Samnites

The Samnites were an ancient Italic people who lived in Samnium in south-central Italy. They became
involved in several wars with the Roman Republic until the 1st century BC.

An Oscan-speaking people, the Samnites probably originated as an offshoot of the Sabines. The Samnites
formed a confederation, consisting of four tribes: the Hirpini, Caudini, Caraceni, and Pentri. They allied
with Rome against the Gauls in 354 BC, but later became enemies of the Romans and were soon
involved in a series of three wars (343–341 BC, 327–304 BC, and 298–290 BC) against the Romans.
Despite an overwhelming victory over the Romans at the Battle of the Caudine Forks (321 BC), the
Samnites were eventually subjugated. Although severely weakened, the Samnites later helped Pyrrhus
and some went over to Hannibal in their wars (280–275 BC and 218-201 BC) against Rome. They also
fought from 91 BC in the Social War and later in the civil war (82 BC) as allies of Gnaeus Papirius Carbo
against Lucius Cornelius Sulla, who defeated them and their leader Pontius Telesinus at the Battle of the
Colline Gate (82 BC).[1] They were eventually assimilated by the Romans, and ceased to exist as distinct
people.[2]

Contents
Etymology
History
List of tribes
Prominent Samnites
Gentes of Samnite origin
Leaders of the Samnites
Uprising against Sulla
Roman citizens
See also
Notes
References
Further reading
External links

Etymology
The population of Samnium were called Samnites by the Romans. Their own endonyms were Safinim for
the country (attested in one inscription and one coin legend) and Safineis for the people.[3]

Etymologically, the name Samnium is generally recognized to be a form of the name of the Sabines, who
were Umbrians.[4] From Safinim, Sabinus, Sabellus and Samnis, an Indo-European root can be extracted,
*sabh-, which becomes Sab- in Latino-Faliscan and Saf- in Osco-Umbrian: Sabini and *Safineis.[2] The
eponymous god of the Sabines, Sabus, seems to
support this view. The Greek terms, Saunitai and
Saunitis, remain outside the group. Nothing is known
of their origin.

At some point in prehistory, a population speaking a

common language extended over both Samnium and
Umbria. Salmon conjectures that it was common
Italic and puts forward a date of 600 BC, after which
the common language began to separate into dialects.
This date does not necessarily correspond to any
historical or archaeological evidence; developing a Samnite soldiers from a tomb frieze in Nola 4th
synthetic view of the ethnology of proto-historic century BC.
Italy is an incomplete and ongoing task.

Linguist Julius Pokorny carries the etymology somewhat further back. Conjecturing that the -a- was
altered from an -o- during some prehistoric residence in Illyria, he derives the names from an o-grade
extension *swo-bho- of an extended e-grade *swe-bho- of the possessive adjective, *s(e)we-, of the
reflexive pronoun, *se-, "oneself" (the source of English self). The result is a set of Indo-European tribal
names (if not the endonym of the Indo-Europeans): Germanic Suebi and Semnones, Suiones; Celtic
Senones; Slavic Serbs and Sorbs; Italic Sabelli, Sabini, etc., as well as a large number of kinship terms.[5]

History
The earliest written record of the people is a treaty with the
Romans from 354 BC, which set their border at the Liris River.
Shortly thereafter, the Samnite Wars broke out; they won an
important battle against the Roman army in 321 BC, and their
imperium reached its peak in 316 BC, after further gains from the
Romans. By 290 BC, the Romans were able to break the
Samnites' power after some hard-fought battles. The Samnites
were one of the Italian peoples that allied with King Pyrrhus of
Epirus during the Pyrrhic War. After Pyrrhus left for Sicily, the
Romans invaded Samnium and were crushed at the Battle of the
Cranita hills, but after the defeat of Pyrrhus, the Samnites could
not resist on their own and surrendered to Rome. Some of them
joined and aided Hannibal during the Second Punic War, but Map of ancient Samnium from The
most stayed loyal to Rome. The Samnites and several other Italic Historical Atlas by William R.
Shepherd, 1911.
people rebelled against Rome and started the Social War (91–88
BC), after Romans refused to grant them Roman Citizenship. The
war lasted almost three years, and resulted in a Roman victory.
However, Samnites and other Italic tribes were granted Roman citizenship, to avoid another war. The
Samnites supported the Marian party in the civil war against Lucius Cornelius Sulla, and by 82 BC, the
Roman dictator Sulla conducted an ethnic cleansing campaign against this most stubborn and persistent
of Rome's adversaries and forced the remnant to disperse. So great was the destruction brought upon
them that it was recorded that "some of their cities have now dwindled into villages, some indeed being
entirely deserted."[6] After this, the Samnites were quickly assimilated into the Roman society.[2]
List of tribes
Caraceni
Caudini
Frentani
Hirpini
Pentri

