(now Santa Maria di Faleri), in Ancient Geography, an ancient and powerful city of Etruria, believed to have been of Pelasgic origin; but in historic times it appears as an Etruscan city, and probably belonged to the Etruscan Confederation. Falerii was at first de- cidedly hostile to the Roman name, and supported the Veii- entes in their war with that people, using their utmost ef- forts at the same time to rouse the other Etrurians to join them against the common foe. After the reduction of Veii the Faliscans saw themselves exposed to the full fury of the Roman arms; and after enduring a siege from Camillus, were obliged to surrender their capital into his hands. The interesting episode of the traitor schoolmaster and the ge- nerosity of the Roman commander need only be hinted at to be generally remembered. From this time Falerii con- tinued, sometimes at peace, sometimes at war, with Rome, till at the close of the first Punic war it rose in open rebe- lition; but after a short resistance it was taken and destroyed, and the inhabitants were forced to select a site for a new town in a less inaccessible position than the old city had occupied. In the middle ages, however, the inhabitants, invited by the impregnable position of the old site, returned to it and built the town now known as Civita Castellana. The ruins of the second or Roman Falerii are now occupied by the small hamlet of Sta Maria di Falleri.