The Caudini were a
Samnite tribe that lived among the mountains ringing
Campania
Campania is an administrative Regions of Italy, region of Italy located in Southern Italy; most of it is in the south-western portion of the Italian Peninsula (with the Tyrrhenian Sea to its west), but it also includes the small Phlegraean Islan ...
and in the valleys of the
Isclero and
Volturnus rivers. Their capital was at
Caudium
Caudium (modern Montesarchio) was the main city of the ancient Caudini tribe in Samnium situated on the Appian Way between Benevento, Beneventum (modern Benevento) and Capua, in what is now southern Italy. It was 21 Roman miles from Capua, and 11 f ...
, but it seems certain that the appellation was not confined to the citizens of Caudium and its immediate territory.
Description
Livy
Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding i ...
speaks in more than one passage of the Caudini as a tribe or people, in the same terms as of the
Hirpini, and Niebuhr supposed them to have been one of the four tribes comprising the Samnite confederacy. As the most western of the Samnite groups, they were the Samnite tribe most affected by the neighbouring Greeks of Campania. Together with the Hirpini,
Pentri, and
Caraceni tribes, the Caudini people were described as rustic, thriving on an agrarian economy mainly as ''massari'' (peasant farmers) and ''pecorari'' (herdsmen and shepherds).
The extent of their territory is unclear. The ancient poet
Gratius Faliscus (''Cyneget.'' 509) called the great mountain mass of the
Taburnus
Taburno Camposauro is a massif located in the Apennine Mountains, Apennines, to the west of Benevento, in the Campania region of Southern Italy. Its highest peak is the Taburno, at 1,393 m. It is composed of two groups of calcareous mountain ...
the "Caudinus Taburnus", and this must have been at the center of their territory. It probably joined that of the Hirpini on the one side and of the Pentri on the other, while on the west it bordered immediately on Campania. But the name is not recognised by any of the geographers as a general appellation, and appears to have fallen into disuse: the Caudini of
Pliny (iii. 11. s. 16) are only the citizens of Caudium.
The cities of the Caudini included
Caudium
Caudium (modern Montesarchio) was the main city of the ancient Caudini tribe in Samnium situated on the Appian Way between Benevento, Beneventum (modern Benevento) and Capua, in what is now southern Italy. It was 21 Roman miles from Capua, and 11 f ...
(modern ''Montesarchio''),
Telesia (modern ''San Salvatore Telesino''),
Saticula (modern ''Sant'Agata de' Goti''),
Caiatia (modern ''Caiazzo''),
Trebula, and
Cubulteria.
Samnite Wars
The Caudini are nowhere mentioned as a separate tribe in our narratives of the Romans'
Samnite Wars, probably because they were assumed included whenever the Samnites were mentioned. The territory of the Caudini was the scene of much fighting. This could be attributed to the tribe's location, which was the most westerly among the Samnites, hence, the most exposed to attacks by the Romans.
Velleius Paterculus (ii. 1) says that it was with the Caudini that the
Romans made their treaty following their defeat at the
Battle of the Caudine Forks, where Livy uniformly talks of the Samnites. In 275 BC, the tribe was subjugated by
L. Cornelius Lentulus, whose family henceforth took the name ‘Caudinus’. Caudini later revolted in 216. It is suggested that the tribe was encouraged to turn against the Romans after the arrival of
Hannibal
Hannibal (; ; 247 – between 183 and 181 BC) was a Punic people, Carthaginian general and statesman who commanded the forces of Ancient Carthage, Carthage in their battle against the Roman Republic during the Second Punic War.
Hannibal's fat ...
's army near
Capua. During the
Second Punic War
The Second Punic War (218 to 201 BC) was the second of Punic Wars, three wars fought between Ancient Carthage, Carthage and Roman Republic, Rome, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean Basin, Mediterranean in the 3rd century BC. For ...
, the Roman historian
Livy
Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding i ...
reported Caudini's defection after the Roman defeat at
Cannae.
Sources
*
*
References
Samnite tribes
Socii
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