Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/149

 890 FAESULAE. nnmerotu military colony (Cic. pro Muren. 24, in Cat. iii. 6. § 14), and, near 20 years after, we find these colonists of Solla, a factions and discontented body of men, giving the chief support to the revolu- tionary movements of Catiline. It was on this account that tiiat leader made Faesulae the head- -qnarters of his military preparations under Manlius, and thither he betook himself when driven from Borne bv Cicero. (Sail Cat 24, 27, 30, 32 ; Appian, JB. C. ii 3; Cic. pro Muren. 24, m Cat. it. 6. § 14.) Here he organised a force of two legions, and con- tinued to maintain his ground in the mountains near Paesulae, till, hemmed in by the armies of Metellus and Antonius, he was compelled to give battle to the latter near Pistoria. (Sail Lc. 56, 57.) The curious legends concerning Catiline, which have passed into the early chronicles of Florence, where he figures almost as a national hero (Malespini, Istor. FiorenL cc. 13 — 21), prove the deep impression left in this part of Etruria by the events connected with his fiill. From this time we hear little more of Faesulae: it appears to have sunk into the conditicm of an ordinary municipal town under the Roman empire (Plin. iii. 5. s. 8, vii. 13. s. 11 ; PtoL iii. 1. § 47), and the growth of the neighbouring Florantia was probably unfiivourable to its prosperity. But in the Gothic wars, after the £eJ1 of the Western Empire, Faesulae again appears as a strong fortress, which was not reduced by Belisarius until after a long siege. (Procop. B. G. il 23, 24, 27.) In the middle ages Faesulae was reduced to insig- nificance by the growing power of the Florentines, and gradually fell into decay. According to the ordinary histories of Florence (Machiavelli, Vlllani, &C.), it was taken and destroyed by the Florentines in A. D. 1010, but much doubt has been thrown on this statement by modem historians. Fiesole is now a mere village, though retaining its episcopal rank and ancient cathedral. The ruins of Faesulae, especially the remains of its ancient walls, confirm the accounts of its havmg been an important Etruscan city. Large portions of these walls, constructed in the same style with those of Volaterrae and Cortona, though of somewhat less massive masonry, were preserved till within a few years, and some parts of them are still visible. The whole circuit however was less than two miles in extent, forming a somewhat quadrangular enclosure, which occupied the whole smnmit of the hill, an advanced post or buttress of the Apennines, rising to the hdght of more than 1000 feet above the valley of the Arnus. The highest point, now occupied by the convent of S. Francesco, formed the An of the ancient dty, and appears to have been fortified by succesave tiers of walls, in the same style as those which encircled the city itself. Within the circuit of the walls are the remains of the andent theatre, which have been as yet but imperfectly excavated; but there appears no doubt that they are of Roman date and construction, though this theatre is re- peatedly referred to by Niebuhr as a monunoent of Ebmscau greatness. (Niebuhr, voL L pp. 130, 135; Micali, Ant. Pop. lial. vol. i. p. 152; Dennis, JStruriaj vol. ii. p. 127.) Near it was discovered a curious cistern or reservdr for water, probably of Etruscan date, roofed in by converging layers of stone, so arranged as to form a rude kind of vaulting. Of the numerous minor objects of antiquity that have been found on the site of Faesulae, the most interesting is a bas-relief of a warrior of very ancient Atyle, and one of the most carious specimens of earltf FALERIL Etruscan art It is figured by Micali (pi. Ii. fig. 3)L AH the remains of antiquity at Faesulae aie folty described by Dennis (/. c. pp. 1 1 9—130). [E.H.B.] FALACBI'NUM (Phalacrine, SoeL), a Tillage and station on the Via Salaria, in the Sabine terri- tory, and in the heart of the Apennines, 16 M. P. north of Interocrea. (/tm. Ant. ^307; Tab. Plent) It is noticed as the birthplace of the emperor Ves- pasian, but was a mere village (''vicns modicos,'*Saet. Veep, 2). Its site is fixed by the distance ^iveii from Anirodoco^ at a spot just bdow the modem town of Civita Reede, where there exists an anciakt church mentioned in documents of the middle ages as S. SUvestro in Faiacrino. The name cS FaJa- crine is still found in the 14th century, as oaae of the villages from which the town of (Hvita JReaU was peopled. (Holsten. Not. ad Chtv. p. 1 18 ; D'AnviUe, Analyte Giogr. de Vludie, p. 167.) [E. H. B.] FALE'RIA or FALE'RIO (£dk. Falerieosis or Falerionensis : FaUerona), a town of Pioenum on the left bank of the river Tinna, about 20 miles from the sea. We learn very little about it from andenl authors, but the Falerienses (written in our MSS. Falarienses) are mentioned by Pliny among the mu- nicipal towns of the interior of Picenum : and the " Falerionensis ager" is noticed among the ^ civitates Piceni" in the Liber Coloniarum. (Plin. iii. 13. s. 18; Lib. Colon, p. 256.) But its existence as a cqd- siderable municipal town, with its local senate aiKi magistrates, is attested by inscriptions <^ the time of Domitian, Hadrian, and the Antonines : as well as by the ruins still visible on the left bank of Uw 7>fwia, about a mile below the modem village of FaileronOj among which those of a theatre and am- phithebtrs are the most omspicuons. The former has been recently cleared out, and the excavatioiB have brought to light many statues and other an- cient fragments, as well as the architectoral features of the building itself, in good preservation. (De Minicis, in the Ann. deW InsL 1839, pp. 5—61.) From one of the inscriptions discovered here we learn that the territory of Faleria bordered on that of Firmum, and that it had received a cdoiiy of veleians under Augustus. (OrelL Inecr. 3118.) Another mentions its foram, capitolium, &c. (De Minios, /. c. p. 49.) The correct designation of tlie citizens appears to have been " Falerienses ex Piceno,'* but another inscripticm gives the form Falerio or Fale- rione for the name of the town, which is presoved in the modem FaUerone, [K.H.B.3 FALE'RIA or FALE'SL^ a port on the coast of Etruria, nearly opposite to the isbnd of Dva, and a little to tiie eastward of the promontory of Popu- Ionium. It is mentioned by Rutilius, in his voyage along this coast (/tm. L 371 — 380), under the name of Faleria : but in the Maritime Itinerary (p. 501) the name is written Faietiay which appean to liave been the prevalent form, as the Portus Falesiae, or Porta F(dete, is repeatedly mentioned in the middle ages until it became so choked with sand as to reader it useless. (Targioni-Toszetti, ViaggiwUa TVwoomiv vol. iv.) It was situated at the entrance of an extoisive lagoon or padule, which, in the time of Rutilius, was converted into a fishpond. [E. H. B.] FALEIUI (^a^f»u», Strab.; ^kAcpioi*, Dionya., Steph. B., Ptol. : Eth. *al<ncos, Faliscus : Sta. Maria di FaUert)f an ancient and powerful city of Etruria, situated in the interior of that country, a few miles W. of the Tiber, and N. of Mount Soracte. It ap- pears in historical times, and when it first came into collision with the Roman poirer, as a pnraly