Information AboutSamnites |
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Samnium ( Oscan '''Safinim''') was a region of the southern Apennines in Italy that was home to the '''Samnites''', a group of Sabellic tribes that controlled the area from about 600 BC to about 290 BC . Samnium was delimited by , today Montesarchio ) and the ''Hirpini'' ( Oscan for ''wolf''; capital Beneventum ), and later may have been joined by the ''Frentani'' (capital Larinum , today Larino ). The federal capital of the federal League the formed was Bovianum , except for a short period between Fourth and Third Century B.C., in which it was Aquilonia , destroyed by Romans in 293 B.C., whose location is today unknown. The earliest written record of the people is a treaty with the Romans from 354 BC , which set their border at the Liris River . Shortly thereafter the Samnite Wars broke out; they won an important battle against the Roman army in 321 BC , and their empire reached its peak in 316 BC after further gains from the Romans. In 290 BC the Romans finally broke the Samnites' power. In 82 BC the Roman dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla slaughtered many of them and forced the rest to disperse. So great was the destruction that it was recorded that "the towns of Samnium have become villages, and many have vanished altogether." |
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