Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/149

Rh FALTO. imbellia Una Faiiscis " (v. 40), where, upon refeiv ring to the context, it will at once be seen that nostris here denotes merely Italian, in contradis- tinction to the various foreign tribes spoken of in the preceding verses. The work itself, which consists of 540 hexame- ters, is entitled Cynegeticon Liber^ and professes to set forth the apparatus (arrna) necessary for the sportsman, and the manner in which the various requisites for the pursuit of game are to be procured, prepared, and preserved (artes armorum). Among the anna of the hunter are included not only nets, gins, snares {retia, pediace, laquei), darts and spears (jacula, venabula), but also horses and dogs, and a large portion of the undertaking (vv. 150 — 430) is devoted to a systematic account of the different kinds of hounds and horses. The language of the Cynegetica is pure, and not unworthy of the age to which it belongs ; but there is frequently a harshness in the structure of the periods, a strange and unauthorised use of particular words, and a general want of distinct- ness, which, in addition to a very corrupt text, render it a task of great difficulty to determine the exact meaning of many passages. Although con- siderable skill is manifested in the combination of the parts, the author did not possess sufficient power to overcome the obstacles which were tri- umphantly combated by Virgil. The matter and arrangement of the treatise are derived in a great measure from Xenophon, although information was drawn from other ancient sources, such as Dercy- lus the Arcadian, and Hagnon of Boeotia. It is remarkable, that both the Greek Oppianus, who riourished probably under Caracalla, and the Roman Nemesianus, the contemporary of Numerianus, arrogate to themselves the honour of having en- tered upon a path altogether untrodden. Whether we believe them to be sincere and ignorant, or sus- pect' them of deliberate dishonesty, their bold assertion is sufficient to prove that the poem of Faliscus had in their day become almost totally unknown. The Cynegetica has been transmitted to modem times through the medium of a single MS., which was brought from Gaul to Italy by Actius Sanna- zarius about the beginning of the sixteenth century, and contained also the Cynegetics of Nemesianus, and the Halieutics ascribed to Ovid. A second copy of the first 159 lines was found by Janus Ulitius appended to another MS. of the Halieutics. The Editio Princeps was printed at Venice, 8vo. February, 1534, by Aldus Manutius, in a volume, containing also the Halieutica of Ovid, the Cyne- getica and Carmen Bucolicum of Nemesianus, the Bucolica of Calpurnius Siculus, together with the Venaiio of Hadrianus ; and reprinted at Augsburg in the July of the same year. The best editions are those contained in the Poetae Latini Minores of Burmann (vol. i. Lug. Bat. 1731), and of Wernsdorf, vol. i. p. 6, 293, ii. p. 34, iv. pt. ii. p. 790, 806, V. pt. iii. p. 1445), whose prolegomena embrace all the requisite preliminary information. A translation into English verse with notes, and the Latin text, by Christopher Wase, was pub- lished at London in 1654, and a translation into German, also metrical, by S. E. G. Perlet, at Leipzig, in 1826. [W. R.] FALTO, the name of a family of the Valeria gens. 1. Q. Valerius Q. p. P. n. Falto, was the FANGO. 136 first Praetor Peregrinus at Rome {Did. of Ant. s. V. Praetor). The occasion for a second praetor- ship was, that the war with Carthage required two commanders, and A. Postumius Albinus, one of the consuls for the year B. c. 242, being at the time priest of Mars, was forbidden by the Pontifex Maximus to leave the city. Falto was second in command of the fleet which, in that year, the last of the first Punic war, the Romans dispatched un- der C. Lutatius Catulus [Catulus] against the Carthaginians in Sicily. After Catulus had been disabled by a wound at the siege of Drepanum, the active duties of the campaign devolved on Falto. His conduct at the battle of the Aegates so much contributed to the victory of the Romans that, on the return of the fleet, Falto demanded to share the triumph of Catulus. His claim was rejected, on the ground that an inferior officer had no title to the recompense of the chief in command. The dispute was referred to arbitration; and the arbiter, Atilius Calatinus, decided against Falto, alleging that, as in the field the consul's orders took prece- dence of the praetor's, and as the praetor's auspices, in case of dispute, were always held inferior to the consul's, so the triumph was exclusively a consular distinction. The people, however, thought that Falto merited the honour, and he accordingly triumphed on the 6th of October, B. c. 241. Falto was consul in B. c. 239. {hiv. Epit. xix. ; Fast. Capit. ; Val. Max. i. 1. § 2, ii. 8. § 2.) 2. P. Valerius Q. f. P. n. Falto, brother of the preceding, was consul in B. c. 238. The Boian Gauls, after having been at peace with Rome for nearly half a century, in this year resumed hosti- lities, and formed a league with their kindred tribes on the Po, and with the Ligurians. Falto was despatched with a consular army against them, but was defeated in the first battle with great loss. The senate, on the news of his defeat, ordered one of the praetors, M. Genucius Cipus [Cipus], to march to his relief. Falto, however, regarded this as an intrusion into his province, and, before the reinforcement arrived, attacked the Boians a second time and routed them. But on his return to Rome he was refused a triumph, not merely on account of his defeat, but because he had rashly fought with a beaten army without awaiting the arrival of the praetor. (Zonar. viii. 18 ; Oros. iv. 12.) 3. M. Valerius Falto, one of the envoys sent by the senate, b. c. 205, to Attains I. king of Per- gamus. Their mission was to fetch the Idaean mother to Italy, according to an injunction of the Sibylline Books. Falto was of quaestorian rank at this time, but the date of his quaestorship is not known. On the return of the envoys to Rome Falto was sent forward to announce the message of the Delphic oracle, which they had consulted on their journey, to the senate — " The best man in the state must welcome the goddess or her repre- sentative on her landing." (Liv. xxix. 11.) Falto was one of the curule aediles, b. c. 203, when a supply of Spanish grain enabled those m^istrates to sell com to the poor at a sesterce the bushel, (xxx. 26.) Falto was praetor b.c. 201. His pro- vince was Bruttium, and two legions were allotted to him. (xxx. 40, 41.) [W. B. D.] FANGO, or PHANGO, C. FUFI'CIUS, ori- ginally a common soldier, and probably of African blood, whom Julius Caesar raised to the rank of senator. When, in B. G. 40, Octavianus annexed Numidia and nart of the Roman Africa to his share K 4