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

fort of Roccagloriosa and some hill-forts in the territory of the Marsi functioned as
administrative centres, and the same may have been true at least of Curino and
Monte Vairano and perhaps of Capracotta and Monte Pallano. The lack of direct
evidence for a connection between the political system and the fortified centres in
Samnium prevents us from seeing the extent to which the situations of the three
territories, those of the Marsi, the Lucanians and the Samnites, were similiar to or
different from one another. Further evidence might change this situation.
I therefore support the view put forward by La Regina that the Pentri, that is
the Samnites in the post-Hannibalic War sense, constituted one touta. Although after
the fourth century BC scattered epigraphic evidence suggests that the term touta may
have been linked with an urban centre and its territory, this cannot be shown in
Samnium. I accept the view that rejects the idea that a touta was formed from a
number of pagi. If the touta of the Pentri had sub-units in the period of the second
century BC, they may have been the pre-urban and urban settlements, headed by a
meddfx, as in the case of Fagifulae, some within hill-forts, such as Monte Variano
and Curino. The emergence of urbanizing settlements, most of which became
municipia after the Social War may also support this view.
It must be, however, admitted that the strong emphasis on the touta as the
fundamental political and administrative unit makes this model static, and does not
allow for constitutional changes and developments which may have occurred as a
result of the defeat by Rome, the foundation of the colony at Aesernia and the
praefectura at Alfedena. Changes in the settlement pattern, the growth in the number
of rural settlements in the third century BC and the urbanization in the second
century BC may also have contributed to changes in the administrative system.
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