- chapter 14: The Faliscans and the Etruscans –
half of the fi fth century bc is expressed in the fourth century bc in world-class works
such as the Apollo of Scasato (Fig. 14.12) and the cycle of sculptures that adorned the
temple in the sanctuary built in the second half of the century in a prominent position
within the higher plateau (area of the Forum?). Simultaneously Narce was affected by
the fall of Veii that in 396 bc was overwhelmed by Rome. It follows that in that year,
according to Livy (5.24–27), the Roman army led by Furius Camillus conquers Capena
in successive stages, devastating the countryside and reaching the walls of Falerii,
which surrendered. There is no evidence to assert that Narce was struck by the Roman
advance of that year, but the social and economic crisis of the city has emerged from
the archaeological context known thus far (De Lucia Brolli and Baglione 1997). Once
again, the grave goods in the necropoleis of this center suggest a form of survival of
the communities located on the plateau of Monte Li Santi and Pizzo Piede albeit in
a smaller number of families. The few funerary offerings, for the most part in reused
tombs, denote a substantial economic decline. Again Livy (10.46) tells of a triumph
in 293 bc over the Faliscans celebrated by the consul Spurius Carvilius Maximus,
which surely brought about a harsher bending of the social structure of Narce that in
less than a century would lead to its permanent abandonment, with the exception of
the suburban sanctuary of Monte Li Santi-Le Rote. In 241 bc Falerii also permanently
surrendered after a brave resistance. The sources tell of total destruction and forcible
transfer of the population to a nearby lowland site where a settlement, Falerii Novi, was
built over a pre-existing one (a collection of sources is in Di Stefano Manzella 1990).
The Romanization of the territory, the watershed of which lies in the date of 241 bc,
is actually a process of longer duration that has its origins in the increasingly close
relations between some families of notables of Falerii and the Roman gentes (“clans”).
Probably these relations created a policy of occupation of the countryside with the
creation of large estates that preceded the formal founding of Falerii while at the same
Figure 14.12 Apollo from the Scasato temple site, Falerii.