiber River.^[1] They spoke an Italic language, Faliscan, closely related to Latin. Originally a sovereign state, politically and socially they supported the Etruscans, joining the Etruscan League. This conviction and affiliation led to their ultimate near destruction and total subjugation by Rome.

Only one instance of their own endonym has been found to date: an inscription from Falerii Novi from the late 2nd century AD refers to the falesce quei in Sardinia sunt, "the Faliscans who are in Sardinia", where falesce is the nominative plural case. An Etruscan inscription calls them the feluskeś. The Latin cannot be far different from the original name. The -sc- suffix is "distinctive of the Italic ethnonyms".^[2]

Geography

The Falisci resided in a region called by the Romans the Ager Faliscus, "Faliscan Country", located on the right bank of the Tiber River between and including Grotta Porciosa in the north and Capena in the south. The 1st-century Roman writer Pliny the Elder and the 1st-century BCE poet Horace both state that the Monte Soratte was within Faliscan territory;^[3]^[4] it likely functioned as the border between Faliscan country and Capenate territory. The land between Monte Soratte and the Tiber is of unclear ownership; although nearly all the 4th-3rd century BCE inscriptions from the area east of Monte Soratte are Faliscan, most scholars consider the land to have been part of the ager Capenas.^[5] To the west, the corners of the roughly square area were on the slopes of the Monti Sabatini in the south and the Monti Cimini in the north. Pollen samples from Lake Bracciano, Lake Monterosi and Lake Vico reveal that the montane forests, formed by oaks, were very dense until the 2nd century BC.^[6] According to the 1st-century BCE Roman historian Livy, the forest by Monti Cimini was dangerous for foreigners as of the 4th-century BCE; he claims that "not a single trader had, up to that time, ventured through it."^[6]^[7]

The arable land was contained within an enclosure of volcanic highlands and the Tiber River. The northern border of the enclosure went along the ridge of the Monti Cimini, the southern along the ridge connecting the Monti Sabatini and Monte Soratte, the western along the highlands connecting the two large volcanic lakes. The inner slopes are drained by streams pointing at the Tiber, which collect into converging canyons and finally into the canyon of the Treja river, which empties into the Tiber. These streams required an extensive network of bridges.

Most of the through traffic went along the Via Tiburtina on the west bank of the river, which could only be crossed south of Capena or at Grotta Porciosa in the north. There the Via Flaminia, earlier the Via Amerina, led inland into the country of the Sabines via the valley of the Nar River. On the western side, the Via Cassia or its predecessor led to the coast over Sutri gap. The Falisci therefore prospered by being on a protected crossroad.

The primary urban center in Faliscan territory was the city of Falerii, now the modern settlement of Civita Castellana. Falerii was situated at the conjunction of several small rivers from Monti Sabatini and the larger Treia river. Following the Roman conquest of 241 BCE, the city of Falerii was destroyed and the inhabitants were moved to the less defensible position of Falerii Novi.^[5] Another major city mentioned in ancient literature is Fescennium,^[8] which is said by Festus to be the origin site of the Roman wedding tradition known as the Fescennine verses.^[9] Other Faliscan cities unmentioned by the ancient sources include Corchiano, Vignanello, Gallese and Grotta Porciosa.^[10]

History

The Falisci, often allied with the Etruscans, resisted Rome for a long time. They were allied with Veii when it was defeated in 396 BC. In the aftermath, Falerii was occupied by the victorious Romans.^[11] When, in 358, Tarquinia rebelled, the Falisci again took arms against Rome, but were again crushed c. 351 BC. This time an alliance was signed between the contenders, and a Roman garrison was settled in Falerii.^[12]

The Falisci took advantage of the First Punic War to declare their independence, but their revolt ended in 241 BC with the death of 15,000 Falisci^[13] and the destruction of Falerii; the survivors were moved to a new city, Falerii Novi.^[14]

Culture

Ancient Roman authors sometimes equate the Falisci and the Etruscans; the 4th-century Latin writer Servius the Grammarian calls the city of Falerii a Tuscan city and Livy calls the Falisci an Etruscan people.^[15]^[16] The 1st-century BCE historian Dionysus of Halicarnassus claimed that Faliscan culture developed from earlier, supposedly Pelasgian, inhabitants of the region.^[17] However, the 1st-century BCE geographer Strabo notes that the Falisci differed from the Etruscans in numerous ways: "Some say that the inhabitants of Falerii are not Etruscans, but Faliscans, a distinct people; and some, too, that the Faliscans are a polis with a distinct tongue."^[18]^[19] It is unclear precisely how the Faliscans saw themselves and what characteristics they believed separated them from neighboring cultures. The only instance of the Falisci referring to their own ethnicity comes from a 2nd-century Latin inscription from Falerii Novi describing Faliscans in Sardinia: "falesce·quei·in·Sardinia·sunt."^[2]

