FALISCI

This article appears in Volume V10, Page 148 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: EUD-FAT

FALISCI , a tribe of Sabine origin or connexions, but speaking a dialect closely akin to Latin, who inhabited the town of Falerii (q.v.), as well as a considerable tract of the surrounding country, probably reaching as far south as to include the small town of

Capena

CAPENA

. But at the beginning of the historical period, i.e. from the beginning of the 5th century B.C., and no doubt earlier, the dominant

element

ELEMENT (Lat. elementum)

in the town was

Etruscan

ETRUSCAN

; and all through the wars of the following centuries the town was counted a member, and sometimes a leading member, of the

Etruscan

ETRUSCAN

league (cf. Livy iv. 23, V. 17, vii. 17).
In spite of the Etruscan domination, the Faliscans preserved many traces of their Italic origin, such as the

worship

WORSHIP (i.e. " worth-ship," O. Eng. weor8scipe)

of the deities Juno Quiritis (Ovid,

Fasti

FASTI

, vi. 49) and Feronia (Livy xxvi. 11), the cult of Dis Soranus by the Hirpi or fire-leaping priests on

Mount

MOUNT, WILLIAM SIDNEY (1807-1868)

Soracte (Pliny, Nat. Hist. vii. 2, 19; Servius, ad Aen. xi. 785, 787), above all their language. This is preserved for us in some 36 short

inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS (from Lat. inscribere, to write upon)

, dating from the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C., and is written in a peculiar alphabet derived from the Etruscan, and written from right to Ieft, but showing some traces of the influence of the Latin alphabet. Its most characteristic signs are 51
51 a, z, t t, 51 r, f tFaliscan dialect, viz.:
i. The retention of medial f which in Latin became b;
2. The representation of an initial Ind.-Eur. gh by f (foied, contrast Latin hodie);
3. The palatalization of d+ consonant i into some sound denoted merely by i the central sound of foied, from fo-died;
4. The loss of final s, at all events before certain following sounds (era beside Latin eras);
Other characteristics, appearing elsewhere, are:
5. The retention of the velars (Fah cuando = Latin quando ; contrast Umbrian pan(n,u) ;
6. The assimilation of some final consonants to the initial

letter

LETTER (through Fr. lettre from Lat. littera or litera, letter of the alphabet; the origin of the Latin word is obscure; it has probably no connexion with the root of linere, to smear, i.e. with wax, for an inscription with a stilus)

of the next word: " pretod de zenatuo sententiad (Conway, lib. nit. 321), i.e. " praetor de senatus sententia (zenatuo for senatuos., an archaic genitive). For further details see Conway, ib. pp. 370 if., especially pp. 384-385, where the relation of the names Falisci, Falerii to the local hero Halaesus (e.g. Ovid,

Fasti

FASTI

, iv. 73) is discussed, and where reason is given for thinking that the

change

CHANGE (derived through the Fr. from the Late Lat. cambium, cambiare, to barter; the ultimate derivation is probably from the root which appears in the Gr. 冠 urmu', to bend)

of initial f (from an

original

ORIGINAL

bh or dh) into an initial h was a genuine mark of Faliscan dialect.
It seems probable that the dialect lasted on, though being gradually permeated with Latin, till at least 150 B.C.
In addition to the remains found in the graves (see FALER11), which belong mainly to the period of Etruscan domination and give ample evidence of material prosperity and refinement, the earlier strata have yielded more primitive remains from the Italic epoch. A large number of

inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS (from Lat. inscribere, to write upon)

consisting mainly of proper names may be regarded as Etruscan rather than Faliscan, and they have been disregarded in the account of the dialect just given. It should perhaps be mentioned that there was a town Feronia in Sardinia, named probably after their native goddess by Faliscan settlers, from some of whom we have a votive inscription found at S. Maria di Falleri(Conway, ib. p. 335)
Further information may be sought from W. Deecke, Die Falls/zee (a useful but somewhat uncritical collection of the evidence accessible 'in 1888); E. Bormann, in C.I.L. xi. pp. 465 if., and Conway, op. cit. (R. S. C.)

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