Samnite Wars in the context of Roman-Volscian wars

The Roman expansion in Italy covers a series of conflicts in which Rome grew from being a small Italian city-state to be the ruler of the Italian region. Roman tradition attributes to the Roman kings the first war against the Sabines and the first conquests around the Alban Hills and down to the coast of Latium. The birth of the Roman Republic after the overthrow of the Etruscan monarch of Rome in 509 BC began a series of major wars between the Romans and the Etruscans. In 390 BC, Gauls from the north of Italy sacked Rome. In the second half of the 4th century BC Rome clashed repeatedly with the Samnites, a powerful tribal coalition of the Apennine region.

By the end of these wars, Rome had become the most powerful state in central Italy and began to expand to the north and to the south. The last threat to Roman hegemony came during the Pyrrhic War (280–275 BC) when Tarentum enlisted the aid of the Greek king Pyrrhus of Epirus to campaign in the North of Italy. Resistance in Etruria was finally crushed in 265–264 BC, the same year the First Punic War began and brought Roman forces outside of the peninsula for the first time. Starting from the First Punic War (264–241 BC) the territories subject to Roman rule also included Sicily (241 BC), Sardinia and Corsica (238 BC), islands transformed into provinces.

The Appian Way (Latin and Italian: Via Appia) is one of the earliest and strategically most important Roman roads of the ancient republic. It connected Rome to Brindisi, in southeast Italy. Its importance is indicated by its common name, recorded by Statius, of Appia longarum... regina viarum ('the Appian Way, the queen of the long roads'). The road is named after Appius Claudius Caecus, the Roman censor who, during the Samnite Wars, began and completed the first section as a military road to the south in 312 BC.

In July 2024, the Appian Way entered the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The gens Gegania was an old patrician family at ancient Rome, which was prominent from the earliest period of the Republic to the middle of the fourth century BC. The first of this gens to obtain the consulship was Titus Geganius Macerinus in 492 BC. The gens fell into obscurity even before the Samnite Wars, and is not mentioned again by Roman historians until the final century of the Republic.

The Caraceni or Caricini or Carricini were a tribe of the Italic Samnites. According to Salmon, their name comes from the Celtic carreg- and car- <Rock>. According to Ptolemy, they inhabited the most northern part of Samnium, bordering on the Peligni and the Frentani; but more especially the upper valley of the Sagrus (modern Sangro). The only city that he assigns to them is Aufidena. Zonaras describes them as possessing a town or stronghold, which was taken by the Roman consuls Q. Gallus and C. Fabius with difficulty. Aufidena has been identified with the modern Castel di Sangro, which seems, from the inscriptions and other remains discovered there, to have been an ancient town.

Their territory was delimited to the north and east from that of the Frentani, to the south from that of the Pentri, and to the west from that of the Peligni. The tribe divided itself in two groups: the "Car[r]icini supernates", which occupied the northern part of their eastern region centered on the city of Juvanum (whose remains are visible in the territory between the communes of Torricella Peligna and Montenerodomo); and the "Car[r]icini infernates" in the southern part, whose main center was Cluviae (whose ruins have been identified with those at Piano Laroma, a frazione of the commune of Casoli). This small community comprised part of the Samnite Confederation, the great antagonist of the Roman Republic, against which it participated in the Samnite Wars and the Social War. The territory of the Caraceni probably came to be occupied by the Romans in the course of the Second Samnite War (c. 310 BC), and the people were gradually assimilated into the Roman state.

The Pentri were a tribe of the Samnites, and apparently one of the most important of the subdivisions of that nation. According to Salmon, their name shares the same Indo-European root found in the Celtic pen- <peak>. Their capital city was Bovianum Undecumanorum (Livy ix. 31), modern Bojano, in the very heart of the Samnite territory, and it is therefore probable that they occupied the whole of that rugged and mountainous district which extends from the frontiers of Latium, in the valley of the Liris (modern Liri), to those of the Frentani, towards the Adriatic Sea. But it is impossible to determine their exact limits, or to separate their history from that of the remaining Samnites. It is probable, indeed, that, throughout the long wars of the Romans with the Samnites, the Pentri were the leading tribe of the latter people, and always took part in the war, whether specified or not. The only occasion when we hear of their separating themselves from the rest of their countrymen, is during the Second Punic War, when we are told that all the other Samnites, except the Pentri, declared in favour of Hannibal after the battle of Cannae, 216 BC. (Liv. xxii. 61.) This is the last occasion on which we find their name in history; all trace of the distinction between them and the other Samnites seems to have been subsequently lost, and their name is not even mentioned by Strabo or Pliny.

