Submitted for award of PhD September 2006. - King's College London

2.1. Introduction
Chapter 2. Highland Samnites
This chapter aims to reconstruct the political structures of the highland Samnites
between the early fourth and first centuries BC by critical examination of the
dominant models of Salmon and La Regina. I examine the literary and epigraphic
evidence for the existence of a tribal state or states in Samnium, and also the recent
archaeological evidence for the hill-forts, the settlement pattern and sanctuaries in
the central Apennines. I refer to the inhabitants of this region as highland Samnites to
distinguish them from the ethnic Samnites living in Campania and other areas of
Southern Italy.
The models of Salmon and La Regina for the political organization of the
Samnites are accepted by most scholars. Salmon suggested that the Samnites formed
a long-lived, permanent association, the Samnite League, for the purpose of waging
wars against outsiders and for other common objectives. 47 Salmon said that it is not
known when the so-called League was formed, but it first appears in Livy's account
of a treaty that the Samnites made with the Romans in 354 BC. The League was
dissolved at the end of the Samnite wars. For Salmon, the basic units of this League
were the Samnite tribal states (see map I). Salmon admitted that ancient sources
mention the member tribes of the League only sporadically, fail to localize them and
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