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

We must, however, ask whether the appearance of tribal divisions within the
Samnites was only due to the Romans acquiring better knowledge of the region. It
seems that after the Samnite Wars Roman sources took trouble to separate the
Hirpini, Caudini and Carracini from the Pentri `Samnites'. Separate identities were
certainly supported or maybe enforced by the Romans in order to prevent alliances
similar to those formed during the Samnite wars. I suggest therefore that the ethnic
communities of the Hirpini, Caudini, Pentri and the Carracini might have been
encouraged to form separate ethnic states after the Samnite Wars. The expression
`tribe' is not entirely satisfactory for its association with barbarian communities
without urban centres. In the next section, I focus on the territory of the Pentri which
provides us with the largest amount of archaeological and epigraphic evidence for a
study of its political institutions.
2.3. Ancient sites
2.3.1. Evidence and models
The importance of archaeology for research on Samnium in the post-third century
sense has long been recognized. Salmon's view that, because of the lack of large
cities as centres of administration, the Italic populations preferred a system based on
territorial units, is generally accepted. 134 This system today is called, with reference
to the Latin-speaking areas, the pagano-vicanic system; Within each territorial unit
(pages) features with diverse functions co-existed, such as oppida, castella and
134
See section 2.1. Introduction.
45