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

esurrected by the Pentri in second century BC and again in the Social War (see
sections 2.2.4 and 2.2.5).
2.2.2. The Samnite Wars
The highland Samnites first appear in the Roman historical record in 354 BC when
they are said to have made an alliance with Rome. 60 This was followed by a long
period of hostilities with Rome, traditionally known as the Samnite Wars. The
histories of these wars, although written from the perspectives of Greeks and
Romans, provide us with a substantial body of topographical data and military
events, generally thought to be historically accurate. The seventh to tenth books of
Livy offer the most detailed and coherent description of these wars. The histories of
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Diodorus Siculus and Appian often omit basic elements
needed for an understanding of the flow of the events. Ancient sources locate the
territories of the highland Samnites roughly between the lands of the Campani,
Sidicini, Aurunci and Volsci to the west, and those of the Frentani to the east. To the
north lay the territories of the Marsi and Paeligni, and to the south those of the
Dauni, Apuli and Lucani.
Ancient sources suggest the existence of an ethnically based military alliance
among the Samnite populations during the Samnite wars: the triumphal Fasti always
mention triumphs over the Samnites and not over one or another people or tribe. 61
Furthermore, three silver oboloi of unknown provenance show the legend
SAVNITAN, the Greek name for the Samnites. On the obverse of the coins, a tip of a
60 Livy 7.19.4 dated to 354 BC, Diod. 16.45.8 to 350 BC.
61 Degrassi (1947) 68-75.
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