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

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

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their country, the Romans decided to <strong>for</strong>m an alliance with the Lucanians and sent<br />

fetials to the Samnites. The fetials met Samnite messengers on their way, who<br />

warned them that if they went be<strong>for</strong>e the conciliunz they would not leave unharmed.<br />

Livy also mentions a consilium. 66 Herennius Pontius, the aged father <strong>of</strong> Gaius<br />

Pontius, is carried to the consilium to advise the Samnite leaders about how they<br />

should deal with the Romans trapped in the Caudine Forks. Some scholars have<br />

argued that there was an institutional difference between the concilium and this<br />

consilium. 67 They argued that the concilium was a general assembly, while the<br />

consilium was a council with membership restricted to the military leaders. The<br />

consilium, however, appears only once in Livy. It follows the mention <strong>of</strong> a consilium<br />

<strong>of</strong> the Roman consuls, which suggests that Livy imagined the Samnites to have had a<br />

similar institution <strong>for</strong> their military leaders too. While it is likely that Samnite<br />

military leaders took advice, the existence <strong>of</strong> <strong>for</strong>mal consilium may be doubted. Livy<br />

also mentions a coetus Sarnnitium. 68 Spurius Postumius, maker <strong>of</strong> the Caudine Peace,<br />

convinced the Roman senate to surrender him and his fellow soldiers to the Samnites<br />

in order to annul their obligation to the treaty. Postumius was taken to the town <strong>of</strong><br />

Caudium, where he appeared be<strong>for</strong>e the coetus Samnitium and the tribunal <strong>of</strong><br />

Pontius. It could have been a meeting <strong>of</strong> the Samnite commanders rather than <strong>of</strong> a<br />

permanent council.<br />

Dionysius <strong>of</strong> Halicarnassus twice mentions Samnite councils. In books 17/18,<br />

the historian provides us with a partly different picture <strong>of</strong> the year 298 BC from that<br />

given by Livy. 69 After the Samnite devastation <strong>of</strong> their territory, the Lucanians<br />

66 Livy 9.3.9.<br />

67 Livy 9.3.11: filius aliique principes. Gaius Pontius appears as Imperator and dux as it will be<br />

mentioned under the 2.5. Social 61ite and Samnite leaders section. Firpo (1994) 465-6 and Senatore<br />

(2006) 37-48.<br />

68 Livy 9.10.8.<br />

69 Dion. Hal. 17/18 1-2.<br />

29

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