DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0252
150 FALLERI. [chap. vn.
the local characteristics of FaUeri, which, it is evident, he had never
visited. He has heen misled hy false statements, and his arguments,
on such premises, are of course powerless. He says (Etrusker, einl.
II., 14), " the walls of the ancient city of Falerii, huilt of polygonal
blocks of white stone, uncemented, are situated on the heights about
three miles to the west of Civita Castellana ; and the site is still
called Falari." He takes his information, as to the position of the
ruins, from Nardini, (Veio Antico, p. 153), and from Sickler's Plan
of the Campagna, a map full of inaccuracies, both in names and
sites ; though he owns that Cluver, Holstenius, and Mazzocchi state
that Fallen is in the plain. But it is on this false notion that he founds
his main argument, which is the correspondence of the position of Falari
with that ascribed to Falerii, by ancient writers. Again, he says, " it
is quite incredible that such massive walls as these are the work of the
conquered Falisci, or of a Roman colony. Falari must therefore be
regarded as the ancient Falerii." Now, there are no polygonal walls in
existence in Southern Etruria, save at Pyrgi on the coast; and the
blocks of which those of Falerii are composed are of the comparatively
small size, usually employed in Etruscan cities in this part of the land,
and precisely accord in dimensions and arrangement with those of the
Tabularium on the Capitol, and many other remains in and around
Rome. The second town of Falerii—iEquum Faliseuai, as he calls it—
he places, with Nardini, on some undetermined site in the Plain of Bor-
ghetto, near the Tiber, because Strabo says it was near the Via Flaminia.
Civita Castellana, he follows Nardini and the early Italian antiquaries,
in supposing to be the ancient Fescennium, and contents himself with
saying that it cannot be Falerii, as Cluverius and Holstenius supposed.
The early antiquaries of Italy, led away by the similarity of the name,
fancied that Monte Fiascone—or Mons Phiscon, as Annio of Viterbo
called it—was the site of Falerii.
It should have been stated that Festus offers a singular derivation for
the name of this city—Faleri oppidum a. sale dictum—which Cluver (II.
p. 542), explains as the consequence of a blunder in transcribing from
the Greek authors—awb row SXos instead of ebro roO'AX^o-ou. Its obscurity
is in some measure relieved by Servius (Mn. VIII. 285), who calls
Alesus the son of Neptune, and by Silius Italicus (VIII. 476), where
he refers to Halesus as the founder of Alsium, on the sea-coast.
the local characteristics of FaUeri, which, it is evident, he had never
visited. He has heen misled hy false statements, and his arguments,
on such premises, are of course powerless. He says (Etrusker, einl.
II., 14), " the walls of the ancient city of Falerii, huilt of polygonal
blocks of white stone, uncemented, are situated on the heights about
three miles to the west of Civita Castellana ; and the site is still
called Falari." He takes his information, as to the position of the
ruins, from Nardini, (Veio Antico, p. 153), and from Sickler's Plan
of the Campagna, a map full of inaccuracies, both in names and
sites ; though he owns that Cluver, Holstenius, and Mazzocchi state
that Fallen is in the plain. But it is on this false notion that he founds
his main argument, which is the correspondence of the position of Falari
with that ascribed to Falerii, by ancient writers. Again, he says, " it
is quite incredible that such massive walls as these are the work of the
conquered Falisci, or of a Roman colony. Falari must therefore be
regarded as the ancient Falerii." Now, there are no polygonal walls in
existence in Southern Etruria, save at Pyrgi on the coast; and the
blocks of which those of Falerii are composed are of the comparatively
small size, usually employed in Etruscan cities in this part of the land,
and precisely accord in dimensions and arrangement with those of the
Tabularium on the Capitol, and many other remains in and around
Rome. The second town of Falerii—iEquum Faliseuai, as he calls it—
he places, with Nardini, on some undetermined site in the Plain of Bor-
ghetto, near the Tiber, because Strabo says it was near the Via Flaminia.
Civita Castellana, he follows Nardini and the early Italian antiquaries,
in supposing to be the ancient Fescennium, and contents himself with
saying that it cannot be Falerii, as Cluverius and Holstenius supposed.
The early antiquaries of Italy, led away by the similarity of the name,
fancied that Monte Fiascone—or Mons Phiscon, as Annio of Viterbo
called it—was the site of Falerii.
It should have been stated that Festus offers a singular derivation for
the name of this city—Faleri oppidum a. sale dictum—which Cluver (II.
p. 542), explains as the consequence of a blunder in transcribing from
the Greek authors—awb row SXos instead of ebro roO'AX^o-ou. Its obscurity
is in some measure relieved by Servius (Mn. VIII. 285), who calls
Alesus the son of Neptune, and by Silius Italicus (VIII. 476), where
he refers to Halesus as the founder of Alsium, on the sea-coast.