Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/916

 890 SAMNIUM. of the Samnite territory is included in the Ten'a di Lavoro, while a corner in the NW. is assigned to the Abvuzzi. Of the national character of the Samnites we learn little more than that they were extremely brave and warlike, and had inherited to a great de- gree the frugal and simple hahits of their ancestors the Sabines. We find also indications that they re- tained the strong religious or superstitious feelings (if the Sabines, of which a striking instance is given by Livy in the rites and ceremonies with which they consecrated the troops that they levied in B. c. 293. (Liv. X. 38.) But they had almost ceased to exist as a nation in the days of the Latin poets and writers that are preserved to us; and hence we cannot wonder that their name is seldom alluded to- They are said to have dwelt for the most part, like the Sabines, in open villages; but it is evident, from the accounts of their earliest wars with the Romans, that they possessed towns, and some of them, at least, strongly fortified. This is confirmed by the remains of walls of a very ancient style of construc- tion, which are still preserved at Aesernia and Bo- vianum, and still more remarkably at Aufidena. (Ahcken, MittelltaUen, pp. 142, 148.) But from the very nature of their country the Samnites must always have been, to a great extent, a mde and pastoral peo(jle, and had probably received only a taint tinge of civilisation, through their intercourse with the Carapanians and Apulians. III. Topography. The rivers of the Samnite territory have been already noticed in connection with the mountain chains and groups in which they take their rise. From the purely inland character of the region, none of these rivers, with the exception of the Calor and its tributaries, belong wholly to Samnium, but tra- verse the territories of other nations before they reach the sea. Tiius the Sagrus and Trinius, after quitting the mountains of Sanmium, flow throu2:h the land of the Frentani to the Adriatic; the Ti- fernus separates the territory of that people from Apulia, while the Frento and the Aufidus traver.se the plains of Apulia. On the other side of the central chain the Vulturnus, with its affluent the Calor, and the tributaries of the latter, the Sabatus and Tamarus, carry down the whole of the waters of the Apennines of Samnium, which flow to the Tyr- rhenian sea. The topography of Samnium is the most obscure and confused of any part of Italy. The reason of this is obvious. From the continued wars which had devastated the country; and the state of deso- lation to which it was reduced in the time of the geographers, only a few towns had survived, at least in such a state as to be deemed worthy of no- tice by them; and many of the names mentioned by Livy and other authors during the early wars of the Romans with the Samnites never reapj)ear at a later period. It is indeed probable that some of these were scarcely towns in the stricter sense of the term, but merely fortified villages or strongholds, in which the inhabitants collected their cattle and property in time of war. Those which are mentioned by the geographers as still existing under the Roman Em- pire, or the site of which is clearly indicated, may be briefly enumerated. Ai'fidena, in the upper valley of the Sagrus, is the only ton-n that can be assigned with any certainty to the Caraceni. In the upper valley of the Vulturuus was Aeseknia, the terri- SAMNIUM. tory of which bordered on that of Venafrum in Campania. At the northern foot of the Monte Matese was Bovianum ; and in the mountain tract between it and the Frentani was Tkeventuji or Tekeventiim (Trivento). SE. of Bovianum lay Saepinum, the ruins of which are still vibible near Sepino ; and at the southern foot of the Monte Matese, in the valley of the Calor, was Tei.esia. Allifae lay to the NW. of this, in the valley of the Vulturnus, and at the foot of the Matese in that direction. In the country of the Hirpini were Be- nea'entum, the capital of the whole district; Aecu- lanum, near Mirabella, about 1 .5 miles to the SW. ; Equus Tuticus, near the frontiers of Apulia; Aquilonia, at Lacedofjiia, on the same frontier; Abellinum, near the frontiers of Campania; and CoMPSA, near the sources of the Aufidus, bordering on Lucania, so th.at it is assigned by Ptolemy to that country. On the borders of Campania, between Beneventum and the plains, were Caudium, appa- rently once the capital of the Caudine tribe; and Saticula, the precise site of which has not been determined, but which must have been situated in the neiglibourhood of ]Iount Tifata. The Sam- nite Calatia, on the other hand, was situated N. of the Vulturnus, at Cajazzo ; and CoMPULTEiiiA, also a Samnite city, was in the .same neighbourhood. The group of hills on the right bank of the Vul- turnus, extending from that river towards the Via Latina, must therefore have been included in Siim- nium; but Teanum and Cales, situated o/i that highroad, were certainly both of them Campinian towns. It is probable, however, that in early times the limits between Campania and S.amnium were subject to many fluctuations; and Strabo seems to regard them as imperfectly fixed even in his day. (Strab. V. p. 249.) Of the minor towns of Samnium, or those which are mentioned only in history, may be noticed : DuROXi. (Liv. X. 39), identified, but on very slight grounds, with Civita VeccJiia, N. ni Bojano ; Mvr- GANTIA (Liv. X. 17), supposed to be Baselice, on the frontiers of Apulia, near the sources of the Frento (Foi-tore); Romulea, on the frontiers of Apulia, between Aeculanum and Aquilonia; Tri- vicuM, in the same neighbourhood, still called Trevico ; Plistia, near Sta Agata dei Goti, on tiie frontiers of Camp.ania; Callifae and Rufkulm, bnth of them mentioned by Livy (viii. 25) in con- nection with Allifae, and probably situated in the neighbourhood of that city; Co.minium (Liv. x. 39, 44), of very uncertain site; Aquilonia (Liv. I. c), also of uncertain site, but which must be distin- guished from the city of the same name in the country of the Hirpini ; Maronea, noticed by Livy in the Second Punic War, wlien it was recovered by Marcellus, in B.C. 210 (Liv. xxvii. 1); Mei.ak, Fulfulae, and Orbitaniuni, all of which are noticed on only one occasion (Liv. xxiv. 20), and the sites of which are wjiolly undetermined.* To these must be added Cluvia, Cimetra, Volana, Palumbinum, and Herculaneum, all of them mentioned as towns taken from the Samnites (Liv. ix. 31, x. 1.5, 4o). but of which nothing more is known; Imbriniuni (Liv. viii. 30), wiiere Fabius gained a victory over the Samnites in b. c. 325 ; Cinna, which is repre- these and other similar cases the modern sites as- signed by Italian or German topographers, where these rest on no other foundation tliiui mere conjVctui-e.
 * It has been thought unnecessary to repeat in