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

7.1. Problems and aims of the thesis
Chapter 7. Conclusions
The thesis studied the Samnite political institutions in two geographical regions, the
central Apennines and Campania, between the fifth and first centuries BC on the basis of
literary, archaeological, epigraphic and numismatic evidence. The thesis focused on the
supposed existence of a long-lived Samnite league with the participation of
four Samnite
tribes in the central Apennines and the existence of confederations under the leadership
of Capua, Nola and Nuceria in Campania.
7.2. Institutions
The study of the touta, a supposed political unit, is fundamental for the understanding of
the Samnite political institutions. The touta in the fifth century BC was probably the
equivalent of the nomen, a self-conscious ethnic group with a common name, language
and sentiment, similarly to the nomen Latinum, nomen Etruscum and nomen Hernicum,
as the inscriptions from Penna Sant'Andrea imply. Later references to the Marrucini,
Umbri and the city of Messina in Sicily suggest that the word touta was used to denote
an urban entity with its citadel (arx). The study of the touta in Samnium and Campania
is, however, hindered by the lack of direct references, since we have evidence for the
touta in these two regions only through the qualifying adjective of the meddix tuticus
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