Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/269

Rh S A M S A M 249 years later the Samnites again appear in arms, though rather as auxiliaries than principals, and the name of Fourth Samnite War is given by some historians to the memorable contest which, commenced in 282 by the Lu- canians, assumed a wholly different aspect when Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, appeared in Italy as their auxiliary. But the power of the Samnites was evidently broken, and after the final defeat of Pyrrhus they appear to have offered little resistance. Their final submission was made in 272, and according to the usual Roman policy was secured by the establishment in their territory of the two important colonies of yEsernia and Beneventum. During the Second Punic War, Samnium became the frequent theatre of hostilities. The Hirpini were among the first of the Italian tribes to declare in favour of Hannibal after the battle of Cannae (216) ; but their example was not followed by the more powerful tribe of the Pentri, and when Hannibal was finally driven out of Central Italy the Samnites were speedily reduced to submission. From this time we hear no more of them till the great outbreak of the Italian nations, commonly known as the Social War (90), in which they bore a prominent part. Two of the most distinguished of the Italian leaders, C. Papius Mutilus and C. Pontius Telesinus, were of Samnite birth, and after the fall of Corfinium the Samnite town of Bovianum became the temporary capital of the confederates. Their submission had not indeed been completed when the civil war between Marias and Sulla gave a fresh character to the contest. The Samnites warmly espoused the cause of the former, and it was the defeat of their leader C. Pontius Telesinus at the Colline Gate of Rome that secured the victory of Sulla and sealed the fate of the Samnite nation (82). Not content with putting all his Samnite prisoners to the sword, the ruthless conqueror organized a systematic devas- tation of the whole country, with the avowed object of extirpating the very name of the Samnites, as the eternal enemies of Rome. To such an extent was this cruel purpose carried into effect that more than a hundred years afterwards, in the time of Strabo, the whole country is described as being in a state of utter desolation, flourishing towns being reduced to mere villages, while others had altogether ceased to exist. Nor does it appear probable that it ever recovered this severe blow ; and, though some attempt was made to revive its prosperity by the establishment of Roman colonies within its limits, none of these attained to any importance. The name of Samnium was indeed retained as that of a distinct province throughout the greater part of the Roman empire, and is still found in Cassiodorus. But under the Lombard rule the whole of this part of Italy was included in the duchy of Benevento, which continued to subsist as an independent state long after the fall of the Lombard kingdom in the north of Italy. During the revolutions of the Middle Ages all trace of the name is lost ; and, though it was revived in the last century as the official designation of a part of the region comprised within the ancient limits, pre- viously known as the Contado di Molise, this was a mere piece of official pedantry, and the name has again disappeared from the modern maps of Italy. Very few towns of importance existed at any period within the limits of Samnium, and many of those mentioned in history had disappeared in the continual wars with which the country was ravaged. The only names that are worthy of special notice are Aufidena, in the north, the capital of the Caraceni, the ruins of which still exist a few miles from Castel di Sangro ; Bovianum (still called Bojano), the ancient capital of the Pentri, in the heart of Monte Matese ; Ssepinum (Sepino), in the same neighbourhood ; yEsernia, in the valley of the Vulturnus, still known as Isernia ; Aquilonia (Lacedogna), in the land of the Hirpini, near the frontier of Apulia ; and Compsa (Conza), on the borders of Lucania, near the sources of the Aufidus. Beneventum alone has retained its ancient consideration as well as name, an advantage which it derives from its position on the Via Appia, commanding the entrance to the mountain district of the Hirpini. The language of the Samnites, like that of their parents the Sabines, must clearly have been closely related to that of the Oscans, and the two nationalities appear to have amalgamated so readily that before the historical period there was probably little difference in this respect. Several of the most important of the inscriptions that remain to us have been found within the limits of the Samnite territory, and may be considered as Sabello-Oscan in their character, rather than purely Oscan. See for these the articles ITALY and LATIN LANGUAGE. (E. H. B.) SAMOA. See NAVIGATORS' ISLANDS. SAMOS, one of the principal and most fertile of the islands in the yEgean Sea that closely adjoin the mainland of Asia Minor, from which it is separated by a strait of only about a mile in width. It is about 27 miles in length, by about 14 in its greatest breadth, and is occupied throughout the greater part of its extent by a range of mountains, of which the highest summit, near its western extremity, called Mount Kerkis, attains to the height of 4725 feet. This range is in fact a continuation of that of Mount Mycale on the mainland, of which the promontory of Trogilium, immediately opposite to the city of Samos, formed the extreme point. Various mythical legends were current to account for the original settlement of the city of Samos, and to connect its founders with the Greek heroic genealogies ; but the earliest record that has any claim to an historical character is that of the occupation of the island by a colony of Ionian settlers under a leader named Procles, at the time of the great Ionian emigration to Asia Minor (about 1050 B.C.). In the historical period Samos figures as a purely Ionic city, and was one of the most in- fluential members of the Ionic confederacy. In the five centuries that intervened from its first settlement to the reign of Polycrates, Samos had rapidly attained to a great height of power and prosperity, had founded colonies at Perinthus and other places on the Propontis, as well as at Nagidus and Celenderis in Cilicia, and possessed a powerful navy, including, according to Thucydides (i. 13), the first triremes that ever were constructed. It was a Samian named Colaeus also who was the first Greek that ventured to penetrate between the Pillars of Hercules into the ocean beyond, and brought back a vast amount of wealth from these previously unknown regions (Herod., iv. 152). Samos was doubtless protected by its insular position from conquest by the Persian general Harpagus ; nor did it follow the example of the two other great islands of Chios and Lesbos by voluntary submission to the Persian monarch. On the contrary, it not only preserved its independence for a period of more than twenty years longer, but it was precisely in this interval that it rose to the highest pitch of power and prosperity under the enlightened and able, though tyrannical, government of the despot POLYCRATES (q.v.). Under his government Samos became " the first of all cities Hellenic or barbaric," and was adorned with three of the greatest public works that had ever been executed by Greeks an aqueduct tunnelled through a mountain for a length of 7 stadia, a mole of more than 2 stadia in length for the protection of the harbour, and a temple (that of Hera) exceeding all others in size. How far these great works belong to the time of Polycrates cannot be determined with certainty ; but there is little doubt that they were enlarged and com- pleted, if not commenced, under his government. He was also the first to lay claim to the sovereignty of the yEgean Sea, or thalassocraty, which at that time there was none to dispute with him. After the death of Polycrates (522 B.C.) Samos fell under the power of his brother Syloson, who established himself in the sovereignty with the support of a Persian army, but this revolution was not accomplished without a massacre of the citizens, which must have given a heavy blow to the prosperity of the island. Henceforth it con- tinued to be tributary to Persia till the great battle of Mycale (480), which not only freed the Samians from the Persian yoke, but became the beginning of a fresh era of great prosperity, during which they, like the neighbouring Chians and Lesbians, were admitted as members of the Athenian confederacy, on free and equal terms, without payment of tribute. An abrupt termination was, however, put to this state of things. in 439, when, the Samians having given offence to the Athenians, their city was besieged and taken by Pericles, who compelled them to raze their fortifications, to give up their ships of war, to furnish hostages, and to pay the expenses of the war. From XXL 32