Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/79

FALERII FALIERI 71 land was as extensive as its ordinances, and several of its terms have been adopted into the language. Hawks' legs were their arms; their talons, pounces; wings, sails; the long feathers of the wings, beams; tail, the train; breast feathers, the mails ; crop, the gorge. A cover for the bird's head was the hood. When the hawk fluttered to escape, it bated; to sleep was to jouk ; to stretch one wing back was to mantle ; to shake itself was to rouse ; to recross its wings again was to warble ; to tear the feathers from its prey was to plume ; to raise its prey aloft before descending was to truss ; to descend on its prey was to stoop ; to fly off after crows was to check. A living prey was quarry ; when dead, pelt. Taming a bird was called reclaiming, by the French affaitage ; and an old, stanch, pattern hawk was called a make-hawk. No rank was excluded from the enjoyment of hawking, but each condition of men must confine themselves to their peculiar grade of hawk and quarry. The sinecure office of grand falconer of England is hereditary in the family of the duke of St. Albans. Among the most noted treatises on falconry is one written by Frederick II. of Germany (died in 1250), annotated by his son Manfred, and re- published with several other treatises by J. G. Schneider in 1788 (2 vols., Leipsic). Others are: the famous " Boke of St. Albans," by Lady Juliana Berners (fol., 1481), containing the " Treaty ses perteynyng to Hawkynge, Huntynge, and Fysshynge with an Angle;" Hieracosophion, vel de Re Accipitraria, a poem in three books, by De Thou (1584) ; La fau- connerie, by Charles d'Esperon (Paris, 1605); Latham on "Falconry" (1615-'18). Among the more recent works on the subject are " Fal- conry in the British Isles," by Salvin and Brod- rick (London, 1855), and "Falconry, its Claims, History, and Practice," by G. E. Freeman (London, 1859). FALERII (also called ^Equum Faliscum orFa- lisca), an ancient city of Italy, one of the 12 Etruscan cities, a few miles W. of the Tiber, and N". W. of Mount Soracte, near Civita Castellana. It was the capital and perhaps the only city of the Falisci, a people of Pelasgic origin, whose territory extended from the Tiber to Lake Vico, and who in the early ages of Rome were reck- oned among the most dangerous enemies of the republic. It is first mentioned in 437 B. C., when the Falisci lent their support to the Fi- denates, who had revolted against Rome. It was besieged and taken by Camillus about 394. The inhabitants again joined the enemies of Rome in 356 ; made a treaty in 352 ; revolted anew about 312, and were subjugated; rose in rebellion again in 293, and again in 241, when they were punished by the destruction of their town. They were removed to a less defensible site, where a colony was established named Junonia Faliscorum, from a famous temple of Juno. The latter site is now occupied only by a farm house and a ruined church, known as Sta. Maria di Falari, but a large portion of the ancient walls, with their gates and towers, still exists. FALERNUS AGER, a district in the northern part of ancient Campania, extending from the Massican hills to the bank of the Vulturnus, from which the ancient Romans obtained one of their choicest wines. The Falernian wine was red, very spirituous, and most powerful when from 15 to 20 years old. Its excellence is celebrated by the Roman poets, particularly by Horace. It was declining in quality in the time of Pliny, from want of care in the culti- vation, and the vineyards disappeared in the 6th century. FALIERI, Marino, doge of Venice, the most celebrated of the several doges of the same family, born ^about 1275, beheaded April 17, 1355. In 1346 he rendered eminent services to the republic as commander-in-chief at the siege of Zara in Dalmatia, which was taken after a splendid victory over Louis the Great of Hungary. Subsequently he was Venetian ambassador at Genoa and Rome. In 1354 he was summoned home from Rome, and elected doge although nearly an octogenarian. With- in a month the entire Venetian fleet of 61 vessels was captured by the Genoese, with a loss to the former of 4,000 men killed and nearly 6,000 prisoners. Hardly had the new doge succeeded, Jan. 5, 1355, in concluding a four months' truce with Genoa, when a con- test broke out in his own palace, which proved fatal to himself. A young nobleman of Venice, Michele Steno, enamored of one of the dogessa's maids of honor, on occasion of one of the balls given during carnival, took liberties with her which, although excusable under the excite- ment of the season, gave umbrage to the doge, who ordered Steno to leave the palace. The young man, exasperated by this treatment, avenged it by writing upon the chair of the doge the following words : Marino Falieri dal- la bella moglie, altri la gode ed egli la man- tiene ("Marino Falieri's beautiful wife is sup- ported by him, but enjoyed by others "). The doge's wrath knew no bounds, and as the senate and the councils refused to treat the affair as a question of state, and the criminal court sen- tenced Steno to only a brief term of imprison- ment and a year's exile, Falieri determined to wreak vengeance by exterminating the whole body of the nobility, who were hated by the populace as tyrants. The day fixed for the consummation of this design was April 15, 1355, but the conspiracy was discovered on the evening previous ; the doge was arrested, and after a full confession of his guilt, he was sen- tenced to death and beheaded. In the council hall of the palace, where the portraits of the doges of Venice are religiously preserved, a black drapery covers the spot intended for that of Falieri, bearing the inscription : Spazio di Marino Falieri, decapitate. The fate of the doge has been a favorite theme with poets. Byron made it the subject of a tragedy, giving in the notes a full account of Falieri's life.