Falisci
[2] The Falisci resided in a region called by the Romans the Ager Faliscus, "Faliscan Country", located on the right bank of the Tiber River between and including Grotta Porciosa in the north and Capena in the south.
[5] Another major city mentioned in ancient literature is Fescennium,[8] which is said by Festus to be the origin site of the Roman wedding tradition known as the Fescennine verses.
[15][16] The 1st-century BCE historian Dionysus of Halicarnassus claimed that Faliscan culture developed from earlier, supposedly Pelasgian, inhabitants of the region.
"[18][19] Dionysius describes Faliscan weaponry in his works, stating that their spears and bucklers resembled Greek equipment used in Argos.
[20] Cato the Elder, a 3rd-century BCE Roman politician, mentions a type of cattle-stall called the praesepe Faliscum,[21] although such a device was possibly not exclusive to the ager Faliscus.
Middle Faliscan inscriptions mention the political position of efiles, a term that may have emerged as a calque on the Latin word aedilis.
Late Faliscan inscriptions from Falerii Novi (dated to after the Roman conquest) mention a cuestod (quaestor), a censor, several duouiri (Duumviri), and a pretod (praetor) that served a—possibly local—senate.
One Middle Faliscan inscription from Falerii mentions a freedwoman named loụṛia who was inhumed in the same loculus as the freeborn fasies : c[ai]sia.
[32] Faliscan impasto pottery from the 7th-century BCE sometimes bear the signatures of their creators, a mark that possibly signified that the works were commissioned by individuals of high social-standing.
[33] The 1st-century BCE Roman historian Livy provides information on Faliscan schooling practices; he states that, like the Greeks, they placed several boys under the tutorship of one man who functioned as both the teacher and companion of the children.
During the beginning of the 8th-century BCE, around the earliest periods of Faliscan history, they cremated their dead and stored the ashes in stone cists.
[38] Throughout the rest of the century, Faliscan burial practices evolved towards inhumation in trench or pit tombs and then the usage of sarcophagi.
Faliscan chamber tombs often contain multiple loculi closed with tiles, a layout unlike other contemporary cultures.
On the bottom of the sarcophagus, a drainage channel roughly shaped like the letter "Y" ending in a circular hole likely functioned to remove slurry and natural tissues liquified as part of the process of decomposition.
[42] Trade routes connecting various civilizations from across the Mediterranean likely brought material goods from various distinct cultures to the ager Faliscus.
[50] The mother was buried with amber pendants that possibly functioned to protect fertility, one of which depicts a woman with their bare hands grasping their belly and the other portrays a monkey.
[51] Another, likely fertility-related, pendant from a tomb in Pizzo Piede depicts a woman placing both her hands on her hips, drawing attention to the pubis.
This same tomb contains a two-wheeled chariot as a grave good, possibly symbolic of the wedding and funeral rituals as well as the journey into the afterlife.
Beads placed next to objects relating to the mother are similarly found in other structures identified as the graves of infants or female children.
Evidence for this is found in a Faliscan krater made in the mid-4th-century BCE, although the usage of these objects for this purpose was likely not as common as in other regions such as Latium.
Funerary ollae belonging to women from the Tufi necropolis were richly ornamented with clothing designs, one urn was wrapped in a belt that likely symbolically represented the body of the deceased.
It is also possible that the inscription mentions the name loụfir, potentially referring to the god Liber—a Roman viticulture deity—in connection to the Faliscan word uinom, meaning wine.
[59] Another sanctuary at Falerii likely dedicated to Juno contains votive offerings such as axes, spear heads, and a bronze statuette depicting a warrior.
[62] Archaeological evidence corroborates this narrative; ancient Roman inscriptions suggest that the cult of Juno Curritis was active during the reign of Emperor Trajan (r. 98–117).
[65]Various Roman authors mention another popular Faliscan cult called the Hirpi Sorani who were said to have conducted ceremonies at Monte Sorratte.
This ritual is entirely unmentioned in the epigraphical record, save for one inscription possibly containing the word sorex ("priest") that is potentially connected to this practice.
[59] Similarly, the Roman writers Macrobius and Servius both claim that the cult of Janus Quadrifons was brought to Rome after the conquest of the ager Faliscus.
[73] Ganymede is possibly depicted in a headless statue of a naked young boy holding an oenochoe found in a Faliscan temple.
If this statue does portray Ganymede, then it possibly indicates that the deity was involved in ceremonial rites of passage for young men in the city.
[55] According to Dionysius, holy women had an important religious function at the temple of Juno in Falerii; he writes that an unmarried girl, called the "canephorus" or the "basket-bearer," performed the initial sacrificial rites and that an ensemble of virgins sung songs in praise of the goddess.
