A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

FALTO. FANGO. 135
imbellia lina Faliscis" (v. 40), where, upon refer- first Praetor Peregrinus at Rome (Dict. of Ant.
ring to.the context, it will at once be seen that s. v. Praetor). The occasion for a second praetornostris here denotes merely Italian, in contradis- ship was, that the war with Carthage required two
tinction to the various foreign tribes spoken of in commanders, and A. Postumius Albinus, one of the
the preceding verses. consuls for the year B. c. 242, being at the time
The work itself, which consists of 540 hexame- priest of Mars, was forbidden by the Pontifex
ters, is entitled Cynegeticon Liber, and professes to Maximus to leave the city. Falto was second in
set forth the apparatus (arma) necessary for the command of the fleet which, in that year, the last
sportsman, and the manner in which the various of the first Punic war, the Romans dispatched unrequisites for the pursuit of game are to be procured, der C. Lutatius Catulus [CATULUS] against the
prepared, and preserved (artes armorum). Among Carthaginians in Sicily. After Catulus had been
the arma of the hunter are included not only nets, disabled by a wound at the siege of Drepanum, the
gins, snares (retia,pedicae, laquei), darts and spears active duties of the campaign devolved on Falto.
(jacula, venabula), but also horses and dogs, and a His conduct at the battle of the Aegates so much
large portion of the undertaking (vv. 150-430) is contributed to the victory of the Romans that, on
devoted to a systematic account of the different the return of the fleet, Falto demanded to share the
kinds of hounds and horses. triumph of Catulus. His claim was rejected, on
The language of the Cynegetica is pure, and not the ground that an inferior officer had no title to
unworthy of the age to which it belongs; but the recompense of the chief in command. The
there is frequently a harshness in the structure of dispute was referred to arbitration; and the arbiter,
the periods, a strange and unauthorised use of Atilius Calatinus, decided against Falto, alleging
particular words, and a general want of distinct- that, as in the field the consul's orders took preceness, which, in addition to a very corrupt text, dence of the praetor's, and as the praetor's auspices,
render it a task of great difficulty to determine the in case of dispute, were always held inferior to the
exact meaning of many passages. Although con- consul's, so the triumph was exclusively a consular
siderable skill is manifested in the combination of distinction. The people, however, thought that
the parts, the author did not possess sufficient Falto merited the honour, and he accordingly
power to overcome the obstacles which were tri- triumphed on the 6th of October, B. C. 241. Falto
umphantly combated by Virgil. The matter and was consul in B. c. 239. (Liv. Epit. xix.; Fast.
arrangement of the treatise are derived in a great Capit.; Val. Max. i. 1. ~ 2, ii. 8. ~ 2.)
measure from Xenophon, although information was 2. P. VALERIUS Q. F. P. N. FALTO, brother of
drawn from other ancient sources, such as Dercy- the preceding, was consul in B. C. 238. The Boian
lus the Arcadian, and Hagnon of Boeotia. It is Gauls, after having been at peace with Rome for
remarkable, that both the Greek Oppianus, who nearly half a century, in this year resumed hostiflourished probably under Caracalla, and the Roman lities, and formed a league with their kindred
Nemesianus, the contemporary of Numerianus, tribes on the Po, and with the Ligurians. Falto
arrogate to themselves the honour of having en- was despatched with a consular army against them,
tered upon a path altogether untrodden. Whether but was defeated in the first battle with great loss.
we believe them to be sincere and ignorant, or sus- The senate, on the news of his defeat, ordered one
pect them of deliberate dishonesty, their bold of the praetors, M. Genucius Cipus [CIPUS], to
assertion is sufficient to prove that the poem of march to his relief. Falto, however, regarded this
Faliscus had in their day become almost totally as an intrusion into his province, and, before the
unknown. reinforcement arrived, attacked the Boians a second
The Cynegetica has been transmitted to modern time and routed them. But on his return to Rome
times through the medium of a single MS., which he was refused a triumph, not merely on account
was brought from Gaul to Italy by Actius Sanna- of his defeat, but because he had rashly fought
zarius about the beginning of the sixteenth century, with a beaten army without awaiting the arrival of
and contained also the Cynegetics of Nemesianus, the praetor. (Zonar. viii. 18; Oros. iv. 12.)
and the Halieutics ascribed to Ovid. A second 3. M. VALERIUS FALTO, one of the envoys sent
copy of the first 159 lines was found by Janus by the senate, B. c. 205, to Attalus I. king of PerUlitius appended to another MS. of the Halieutics. gamus. Their mission was to fetch the Idaean
The Editio Princeps was printed at Venice, 8vo. mother to Italy, according to an injunction of the
February, 1534, by Aldus Manutius, in a volume, Sibylline Books. Falto was of quaestorian rank
containing also the Halieutica of Ovid, the Cyne- at this time, but the date of his quaestorship is not
getica and Carmen Bucolicum of Nemesianus, the known. On the return of the envoys to Rome
Bucolica of Calpurnius Siculus, together with the Falto was sent forward to announce the message of
Venatio of Hadrianus; and reprinted at Augsburg the Delphic oracle, which they had consulted on
in the July of the same year. The best editions their journey, to the senate-" The best man in
are those contained in the Poetae Latini Minores the state must welcome the goddess or her repreof Burmann (vol. i. Lug. Bat. 1731), and of sentative on her landing." (Liv. xxix. 11.) Falto
Wernsdorf, vol. i. p. 6, 293, ii. p. 34, iv. pt. ii. was one of the curule aediles, B. c. 203, when a
p. 790, 806, v. pt. iii. p. 1445), whose prolegomena supply of Spanish grain enabled those magistrates
embrace all the requisite preliminary information. to sell corn to the poor at a sesterce the bushel.
A translation into English verse with notes, and (xxx. 26.) Falto was praetor B.c. 201. His pro,
the Latin text, by Christopher Wase, was pub- vince was Bruttium, and two legions were allotted
lished at London in 1654, and a translation into to him. (xxx. 40, 41.) [W. B. D.]
German, also metrical, by S. E. G. Perlet, at FANGO, or PHANGO, C. FUFI'CIUS, oriLeipzig, in 1826. [W. R.] ginally a common soldier, and probably of African
FALTO, the name of a family of the Valeria blood, whom Julius Caesar raised to the rank of
gens. senator. When, in B. C. 40, Octavianus annexed
1. Q. VALERIUS Q. F. P. N. FALTO, was the Numidia and part of the Roman Africa to his share
K 4