The cognomen, or epithet, Faliscus, from which it has been inferred that he was a native of Falerii[3] was first introduced by Barth, on the authority of a manuscript which no one else ever saw, and probably originated in a forced interpretation of one of the lines in the poem, "At contra nostris imbellia lina Faliscis" (5.40).
[6] The poem, entitled Cynegeticon Liber, professes to set forth the apparatus (arma) 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).
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 Dercylus the Arcadian, and Hagnon of Boeotia.
According to Ramsay, 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 distinctness, which, in addition to a very corrupt text, render it a task of great difficulty to determine the exact meaning of many passages.
Although considerable skill is manifested in the combination of the parts – Ramsay continues – the author did not possess sufficient power to overcome the obstacles which were triumphantly combated by Virgil.
The editio princeps was printed at Venice in February 1534, by Aldus Manutius, in a volume that included the Halieutica of Ovid, the Cynegetica and Carmen Bucolicum of Nemesianus, the Buolica of Calpurnius Siculus, and the Venatio of Hadrianus.