FAESULAE (mod. Fiesole, q.v.), an ancient city of Etruria, on the height 3 m. to the N.E. of Florentia, 970 ft. above sea-level. Remains of its walls are preserved on all sides, especially on the N.E., in one place to a height of 12 to 14 courses. The blocks are often not quite rectangular, and the courses sometimes change; but the general tendency is horizontal and the walls are not of remote antiquity, the irregularities in them being rather due to the hardness of the material employed, the rock of the hill itself. The courses vary in height from 1 to 3 ft., and some blocks are as long as 12½ ft. In this portion of the wall are two drains, below one of which is a phallus. The site of an ancient gate, and the road below it, can be traced; a little farther E. was an archway, conjectured by Dennis to be a gate of the Roman period, destroyed in 1848. The whole circuit of the walls extended for about 1-2/3 m. The Franciscan monastery (1130 ft.) occupies the site of the acropolis, once encircled by a triple wall, of which no traces are now visible. Here was also the Capitolium of Roman times, as an inscription found here in 1879 records (Corpus Inscr. Lat. xi., Berlin, 1888, No. 1545). The Roman theatre, below the cathedral to the N.E., has 19 tiers of stone seats and is 37 yds. in diameter. Above it is an embanking wall of irregular masonry, and below it some remains of Roman baths, including five parallel vaults of concrete. Just outside the town on the E. a reservoir, roofed by the convergence of its sides, which were of large regular blocks, was discovered in 1832, but filled in again. Over 1000 silver denarii, all coined before 63 B.C., were found at Faesulae in 1829. A small museum contains the objects found in the excavations of the theatre.
Though Faesulae was an Etruscan city, we have no record of it in history until 215 B.C., when the Gauls passed near it in their march on Rome. Twelve years later Hannibal seems to have taken this route in his march south after the victory of the Trebia. It appears to have suffered at the hands of Rome in the Social War, and Sulla expelled some of the inhabitants from their lands to make room for his veterans, but some of the latter were soon driven out in their turn by the former occupiers. Both the veterans, who soon wasted what they had acquired, and the dispossessed cultivators joined the partisans of Catiline, and Manlius, one of his supporters, made his headquarters at Faesulae. Under the empire we hear practically nothing of it; in A.D. 405 Radagaisus was crushed in the neighbouring hills, and Belisarius besieged and took it in A.D. 539.
See L.A. Milani, Rendiconti dei Lincei, ser. vi. vol. ix. (1900), 289 seq., on the discovery of an archaic altar of the Locus sacer of Florence, belonging to Ancharia (Angerona), the goddess of Fiesole.
(T. As.)
FAFNIR, in Scandinavian mythology, the son of the giant Hreidmar. He was the guardian of the hoard of the Nibelungs and was killed by Sigurd.
FAGGING (from “fag,” meaning “weary”; of uncertain etymology), in English public schools, a system under which, generally with the full approval of the authorities, a junior boy performs certain duties for a senior. In detail this custom varies slightly in the different schools, but its purpose—the maintenance of discipline among the boys themselves—is the same. Dr Arnold of Rugby defined fagging as “the power given by the supreme authorities of the school to the Sixth Form, to be exercised by them over the lower boys, for the sake of securing a regular government among the boys themselves, and avoiding the evils of anarchy; in other words, of the lawless tyranny of brute force.” Fagging was a fully established system at Eton and Winchester in the 16th century, and is probably a good deal older. That the advantages of thus granting the boys a kind of autonomy have stood the test of time is obvious from the fact that in almost all the great public schools founded during the 19th century, fagging has been deliberately adopted by the authorities. The right to fag carries with it certain well-defined duties. The fag-master is the protector of his fags, and responsible for their happiness and good conduct. In cases of bullying or injustice their appeal is to him, not to the form or house master, and, except in the gravest cases, all such cases are dealt with by the fag-master on his own responsibility and without report to the master. Until recent years a fag’s duties included such humble tasks as blacking boots, brushing clothes, and cooking breakfasts, and there was no limit as to hours; almost all the fag’s spare time being so monopolized. This is now changed. Fagging is now restricted to such light tasks as running errands, bringing tea to the “master’s” study, and fagging at cricket or football. At Eton there is no cricket fagging, and at most schools it is made lighter by all the fags taking their turn in regular order for one hour, so that each boy has to “fag” but once in so many weeks. At Rugby there is “study-fagging”—two fags being assigned to each Sixth Form boy and made responsible for the sweeping out and tidying up of his study alternately each week,—and “night-fagging”—running errands for the Sixth between 8.30 and 9.30 every evening,—and each boy can choose whether he will be a study-fag or night-fag. The right to fag is usually restricted to the Sixth Form, but at Eton the privilege is also granted the Fifth, and at Marlborough and elsewhere the Eleven have a right to fag at cricket, whether in the Sixth or not.