Dennis, George: The cities and cemeteries of Etruria: in two volumes (Band 1) (London, 1848)

chap, vh.] jEQUUM FALISCUM. 149

with Veii and Caere; and it was much too powerful, and acted too inde-
pendently, to be the colony of another city. Etrusk. II. 1, 2.
Butropius (1.18) says it was not inferior to Veii. Dempster (de Etruria
Eegali, II. p. 52) places Falerii among the Twelve. Niebuhr is not of
this opinion; perhaps because he regarded the Falisci as JSqui, rather
than as Etruscans. Hist. Rom. I. pp. 72, 119, Eng. trans.

Note III.—J3qotjm Faliscum.

Miiller (Etrusk. einl. II., 14) is of opinion that the epithet of jEqui,
attached by Virgil (J)n. VII. 695) and Silius Italicus (VIII. 491)' to the
Falisci, refers to the position of the second city of Falerium in the plain, as
stated by Zonaras. Servius, however, in his comment on this passage of
Virgil, interprets jEqui as " Just, because the Roman people, having got
rid of the Decemvirs, received from the Falisci the Fecial laws, and some
supplements of the XII. Tables which they had had from the Athe-
nians." Cluver (Ital. Ant. II. p. 538) and Miiller (Etrusk. II., 3, 6)
refute this statement; and the latter will not allow that they were called
jEqui Falisci, either from their uprightness, or their origin from the race
of the iEqui, as Niebuhr supposes2; but solely from the situation of
their second city. I pretend not to reconcile the variances of such
authorities ; but merely point out the glaring anachronism of which the
Mantuan bard is guilty, provided the opinion of Miiller be correct. The
same epithet, however, in another case—^Iquimsehum—we are expressly
told, was significant of the level nature of the ground (Dion. Hal.
Excerp. Mai. XII. 1). It seems to me more probable, from a comparison
with Strabo (V. p. 226), that jEquum Faliscum was a synonym not of
Roman Falerii, but of Faliscum, the third city of the Falisci. See
Note I. and page 161.

Note IV.—Falleri not the Etruscan Falerii.
The name of most weight in the opposite scale is that of Miiller ; but
though his opinion was " the result of careful consideration," it is, in
this case, of no weight, seeing that it is founded on a mistaken view of

1 Elsewhere (V., 176) lie calls a man born at Soracte, which was in the Faliscan
territory, iEquanum.

2 Hist. Rom. I., p. 72,Eng. trans. Niebuhr thinks they were iEqui or Volsci, and
remarks, in the name Falisci, that of Tolsci is clearly discernible. Miiller, (einl. II. 14),how-
evcr, shows that the Etruscan element was predominant at Falerii; nor is the city ever
found in political connection with the Sabines, Umbrians, or iEquians, but solely with the
Etruscans.