DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0297
CHAP. XII.]
ANNIO, AND HIS FORGERIES.
less directly, to bear testimony to its antiquity and pristine
importance. Besides these fragments of Berosus, Manetho,
Archilochus, Xenophon, Fabius Pictor, Cato, Antoninus,
and others, he forged, with the same object, a marble
tablet with an edict purporting to be of King Desiderio,
the last of the Lombard dynasty, in which it is decreed
that " within one wall shall be included the three towns,
Longula, Vetulonia, and Tirrena, called Volturna, and the
whole city thus formed shall be called Btruria or Viter-
bum/'2 which city Annio further attempted to prove one
of the Twelve, and the metropolis of ancient Etruria.
His forgeries for some time imposed on the world; but
they have been long exposed, and he is now universally
regarded as an impostor.3
One of his statements, however, that Viterbo was the
site of the Fanum Voltumnse, the shrine at which the
princes of Etruria were wont to assemble in frequent
conclave to deliberate on the affairs of the Confederation—
has been assented to by many of his opponents, and is an
opinion still generally entertained.* That the Panum was
somewhere in this district is probable enough; but as Livy,
s Elsewhere, in his work, " Antiqui-
tatum Variarum Volumina," p. 12, Annio
calls the four cities of the Tetrapolis
" Voltursena, Vetulonia, Tusca, and
Harbanum." In the Palazzo Comunale
are the arms of the town, supported by
two lions, with the letters F.A.V.L.,
which are explained as " Fanum
Auguste Volturne Lueumonum," and
this doggerel distich below :
Hanc Fanum, Arbanum, Vetulonia, Lon-
gula quondam
Oppida, dant urbem prima elementa
F.A.V.L.
3 The authenticity of the Desiderio
decree has been much disputed. Even
Holstenius (Adnot. ad Cluver., p. 68)
contended for its authenticity; and
as late as 1777 Faure maintained it to
be genuine.
4 Cluverius, II. p. 565. Cellarius,
Geog. Ant. torn. I. p. 581. Ambrosch,
Mem. Inst., IV. p. 149. Perhaps the
forged fragments of the Itinerary of An-
toninus,longreceived as genuine, in which
Annio places " Fanum Volturnee " imme-
diately after " Juga Cyminia," on the
road to Volsinii, may, in some degree,
have favoured this opinion. Orioli (Ann.
Inst. 1833, p. 26), however, thinks the
reasons adduced in its support quite as
frivolous as those which would place
Vetulonia, Longula, and Arbanum on
this site.
o2
ANNIO, AND HIS FORGERIES.
less directly, to bear testimony to its antiquity and pristine
importance. Besides these fragments of Berosus, Manetho,
Archilochus, Xenophon, Fabius Pictor, Cato, Antoninus,
and others, he forged, with the same object, a marble
tablet with an edict purporting to be of King Desiderio,
the last of the Lombard dynasty, in which it is decreed
that " within one wall shall be included the three towns,
Longula, Vetulonia, and Tirrena, called Volturna, and the
whole city thus formed shall be called Btruria or Viter-
bum/'2 which city Annio further attempted to prove one
of the Twelve, and the metropolis of ancient Etruria.
His forgeries for some time imposed on the world; but
they have been long exposed, and he is now universally
regarded as an impostor.3
One of his statements, however, that Viterbo was the
site of the Fanum Voltumnse, the shrine at which the
princes of Etruria were wont to assemble in frequent
conclave to deliberate on the affairs of the Confederation—
has been assented to by many of his opponents, and is an
opinion still generally entertained.* That the Panum was
somewhere in this district is probable enough; but as Livy,
s Elsewhere, in his work, " Antiqui-
tatum Variarum Volumina," p. 12, Annio
calls the four cities of the Tetrapolis
" Voltursena, Vetulonia, Tusca, and
Harbanum." In the Palazzo Comunale
are the arms of the town, supported by
two lions, with the letters F.A.V.L.,
which are explained as " Fanum
Auguste Volturne Lueumonum," and
this doggerel distich below :
Hanc Fanum, Arbanum, Vetulonia, Lon-
gula quondam
Oppida, dant urbem prima elementa
F.A.V.L.
3 The authenticity of the Desiderio
decree has been much disputed. Even
Holstenius (Adnot. ad Cluver., p. 68)
contended for its authenticity; and
as late as 1777 Faure maintained it to
be genuine.
4 Cluverius, II. p. 565. Cellarius,
Geog. Ant. torn. I. p. 581. Ambrosch,
Mem. Inst., IV. p. 149. Perhaps the
forged fragments of the Itinerary of An-
toninus,longreceived as genuine, in which
Annio places " Fanum Volturnee " imme-
diately after " Juga Cyminia," on the
road to Volsinii, may, in some degree,
have favoured this opinion. Orioli (Ann.
Inst. 1833, p. 26), however, thinks the
reasons adduced in its support quite as
frivolous as those which would place
Vetulonia, Longula, and Arbanum on
this site.
o2