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

that the Romans had rebuilt the destroyed Fregellae and planted a Latin colony on
Samnite land. 101
This passage has been interpreted by Salmon as a clear reference to
the Samnite league. 102 The expression appears only once in Livy in reference to the
Samnites and it is unclear what he meant by it, as this word too has a wide variety of
meanings ranging from city-state, union of citizens, commonwealth or tribe.
In conclusion, Livy's accounts of the Samnite Wars, the triumphal Fasti and
the oboloi bearing the legend SAVNITAN suggest the existence of an ethnically
based military alliance. The scattered references to Samnite councils, concilium and
concilia in Livy suggest the existence of one or perhaps more common deliberative
body that acted in military matters. It received international envoys and could declare
war. It could investigate the military actions of magistrates and give orders or advice
to military leaders and other officials. The xotvi ovvobo; in the excerpts of
Dionysius of Halicarnassus receives international envoys and votes to declare wars.
Its name and the circumstances described suggest that it was the general assembly. It
is plausible, therefore, that both authors are speaking about the same council.
Dionysius gives the impression that the general assembly was formed of the
representatives of cities. His phrase xotvý 'rE xai xaTa rröAEis suggests a federal
organization of the Samnite troops, in which the local units were the cities. The
leaders occasionally mentioned in Livy appear to have been the generals of the
troops of an ethnically based league rather than local political leaders. I would
conclude therefore that a Samnite military alliance, what the Greeks call ovµµaxia,
existed among the Samnites.
10° Dion. Hal. 5.52.2,5.54.5,5.61.1-5 and 5.76.2.
'o' Livy 8.23.6.
102 Salmon (1967) 95.
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