Per una definizione storica dei Falisci, tra identità, cultura e territorio

This paper challenges the common notion of the Faliscans as an autono- mous and autochthonous ethnic group inside Etruria and emphasizes the Falis- can ethnicity as a ductile ideology linked with the geopolitical changes which occurred in the middle Tiber Valley between the 8th and the 3rd centuries BC. Within this framework the paper analyses the landscape history of the ager Faliscus between the 10th and the 3rd centuries BC to identify signifi- cant changes in the territorial organization such as aspects of the political identity of the Faliscans. The Faliscans appear as allied or dependent communities of the power- ful Etruscan city of Veii from the 8th century BC onwards, but substantial changes in Faliscan political unity could have occurred from the 6th century and particularly after the fall of Veii in 396 BC. The political identity of the Faliscans is newly negotiated after 241 BC, despite the drastic modifications occurring in the territory because of the military conquest by Rome. This paper also proposes to identify the area around the via Flaminia as the part of the territory directly controlled by Rome after the peace treaty with the Faliscans, and where the expropriation of lands known from the literary tradition can be identified thanks to the remains of land divisions found by recent archaeological surveys.