FENESTELLA, Roman historian and encyclopaedic writer, flourished in the reign of Tiberius. If the notice in Jerome be correct, he lived from 52 B.C. to A.D. 1 g (according to Pliny, N.H. xxxiii, 35 B.C.—A.D. 36). Taking Varro for his model, Fenestella represented the new style of historical writing which discussed curious incidents and customs of political and social life, and literary history. He was the author of an Annales, probably from the earliest times down to his own days. The fragments indicate the great variety of subjects discussed: the origin of the appeal to the people (provocatio) ; the use of elephants in the games; the wearing of gold rings; the introduction of the olive tree; the ma terial for making the toga ; the cultivation of the soil; details as to the lives of Cicero and Terence. The work was much used by Pliny the elder, Asconius Pedianus (the commentator on Cicero), Nonius, and the philologists.
Fragments in H. Peter, Historicorum Romanorum fragmenta (1883) ; see also monographs by L. Mercklin (1844) and J. Poeth (1849) • M. Schanz, Geschichte der rom. Litt. ed. 2 (IqoI) ; Teuffel, Hist. of Roman Literature, p. 259. A work published under the name of L. Fenestella (De magistratibus et sacerdotiis Romanorum, 151o) is really by A. D. Fiocchi, canon and papal secretary, and was subse quently published as by him (under the latinized form of his name, Floccus) , edited by Aegidius Witsius (1560.