Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/911

 SAMNIUJI. Beneventum, ii little if at all inferior lo it in iiiaf;ni- tude and volume of waters. The Calor itself rises in the lofty group of mountains between S. Angelo dei Lombardi and EboU. This group, which is sometimes designated as Munte Irpino, and is the most elevated "in tliis part of the Apennines, sends down its waters to the N. in the Calor and its tribu- tary the Sabatus ; while on tiie E. it gives rise to the Aufidus, which flows into the Adriatic sea, after traversing more than two-thirds of the breadth of Italy ; and on the S. the Silarus flows by a much siiorter course into the Gulf of Salerno. From this point, which forms a kind of knot in the main chain of the Apennines, the mountains sweep round in a semicirclo to the NE. and N. till they reach the head waters of the Tamarus, and adjoin the mountains already described in the neighbourhood of Bojano and Cawjjobasso. In this part of its course the main chain sends down the streams of the UJita and the Miscano on the W. to swell the waters of the Calore, while on the E. it gives rise to the Cerbalus or Cervaro, a stream flowing into the Adriatic. 7. From the Monte Irpino towards the E. the whole of the upper valley of the Aufidus was included in Samnium, though the lower part of its course lay through Apulia. The exact limit cannot be fixed, — the cnnCnes of the Hirpini towards Apulia on the one .side, and Lucania on the other, being, like the boundaries of Samnium in general, almost wholly arbitrary, and not marked by any natural limit. It may be considered, indeed, that in general the mountain country belonged to Samnium, and the lower falls or hills to Apulia ; but it is evident that such a distinction is itself often arbitrary and un- certain. In like manner, the rugged mountain cliain which extends along the right bank of the Autidus appears to have been included in Samnium ; but the line of demarcation between this and Lucania cannot be determined with accuracy. On the other hand, the detached volcanic mass of MoNS Vultur, with the adjacent city of Venusia, was certainly not con- sidered to belong to Samnium. II. History. All ancient writers agree in representing the Samnites as a people of Sabine origin, and not the earliest occupants of the country they inhabited when they first appear in history, but as having migrated thither at a comparatively late period. (Varr. L. L. vii. 29; Appian, Sam/u'<., Fr. 4, 5; Strab. v. p. 250; Fest. s.v. Savmites, p. 326; A. Gell. si. 1.) This account of their origin is strongly confirmed by the evidence of their name; the Greek form of which, "Zavvlrai, evidently contains the same root as that of Sabini (5ay-nitae or 5«/'-nitae. and Sab-'mi or Saf-m) ; and there is reason to believe that they themselves used a name still more closely identical. For the Oscan form " Safinim," found on some of the denarii struck by the Italian allies during the Social War, cannot refer to the Sabines usually so called, as that people was long before incorporated with the Romans, and is, in all probability, the Oscan name of the Samnites. (Jlommsen, Unter Ilal. Dialekte, p. 29.3 ; Friedliiuder, Oskische Muuzen, p. 78.) The adjective form Sabellus was also used indifferently by the liomans as applied to the Sa- bines and the Samnites. [Sabini.] The Samnite emigration was, according to Strabo (v. p. 250), one of those sent forth in punsuance of a vow, or what was called a " ver sacrum." It was, as usualj under the special protection of Mars, and SAMNIUM. 801 was supposed to have been guided by a bull. (Strab. I. c.) It is probable from this statement that the emigrants could not have been numerous, and that they established themselves in Samnium rather as conquerors than settlers. The previously exi.sting population was apparently Oscan. Strabo tells ua that they established themselves in the land of th« Oscans (^. c.) ; and this explains the circumstance that throughout the Samnite territory the language spoken was Oscan. (Liv. x. 20.) But the Oscans themselves were undoubtedly a cognate tribe with the Sabines [Italia] ; and whatever may have been the circumstances of the conquest (concerning which we have no information), it seems certain that at an early period both branches of the popu- lation h;id completely coalesced into one people under the name of the Samnites. The period at which the first emigration of the Samnites took place is wholly unknown ; but it is probable that they had not been long in possession of their mountainous and inland abodes before they began to feel the necessity of extending their do- minion over the more fertile regions that suiTounded them. Their first movements for this purpose were probably those by which they occupied the hilly but fertile tract of the Frentani on the shores of the Adriatic, and the land of the Hirpini on the S. Both these nations are generally admitted to be of Samnite origin. The Frentani, indeed, were some- times reckoned to belong to the Samnite nation, though they appe.ar to have had no political union with them [Fkemtani] : the Hirpini, on the con- trary, were generally regarded as one of the compo- nent parts of the Samnite nation; but they appear to have been originally a separate colony, and the story told by Strabo and others of their deriving their name from the wolf that had been their leader, evi- dently points to their having been the result of a separate and subsequent migration. (Strab. v. p. 250; SeiT. ad Aen. xi. 785.) The period of this is, however, as uncertain as that of the first settle- ment of the other Samnites: it is not till they began to spread themselves still further both towards the S. and W., and press upon their neighbours in Lu- cania and Campania, that the light of history begins to dawn upon their movements. Even then their chronology is not clearly fixed; but the conquest and occupation of Campania may be placed from about B. c. 440 to B. c. 420, and was certainly completed by the last of these dates. [Campania.] That of Lucania must probably be placed somewhat later; but whatever wi^re the causes which were at this time urging the movements of the Sabellian tribes towards the S., they seem to have contimied steadily in operation; and within less than half a century (b. c. 410 — 360) the Samnites spread themselves through the whole of Lucania, and almost to the southern extremity of Italy. [Lu- cania.] The subsequent fortunes of these con- quering races, and their contests with the cities of Magna Graecia, do not belong to our present subject, for the Lucanians seem to have early broken off all political connection wilh their j)arcnt nation, the Samnites, just as the latter had done with their Sabine ancestors. This laxity in their political tics, and want of a common bond of union, seems to have been in great measure characteristic of the Sabellian races, and was one of the causes which undoubtedly paved the way for their final subjection under tho lioman yoke. But the Samnites seem to have re- tained po.sfcssicn, down to a much later period, oi"