Prominent Samnites

Gentes of Samnite origin

Cassia (gens)
Decimia (gens)
Egnatia (gens)
Gavia (gens)
Gellia (gens)
Herennia (gens)
Obellia (gens)
Ofilia (gens)
Oppidia (gens)
Opsidia (gens)
Otacilia (gens)
Paccia (gens)
Pacidia (gens)
Papia (gens)
Papinia (gens)
Percennia (gens)
Petreia (gens)
Pontia (gens)
Scutaria (gens)
Vibia (gens)

Leaders of the Samnites

Gaius Pontius ca. 320s BC
Gellius Egnatius ca. 296 BC

Uprising against Sulla

Gaius Papius Mutilus 90-89 with:
Pontius Telesinus - Samnite commander to Papius

Roman citizens
 Cassius Longinus - assassin of Julius Caesar
Pontius Pilate - the 5th Prefect of the Roman province of Judaea from AD 26–36. He
ordered the crucifixion of Jesus
Saint Longinus - Roman soldier who pierced Jesus in his side with a lance.[7]

See also
Aeclanum
Compsa
Samnite Wars
List of ancient Italic peoples
Sabellians

Notes
1. "Samnite (people)" (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/520565/Samnite).
Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Retrieved 29 November
2012.
2. Edward Togo Salmon (1967). Samnium and the Samnites (https://books.google.com/book
s?id=boT6HtW5TCQC&pg=PA30). Cambridge University Press. p. 30. ISBN 978-0-521-
06185-8.
3. Salmon 1967, p. 28.
4. Salmon 1967, p. 29.
5. Pokorny 1959, pp. 882–884 under se.
6. Strabo, Geography, Book V, Section 4.11.
7. Longinus

References
Salmon, Edward Togo. Samnium and the Samnites. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University
Press, 1967.

Further reading
Forsythe, Gary. A Critical History of Early Rome: From Prehistory to the First Punic War.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005.
Jones, Howard. Samnium: Settlement and Cultural Change: the Proceedings of the Third E.
Togo Salmon Conference On Roman Studies. Providence, RI: Center for Old World
Archaeology and Art, 2004.
Paget, R. F. Central Italy: An Archaeological Guide; the Prehistoric, Villanovan, Etruscan,
Samnite, Italic, and Roman Remains, and the Ancient Road Systems. 1st U.S. ed. Park
Ridge, NJ: Noyes Press, 1973.
Salvucci, Claudio R. A Vocabulary of Oscan: Including the Oscan and Samnite Glosses.
Southampton, Pa.: Evolution Pub., 1999.
Stek, Tesse. Cult Places and Cultural Change In Republican Italy: A Contextual Approach to
Religious Aspects of Rural Society After the Roman Conquest. Amsterdam: Amsterdam
University Press, 2010.
External links
The Battles of Bovianum, 311 BC (https://www.academia.edu/31883433/Victory_by_Divine_
Intervention_The_Battles_of_Bovianum_311_BC) - article about a problematical campaign
of the Second Samnite War
The Samnite Pilum (https://www.academia.edu/31577568/The_Samnite_Pilum)
Warriors of the Samnite Wars (https://www.academia.edu/31883390/Warriors_of_the_Samn
ite_Wars)

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