Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/915

 SA3INIU5L the land of the Ilirpini was still in the liands of the Carthaginians, and became the scene of the opera- tions of Hannibal's lieutenant Hanno against Scm- pronius Gracchus. It was not till li. c. 209 that, Hannibal having been finally compelled to relinquish his hold upon Central Italy, the Hirpini (and appa- rently the other revolted Samnites also) renewed their submission to Kome. (Liv. xxvii. 15.) From this time we bear no more of the Samnites in history till the great outbreak of the Italian nations, commonly known as the Social War, b. c. 90, in which they once more took a prominent part. They were not indeed among the first to take up arms, but quickly followed the example of the Picentes and Marsi; and so important an element did they constitute of the confederation, that of the two con- suls chosen as the leaders of the allies, one was a Samnite, Caius Papius Mutilus. (Diod. xxxvii. 2. p. 539.) Besides Papius, several of the most dis- tinguished of the Italian generals, Warius Egnatius, Pontius Telesinus, and Trebatius, were also of Sam- nite origin: and after the fall of Corfinium, the seat of government and head-quarters of the allies was transferred to the Samnite town of Bovianum, and from thence subsequently to Aesernia. The Sam- nites indeed suffered severely in the' second cam- paign of the war, being attacked by Sulla, who defeated Papius Mutilus, took Aeculanum and Bo- vianum by assault, and reduced the Hirpini to sub- mission. The other Samnites, however, still held out, and an army which had thrown itself into Nola was able to prolong its resistance against all the efforts of Sulla. Hence at the end of the second year of the war (b. c. 89), when all the other nations of Italy had successively submitted and been admitted to the Roman franchise, the Samnites and Lucanians weie still unsubdued, and maintained a kind of guerilla warfare in their mountains, while the strong fortress of Nola enabled them still to maintain their footing in Campania. (Veil. Pat. ii. 17; Liv. Epit. Ixxx; Diod. xxxvii. 2. p. 540; Appian, B. C. i. 53.) In this state of things the civil war which broke out between Sulla and Marius altered the nature of the contest. The Samnites warmly espoused the Warian cause, from a natural feeling of enmity to- wards Sulla, from whose arms they had recently suffered so severely; and so important was the share they took in the struggle that ensued after the return of Sulla to Italy (b. c. 83), that they in some measure imparted to what was otherwise a mere civil war, the character of a national contest. A large number of them served in the army of the younger Marius, which was defeated by Sulla at Sacriportus (Appian, B.C. i. 87); and shortly after- wards an army, composed principally of Samnites and Lucanians, under the command of C. Pontius Telesinus, made a desperate attempt to relieve Praeneste by marching suddenly upon Rome. They were met by the army of Sulla at the very gates of the city, and the battle at the Colline gate (Nov. 1, B. c. 82), though it terminated in the complete victory of Sulla, was long remembered as one of the ii-atest dangers to which Rome had ever been ex- • <.d. (Veil! Pat. ii. 27; Appian, B. C. i. 93; Plut. >idl. 28; Lucan, ii. 135—138.) Pontius Telesinus fell in the field, and Sulla displayed his implacable hatred towards the Samnites by putting to the sword, without mercy, 8000 prisoners who had been taken in the battle. (Appian, ;. c; Strab. v. 249; Plut. Sull. 30.) He had already put to death all the Samnites wlioin he had taken prisoners at the SAMNIUM. 89; battle of Sacriportus, alleging that they were the eternal enemies of the Roman name; and he now fol- lowed up this declaration by a systematic devastation of their country, carried on with the express pur- pose of extirpating the whole nation. (Strab. /. c.) It can hardly be believed that he fully carried out this sanguinary resolution, but we learn from Strabo th.at more than a century afterwards the province was still in a state of the utmost desolation, — many of what had once been flourishing cities being reduced to the condition of mere villages, while others had altogether ceased to exist. (Strab. I. c.) Nor is it probable that the province ever really recovered from this state of depression. The rheto- rical expressions of Florus point to its being in his day stiU in a state of almost complete desolation. (Flor. i. 16. § 8.) Some attempts seem indeed to have been made under the Roman Empire to recruit its population with fresh colonists, especially by Nero, who founded colonies at Saepinum, Telesia, and Aesernia (^Lib. Colon, pp. 259, 260, &c.); but none of these attained to any great prosperity, and the whole region seems to have been very thinly populated and given up chiefly to pasturage. Bene- ventum alone retained its importance, and continued to be a flourishing city throughout the period of the Roman Empire. In the division of Italy under Au- gustus the land of the Hirpini was separated from the rest of Sanmium, and was placed in the Second Region with Apulia and Calabria, while the rest of the Samnites were included in the Fourth Region, together with the Sabines, Frentani, Peligni, &c. (Plin. iii. 11. s. 16, 12. s. 17.) At a later period this district was broken up, and Samnium with the land of the Frentani constituted a separate province. This is the arrangement which we tind in the No- titia, and it was probably introduced at an earlier period, as the Liber Coloniarum in one part gives under a separate head the " Civitates Regionis Sam- nii," including under that name the towns of the Peligni, as well as the Frentani. (^Notit. Dign. ii. pp. 9, 10; Lib. Colon, p. 259.) In another part of the same document, which is undoubtedly (lerived from different sources, the Samnite towns are classed under the head of Campania; but this union, if it ever really subsisted, could have been but of very brief duration. The " Provincia Samnii " is re- peatedly mentioned in inscriptions of the 4th cen- tury, and was governed by an officer styled " Prae- ses." (Mommsen, Die Lib. Col. p. 206.) The same appellation continued in use after the fall of the Roman Empire, and the name of Samnium as a separate province is found both in Cassiodorus and Paulus Diaconus. (Cassiod. Var. xi. 36; P. Diac. Hist. Lang. ii. 20.) The only towns in it that re- tained any consideration in the time of the last writer were Aufidena, Aesernia, and Beneventum. Tho last of these cities became under the Lombards tho capital of an independent and powerful duchy, which long survived the fall of the Lombard kingdom in the N. of Italy. But in the revolutions of the middle ages all trace of the name and ancient limits of Samnium was lost. At the present day the namo of Sannio is indeed given to a province of the kingdom of Naples; but this is merely an official designation, recently restored, to the district, which had previously been called the Conlado di Molise. This and the adjoining province of the Principalo Ultra comprise tiie greater part of the ancient Sam- nium; but the modern boundaries have no referencu to the ancient divisions, and a considerable portion