Slaying of the Falerii Teacher is a classical fine art subject of Ancient Rome history. Military Commander Marcus Furius Camillus was at war with the Falisci tribe in South Etruria. With his army he approached the walls of a well-fortified city of Falerii. The city dwellers had enough food supplies and water, and sentries on the walls were watching every movement of the enemy troops. There was practically no hope to seize the walls by assault, therefore Camillus set up a camp nearby, fortified it and got ready for a siege. However, due to unexpected betrayal, the Falisci were defeated.

Every day, a school teacher whose name Plutarch failed to mention, would lead out children of rich Falerii citizens beyond the city walls for studies. The Romans did not prevent that, as they saw no threat in children. One day the teacher brought the children to Camillus’ camp and offered them as hostages: in exchange for children the citizens should open the gates for the enemy. Camillus got offended with such an offer. “I am going to win in a Roman way: with valor, siege and weapons”, said he. The enemies undressed the teacher, tied his arms behind his back, and handed out bamboo canes to the children. They told the children to flog the traitor and drive him back to Falerii; also, to tell everyone about what had happened.

The citizens were amazed with Camillus’ action. They opened the city gates for him, greeted him as a hero and sent ambassadors to Rome to conclude peace.

Stories about Roman valor and generosity were popular among classicists. German artist Christian Bernhard Rode often addressed historical subjects, both in fine arts and in graphic arts. Over his life Rode created about 300 engravings in etching. He was a self-taught artist, and his first works he used to etch in stages: applied a coat of acid-proof varnish, then carved the drawing, dipped into acid, washed off, and repeated that again and again until an adequate image appeared. Later Rode rejected that labor consuming method and used etched strokes for the main image only, while the background he created with a dry needle. He scratched strokes directly on metal, without etching with acid. The strokes appeared soft and dense, with a clear start and end.

Thanks to life annuity inherited from his father, Rode could afford to donate his paintings and prints, and was free to independently define subjects for his etchings, technique and format of the work. Between 1779 and 1784 he illustrated four parts of the schoolbook ‘General World History for Children’ by Johann Matthias Schröckh printed in Leipzig. The work by Rode became a reference standard of high-quality illustration for children for the next hundred years.