Although the Faliscans preserved many traces of their Italic origin—such as the worship of the deities Juno Quiritis,^[20] Feronia,^[21] the cult of the god Soranus by the Hirpi or fire-leaping priests on Mount Soracte,^[22]^[23] and above all their language^[24]^[25]—much of Faliscan material culture is similar to artifacts from South Etruria. Faliscan pottery during the early period is somewhat distinctive from other styles and later Faliscan workshops can be identified by their unique styles of pottery. Dionysius describes Faliscan weaponry in his works, although the items were not necessarily Faliscan. Dionysius likely intended this description to further support his proposed connection between Argos and the Falisci. Cato the Elder, a 3rd-century BCE Roman politician, mentions a type of cattle-stall called the praesepe Faliscum,^[26] although such a device would not have constituted a significant part of the Faliscan identity and was possibly not exclusive to the ager Faliscus.^[27] Possibly the most uniquely Faliscan aspect of Faliscan material culture was their religion and their funerary rites. Rock-cut tombs were common throughout the ager Faliscus, possibly due to the local geography of the region. Faliscans also made usage of shaft tombs that often contained a loculus. Another burial dated to the 7th-century BCE from the La Penna necropolis contains a tree-trunk burial covered in impasto discs.^[28] There is some evidence of a distinctly Faliscan literature; the Fescennine verses are attributed to the Faliscans and the metrum Faliscum (Faliscan meter) may also have been created by the Falisci, although the metrum Faliscum is attributed to an unknown author named Serenus by the 2nd-century Latin grammarian Terentianus.^[29] Servius states that several laws in the Twelve Tables derive from the Faliscans, however no original Faliscan laws have survived.^[30]^[28]

Language

The Faliscan language, attested by the 7th century BC is an Indo-European language. Together with Latin, it forms the Latino-Faliscan languages group of the Italic languages. It seems probable that the language persisted, being gradually permeated with Latin, until at least 150 BC.^[24]

Notes

^ Falisci is the ancient Roman exonym.

References

^ Louise Adams Holland (1925). The Faliscans in prehistoric times. American Academy in Rome.
^ ^a ^b Bakkum 2009, pp. 25–26.
^ Pliny the Elder. Naturalis historia. 7.2.19.
^ Horace. Odes. 1.9.1.
^ ^a ^b Bakkum 2009, p. 20.
^ ^a ^b Bakkum 2009, p. 19.
^ Livy. Ab urbe condita. 9.36.
^ Bertha Tilly (1977). "SOME EXCURSIONS INTO VERGIL'S FALISCAN COUNTRY: IN SEARCH OF FESCENNIUM". Vergilius (23): 39–49. JSTOR 41591774.
^ Bakkum 2009, p. 21.
^ Bakkum 2009, pp. 20–24.
^ Bakkum 2009, pp. 38–9.
^ Bakkum 2009, pp. 39–40.
^ Bakkum 2009, pp. 41–2.
^ Bakkum 2009, pp. 42–4.
^ Livy. Ab urbe condita. 5.8.5.
^ Maurus Servius Honoratus. In Vergilii Aeneidem commentarii. A.7.607.
^ Dionysius of Halicarnassus. Roman antiquities. 1.21.1-2.
^ Strabo. Geographica. 5.2.9.
^ Bakkum 2009, p. 24.
^ Ovid, Fasti, VI.49.
^ Livy, History of Rome, xxvi.11.
^ Pliny, Natural History, vii.2.19.
^ Servius, ad Aen. xi. 785, 787
^ ^a ^b Conway 1911.
^ Bakkum 2009, p. 40.
^ Cato the Elder. De Agricultura. 4.1.
^ Bakkum 2009, p. 27.
^ ^a ^b Bakkum 2009, p. 28.
^ Terentianus. De metris. 6.385.1992.
^ Maurus Servius Honoratus. In Vergilii Aeneidem commentarii. A.7.695.

Sources

Library resources about
Falisci

Bakkum, Gabriël CLM (2009). The Latin Dialect of the Ager Faliscus: 150 Years of Scholarship. Thesis, University of Amsterdam. Vol. Part I. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Conway, Robert Seymour (1911). "Falisci". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 10 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 148.