Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/914

 894 SAMXimr. But the peace tlius concluded was of short dura- tion. Little more than five years elapsed between the close of the Second Samnite War and the com- mencement of the Third. It might well have been thought that, after a struggle of more than twenty years' duration, the resources of the Samnites, if not their spirit, would have been exhausted; but they seem to have been actively engaged, even before the actual outbreak of hostilities, in organising a fresh coalition against Rome. A new and formidable auxiliary had appeared in a large body of Gauls, which had recently crossed the Alps, and, uniting with their countrymen the Senones, threatened the Romans from the N. Rome was at this time en- gaged in war with the Etruscans and Umbrians, and the Etruscans hastened to secure the services of the Gauls. Meanwhile the Samnites, deeming the attention of the Romans sufficiently engaged else- where, attacked their neighbours the Lucanians, probably with the view of restoring the power in that country of the party favourable to the Samnite alliance. The opposite party, however, called in the Romans to their assistance, who declared war against the Samnites, and thus began the Third Samnite War, B.C. 298. (Liv. s. 11.) The contest had now assumed larger dimensions ; the Samnites concluded a league with the Etruscans, Umbrians, and Gauls, and for several successive cam- paigns the operations in Samniu.-n were subordinate to those in the valley of the Tiber. But the ter- ritory of Samniuin itself was at the same time ravaged by the Roman generals in so systematic a manner, that it is clear they had obtained a decided supe- riority in the field ; and though the Samnites on one occasion retaliated by laying waste the Campanian and Falernian plains, they were soon again driven back to their mountain fivstnesses. (Liv». x. 15, 17, iJO.) At length, in b. c. 295, the great battle of Sentinum, in which the united forces of the Gauls and Samnites were totally defeated by the Roman consul Q. Fabius, decided the fortune of the war. Gellins Egnatius, the Samnite general, who had been the main organiser of the confederacy, was slain, and the league itself virtually broken up. (Liv. x. 27 — 30.) Nevertheless the Samnites continued to carry on the war with unabated energy; and in B.C. 293 they raised a fresh army of 40,000 men, levied with solemn sacred rites, and arrayed in a peculiar garb. These circumstances sufficiently prove the import- ance which they attached to this campaign, yet its result was not more successful than those which had preceded it, and the Samnite armies were again defeated by the consuls L. Papirius Cursor and Sp. Carvilius in two successive battles near Aquilonia and Cominium. (Liv. s. 38 — 45.) The opera- tions of the subsequent campaigns are imperfectly known to us, from the loss of the books of Livy in which they were related: but the next year (b. c. 292) C. Pontius, the victor of the Caudine Forks, reappears, after a long interval, at the head of the Samnite armies; he defeated Q. Fabius, but was in his turn defeated in a far more decisive engagement, in which it is said that 20,000 Samnites were slain, and 4000 taken prisoners, including C. Pontius himself, who was led in triumph by Fabius, and then put to death. (Oros. iii. 22 ; Liv. Epit. xi.) It is probable that this battle gave the final blow to the Samnite power, yet their resistance was still pro- longed for two years more; and it was not till b. c. 290 that they consented to lay down their arms and sue for peace. Even in that year the consul SAMXIIJJI. 51'. Curius Dentatus could still earn the honour of a triumph, and the fame of having put an end to the Samnite wars after they had lasted for more than fifty years. (Liv. Epit. xi.; Eutrop. ii. 9.) The conclusion of the Third Samnite War is re- garded by some of the Roman historians as the close of the struggle between Rome and Samnium, and not without reason, for though the name of the Fourth Samnite War is given by modern writers to the war that broke out afresh in B. c. 282, the Samnites on that occasion certainly figure rather as auxiliaries than as principals. They, however, joined the league which was formed at the instigation of the Tarentines against Rome; and bore a part in all the subsequent operations of the war. They seem indeed to have at first looked with jealousy or suspicion upon the proceedings of Pyrrhus; and it was not till after the battle of Hcraclea that they sent their contingent to his support. (Plut. Pyrrh. 17.) But in the great battle at Asculum the fol- lowing year (b. c. 278) the Samnites bore an im- portant p.art, and seem to have sustained their ancient reputation for valour. (Dionys. xx. Fr. Uidot.) The departure of Pyrrhus for Sicily shortly after, and his final defeat by W. Curius at Beneventum after his return (b. c. 274), left the Samnites and their allies to bear the whole brunt of the war, and they were wholly unable to con- tend with the power of Rome. We know nothing in detail of the.se last campaigns : we learn only that in b. c. 272, just before the fall of Tarentum, the Samnites, as well as their allies the Lucanians and Bruttians, made their final and absolute sub- mission; and the consul Sp. Carvilius celebiated the last of the long series of triumphs over the Samnites. (Zonar. viii. 6 ; Liv. Epit.x'iv. ; Fast. Capit.) A fresh revolt indeed broke out in the N. of Samnium three years afterwards, among the petty tribe of the Cara- ceni, but was speedily suppressed, before it had at- tained any more formidable character. (Zonar. viii. 7; Dionys. xx. 9, Fr. Mai.) We have no account of the terms on which the Samnites were received to submission by the Romans, or of their condition as subjects of the republic. But there can be no doubt that the policy of the domi- nant people was to break up as much as jrossiblo their national organisation and all bonds of union between them. At the same time two colonies were established as fortresses to keep them in check : one at Beneventum, in the country of the Hirpini (b. c. 268), and the other at Aesernia, in the valley of the Vulturnus (b. c. 264). All these precautions, how- ever, did not sutfice to secure the fidelity of the Samnites during the Second Punic War. After the battle of Cannae (b. c. 216), the Hirpini were among the first to declare themselves in tijvour of Hannibal, and their example is said to have been followed by all the Samnites, except the Pentrians. (Liv. xxii. 61.) It is singular that this tribe, long the most powerful and warlike of all, should have thus held aloof; but the statement of Livy is con- firmed by the subsequent course of the war, during which the Pentrians never seem to have taken any part, while the laud of the Hirpini, and the southern portions of Samnium bordering on Lucania, were i'requently the scene of hostilities. But the Roman colonies Aesernia and Beneventum never fell into the hands of the Carthagini.ans; and the latter was through a great part of the war held by one of the Roman generals, as a post of the utmost military importance. In b. c. 214 and again in B.C. 212,