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Samnium
Samnium () is a Latin exonym for a region of Southern Italy anciently inhabited by the Samnites. Their own endonyms were ''Safinim'' for the country (attested in one inscription and one coin legend) and ''Safineis'' for the The language of these endonyms and of the population was the Oscan language. However, not all the Samnites spoke Oscan, and not all the Oscan-speakers lived in Samnium. Ancient geographers were unable to relay a precise definition of Samnium's borders. Moreover, the areas it included vary depending on the time period considered. The main configurations are the borders it had during the ''floruit'' of the Oscan speakers, from about 600 BC to about 290 BC, when it was finally absorbed by the Roman Republic. The original territory of Samnium should not be confused with the later territory of the same name. Rome's first Emperor, Augustus, divided Italy into 11 regions. Although these entities only served administrative purposes, and were identified with the ...
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Samnites
The Samnites () were an ancient Italic peoples, Italic people who lived in Samnium, which is located in modern inland Abruzzo, Molise, and Campania in south-central Italy. An Oscan language, Oscan-speaking Osci, people, who originated as an offshoot of the Sabines, they formed a confederation consisting of four tribes: the Hirpini, Caudini, Caraceni (tribe), Caraceni, and Pentri. Ancient Greek historians considered the Umbri as the ancestors of the Samnites. Their migration was in a southward direction, according to the rite of ver sacrum. Although allied together against the Gauls in 354 BC, they later became enemies of the Roman Republic, Romans and fought them in a series of Samnite Wars, three wars. Despite an overwhelming victory at the Battle of the Caudine Forks (321 BC), the Samnites were subjugated in 290 BC. Although severely weakened, the Samnites would still side against the Romans, first in the Pyrrhic War and then with Hannibal in the Second Punic War. They also foug ...
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Lucania
Lucania was a historical region of Southern Italy, corresponding to the modern-day region of Basilicata. It was the land of the Lucani, an Oscan people. It extended from the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Gulf of Taranto. It bordered with Samnium and Campania in the north, Apulia in the east, and Bruttium in the south-west, and was at the tip of the peninsula which is now called Calabria. It comprised almost all the modern region of Basilicata, the southern part of the Province of Salerno (the Cilento area), the western part of Province of Taranto and a northern portion of the Province of Cosenza. The precise limits were the river Silarus in the north-west, which separated it from Campania, and the Gravina (river) which flows into the Gulf of Taranto in the east. The lower tract of the river Laus, which flows from a ridge of the Apennine Mountains to the Tyrrhenian Sea in an east-west direction, marked part of the border with Bruttium. Geography Almost the whole area is occupied ...
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Roman Italy
Roman Italy is the period of ancient Italian history going from the founding of Rome, founding and Roman expansion in Italy, rise of ancient Rome, Rome to the decline and fall of the Western Roman Empire; the Latin name of the Italian peninsula in this period was ''Italia'' (continued to be used in the Italian language)."Roman Italy"
''Encyclopædia Britannica.'' May 2025
According to Roman mythology, Italy was the ancestral home of Aeneas, being the homeland of the Troy, Trojans progenitor, Dardanus (son of Zeus), Dardanus; Aeneas, instructed by Jupiter (god), Jupiter, moved to Italy after the fall of Troy, and his descendants, Romulus and Remus, were the founding of Rome, founders of Rome. Aside from the legendary accounts, Rome was an Italic city-state that changed its form of government from Roman Kingdo ...
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Oscan Language
Oscan is an extinct Indo-European language of southern Italy. The language is in the Osco-Umbrian or Sabellic branch of the Italic languages. Oscan is therefore a close relative of Umbrian and South Picene. Oscan was spoken by a number of tribes, including the Samnites, the Lucani, the Aurunci (Ausones), and the Sidicini. The latter two tribes were often grouped under the name " Osci". The Oscan group is part of the Osco-Umbrian or Sabellic family, and includes the Oscan language and three variants ( Hernican, Marrucinian and Paelignian) known only from inscriptions left by the Hernici, Marrucini and Paeligni, minor tribes of eastern central Italy. Adapted from the Etruscan alphabet, the Central Oscan alphabet was used to write Oscan in Campania and surrounding territories from the 5th century BCE until at least the 1st century CE. Evidence Oscan is known from inscriptions dating as far back as the 5th century BCE. The most important O ...
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Sabines
The Sabines (, , , ;  ) were an Italic people who lived in the central Apennine Mountains (see Sabina) of the ancient Italian Peninsula, also inhabiting Latium north of the Anio before the founding of Rome. The Sabines divided into two populations just after the founding of Rome, which is described by Roman legend. The division, however it came about, is not legendary. The population closer to Rome transplanted itself to the new city and united with the preexisting citizenry, beginning a new heritage that descended from the Sabines but was also Latinized. The second population remained a mountain tribal state, coming finally to war against Rome for its independence along with all the other Italic tribes. Afterwards, it became assimilated into the Roman Republic. Etymology The Sabines derived directly from the ancient Umbrians and belonged to the same ethnic group as the Samnites and the Sabelli, as attested by the common ethnonyms of ''Safineis'' (in ancient Gr ...
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Samnite Soldiers From A Tomb Frieze In Nola 4th Century BCE
Samnite is an adjective meaning "having to do with ancient Samnium." Samnite may also refer to: * Samnites, the people of ancient Samnium * Samnite (gladiator type), a gladiator who fought with the equipment and in the manner of a Samnite soldier * Samnite Wars The First, Second, and Third Samnite Wars (343–341 BC, 326–304 BC, and 298–290 BC) were fought between the Roman Republic and the Samnites, who lived on a stretch of the Apennine Mountains south of Rome and north of the Lucanian tribe. ..., wars between the Roman Republic and the Samnites See also * Samnis (other) {{disambig ...
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Sabelli
Sabellians is a collective ethnonym An ethnonym () is a name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or endonyms (whose name is created and used ... for a group of Italic peoples or tribes inhabiting central and southern Italy at the time of the rise of Rome. The name was first applied by Barthold Georg Niebuhr, Niebuhr and encompassed the Sabines, Marsi, Marrucini and Vestini. Pliny the Elder, Pliny in one passage says the Samnites were also called ''Sabelli'', and this is confirmed by Strabo. The term is found also in Livy and other Latin writers, as an adjective form for Samnite, though never for the name of the nation; but it is frequently also used, especially by the poets, simply as an equivalent for the adjective Sabine. In the modern usage it is also a synonym for the whole, or only a part, of the different Osco-Umbrian languages, O ...
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