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

site was abandoned after the war. Other smaller sanctuaries, however, continued to
be frequented. Coins found between the pavement stones of the temples of Schiavi
d'Abruzzo date from 217 BC to AD 253.217 The sanctuary of Campochiaro was
destroyed by a fire during the Social War, but was fully restored later. 218
2.3.5. Conclusions
Most of the Samnite hill-forts were probably first constructed in the fourth century
BC and originally served mainly as refuges. In his accounts of the Samnite wars,
however, Livy seldom mentions sieges of hill-forts. The Samnites seemed to have
preferred to come out and fight in open battle, leaving the most vulnerable people in
the forts. The hill-forts were also a means of maintaining control over strategically
important passes or territories. The polygonal walls were also meant to impress and
symbolize territorial control. Most of the hill-forts show some sign of habitation but
some also seem to have included public buildings and private housing. Hill-forts
could have acted as regional centres, as has been suggested in the case of Curino and
Monte Vairano, and perhaps Capracotta and Monte Pallano. Similar use of hill-forts
as centres of administration is indicated by the excavations at Roccagloriosa and the
hill-forts of the Marsi.
In the absence of large urban centres, the settlement pattern was based mainly
on villages and scattered farmsteads, which increased in number in areas suitable for
agriculture, especially in the third and second centuries BC. Under Roman influence,
216
For the private houses of Rome see: Matini (1971). For those in Campania: the most elaborate
example is that of Ercolaneo, Maiuri (1958) 206; Santa Maria Capua Vetere, Via Riccardi: Notizie
degli Scavi (1956) 65.
217
Lapenna (2001) 46.
65