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The Samnites (Oscan: Safineis) were an ancient Italic people who lived in Samnium, which is located in modern inland Abruzzo, Molise, and Campania in south-central Italy.
An Oscan-speaking people, who originated as an offshoot of the Sabines, they formed a confederation consisting of four tribes: the Hirpini, Caudini, Caraceni, and Pentri. Ancient Greek historians considered the Umbri as the ancestors of the Samnites.[1][2][3] Their migration was in a southward direction, according to the rite of ver sacrum.[4]
Although allied together against the Gauls in 354 BC, they later became enemies of the Romans and fought them in a series of three wars. Despite an overwhelming victory at the Battle of the Caudine Forks (321 BC), the Samnites were subjugated in 290 BC. Although severely weakened, the Samnites would still side against the Romans, first in the Pyrrhic War and then with Hannibal in the Second Punic War. They also fought in the Social War and later in Sulla's civil war as allies of the Roman consuls Papirius Carbo and Gaius Marius against Sulla, who defeated them and their leader Pontius Telesinus at the Battle of the Colline Gate (82 BC). Afterward, they were assimilated by the Romans and ceased to exist as a distinct people.
The Samnites had an economy focused upon livestock and agriculture. Samnite agriculture was highly advanced for its time, and they practiced transhumance. Aside from relying on agriculture, the Samnites exported goods such as ceramics, bronze, iron, olives, wool, pottery, and terracottas. Their trade networks extended across Campania, Latium, Apulia, and Magna Graecia.
Samnite society was stratified into cantons. Each city was a vicus. Many vici were grouped into a pagus, and many pagi were grouped into a touto. There were four Samnite touto, one for each of the Samnite tribes. Aside from this system of government, a few Samnite cities had political entities similar to a senate. It was rare, although possible, for the Samnites to unify under a coalition; normally the tribes and cities functioned independently from one another.
Samnite religion worshipped both spirits called numina and gods and goddesses. The Samnites honored their gods by sacrificing live animals and using votive offerings. Superstition was prominent in the Samnite religion. It was believed that magical chants could influence reality, that magical amulets could protect people, and that augurs could see the future. Samnite priests would manage religious festivals and they could bind people to oaths. Sanctuaries were a major part of the Samnite religion. These might have been used to benefit from trade networks, may have marked the border between territories, and may have been intertwined with government. Samnite sanctuaries may have also been used to reinforce group identity.
- ^ Strabo, Geography, book 4, 7 BCE, p. 465, Alexandria,
- ^ Dionysius of Halicarnassus. "Book II.49". Roman Antiquities.
But Zenodotus of Troezen, a...historian, relates that the Umbrians, a native race, first dwelt in the Reatine territory, as it is called, and that, being driven from there by the Pelasgians, they came into the country which they now inhabit and changing their name with their place of habitation, from Umbrians were called Sabines. But Porcius Cato says that the Sabine race received its name from Sabus, the son of Sancus, a divinity of that country, and that this Sancus was by some called Jupiter Fidius.
- ^ Dyer, Thomas Henry (1868). The History of the Kings of Rome. Bell and Daldy. ISBN 978-0-8046-1199-2.
- ^ Ancillotti, Augusto; Cerri, Romolo (1996). Le tavole di Gubbio e la civiltà degli Umbri: lo "scavo nelle parole" del testo iguvino mostra tutta la specificità della cultura umbra e fa emergere le tracce di una grande civiltà del passato, degna di stare alla pari di quella etrusca e di quella romana (in Italian). Jama.