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(mod. Falerone), an ancient town of Picenum, Italy, about so m. S.E. of Urbs Salvia. We know almost nothing of the place except from inscriptions, from which, and from the remains of its buildings, it appears to have been of some importance. It was probably founded as a colony by Augustus after his victory at Actium. A question arose in the time of Domitian between the inhabitants of Falerio and Firmum as to land which had been taken out of the territory of the latter (which was recolonized by the triumvirs), and, though not distributed to the new settlers, had not been given back again to the people of Firmum. The emperor, by a rescript, a copy of which in bronze was found at Falerio, decided in favour of the people of Falerio, that the occupiers of this land should remain in possession of it (Th. Mommsen in Corp. Inscr. Latin. ix., Berlin, 1883, No. 5, 420). Considerable remains of a theatre in concrete faced with brickwork, erected, according to an inscription, in 43 B.C., and 161 ft. in diameter, were excavated in 1838 and are still visible; and an amphitheatre, less well preserved, also exists, the arena of which measures about 180 by 150 ft. Between the two is a water reservoir (called Bagno della Regina) connected with remains of baths.

See G. de Minicis in Giornale Arcadico, lv. (1832), 160 seq.; Annali dell' Istituto (1839), 5 seq. (T. As.) Falguiere, Jean Alexandre Joseph (1831-1900), French sculptor and painter, was born at Toulouse. A pupil of the Fcole des Beaux Arts he won the Prix de Rome in 1859; he was awarded the medal of honour at the Salon in 1868 and was appointed officer of the Legion of Honour in 1878. His first bronze statue of importance was the "Victor of the Cock-Fight" (5864), and "Tarcisus the Christian Boy-Martyr" followed in 1867; both are now in the Luxembourg Museum. His more important monuments are those to Admiral Courbet (1890) at Abbeville and the famous "Joan of Arc." Among more ideal work are "Eve" (1880), "Diana" (1882 and 1891), "Woman and Peacock," and "The Poet," astride his Pegasus spreading wings for flight. His "Triumph of the Republic" (1881-1886), a vast quadriga for the Arc de Triomphe, Paris, is perhaps more amazingly full of life than others of his works, all of which reveal this quality of vitality in superlative degree. To these works should be added his monuments to "Cardinal Lavigerie" and "General de La Fayette" (the latter in Washington), and his statues of "Lamartine" (1876) and "St Vincent de Paul" (1879), as well as the "Balzac," which he executed for the Societe des gens de lettres on the rejection of that by Rodin; and the busts of "Carolus-Duran" and "Coquelin cadet" (1896).

Falguiere was a painter as well as a sculptor, but somewhat inferior in merit. He displays a fine sense of colour and tone, added to the qualities of life and vigour that he instils into his plastic work. His "Wrestlers" (1875) and "Fan and Dagger" (1882; a defiant Spanish woman) are in the Luxembourg, and other pictures of importance are "The Beheading of St John the Baptist" (1877), "The Sphinx" (1883), "Acis and Galatea" (1885), "Old Woman and Child" (1886) and "In the Bull Slaughter-House." He became a member of the Institute (Academie des Beaux-Arts) in 1882. He died in 1900.

See Leonce Benedite, Alexandre Falguiere, Librairie de l'art (Paris).