Samnites
Part of The Encyclopedia of Southern Italy.
Samnites: an ancient Italic people of south-central Italy. Their country, Samnium, was roughly equivalent to the modern regions of Abruzzo and Molise. Speaking a dialect of Oscan, they were a Sabellian people, probably an offshoot of the Sabines. The most important example of the Samnite tongue is the famous Tabula Agnonensis, a bronze tablet that carries an inscription engraved in the full Oscan alphabet. The Samnites were a loose confederation of agricultural tribes, lacking a centralized government. They were, nevertheless, capable of coordinated action and were able to effectively expanding their territory westward in the 4th century B.C. The Campani appealed for help to Rome, thus setting off an inevitable conflict between the two most powerful peoples in ancient Italy. The outcome of this conflict would decide not only the fate of Campania but the whole of Italy as well. The Samnites decision to expand had the long-term result in the Roman conquest of Italy and their subsequent conflict with the Carthaginians for Sicily. The conflict was divided into three principal episodes, the First, Second, and Third Samnite Wars (343-341 BC, 326-304 BC, and 298-290 BC). Although the Samnites continued to fight against Rome with Pyrrhus, Hannibal and later Marius in the Social War, they were crushed (82 B.C.) by Sulla before the gates of Rome; most of them were killed. Some survivors were sold into slavery, while most the rest were Romanized. Some Samnites, both free and slave, probably formed part of Spartacus’s army during the Third Servile War (73-71 BC).