The Roman army of the mid-Republic, also called the manipular Roman army or the Polybian army, refers to the armed forces deployed by the mid-Roman Republic, from the end of the Samnite Wars (290 BC) to the end of the Social War (88 BC). The first phase of this army, in its manipular structure (290–c. 130 BC), is described in detail in the Histories of the ancient Greek historian Polybius, writing before 146 BC.

The central feature of the mid-Republican army was the manipular organisation of its battle line. Instead of a single, large mass (the phalanx) as in the Early Roman army, the Romans now drew up in three lines (triplex acies) consisting of small units (maniples) of 120 men, arrayed in chessboard fashion, giving much greater tactical strength and flexibility. This structure was probably introduced in c. 300 BC during the Samnite Wars. Also probably dating from this period was the regular accompaniment of each legion by a non-citizen formation of roughly equal size, the ala, recruited from Rome's Italian allies, or socii. The latter were about 150 autonomous states which were bound by a treaty of perpetual military alliance with Rome. Their sole obligation was to supply to the Roman army, on demand, a number of fully equipped troops up to a specified maximum each year. Evidence from Roman army camps near Numantia in Spain suggests that a much larger tactical unit, the cohort (480 men, equivalent to 4 maniples) already existed, alongside maniples, in the period 153–133 BC. By c. 100 BC, cohorts appear to have fully replaced maniples as the basic tactical unit.

Maniple (Latin: manipulus; lit. 'a handful [of soldiers]') was a tactical unit of the Roman Republican armies, adopted during the Samnite Wars (343–290 BC). It was also the name of the military insignia carried by such units.

Maniple members, called commanipulares (sg.: commanipularis) were seen as each other's brothers-in-arms, but without the domestic closeness of the eight-man contubernium.

The gens Junia or Iunia was one of the most celebrated families of ancient Rome. The gens may originally have been patrician, and was already prominent in the last days of the Roman monarchy. Lucius Junius Brutus was the nephew of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the seventh and last king of Rome, and on the expulsion of Tarquin in 509 BC, he became one of the first consuls of the Roman Republic.

Over the next several centuries, the Junii produced a number of very eminent men, such as Gaius Junius Bubulcus Brutus, three times consul and twice dictator during the period of the Samnite Wars, as well as Marcus and Decimus Junius Brutus, among the leaders of the conspiracy against Caesar. Although the Junii Bruti disappeared at the end of the Republic, another family, the Junii Silani, remained prominent under the early Empire.

The Battle of the Cranita Hills was fought in 277 BC between a Roman and a Samnite army during the Pyrrhic War (280-275 BC). The Samnite people allied with King Pyrrhus of Epirus against the Roman Republic to regain the independence that they had lost during the Roman Samnite wars, but when Pyrrhus left Italy in 278 BC for Sicily, Pyrrhus' Italian allies were left to defend against the Romans on their own.

In 277 the consuls Publius Cornelius Rufinus and Caius Junius Bubulcus invaded Samnium, devastating the country as they went, and took several deserted forts. The Samnites had retreated to a range of hills called Cranita, because of the large growths of cornel-wood (crania) they bore, where they had conveyed their most valuable treasures. Despite the difficulty of the terrain the Romans ascended the hills, but the undergrowth and the steep climb made them easy prey for the Samnite attack, which killed and took prisoner many Romans.

The speculatores, also known as the speculatores augusti or the exploratores, were an ancient Roman reconnaissance agency. They were part of the consularis and were used by the Roman military. The speculatores were headquartered in the Castra Peregrina.

This organization probably originated from previous Greek military spies and scouts. There are references to a Roman scouting agency operating during the Samnite Wars and the speculatores being employed during the Roman war with the Aequi. Emperor Augustus reformed the Roman communications system. Among other reforms, he also added 10 speculatores to each legion. There was one speculator per cohort. They also served in the Praetorian Guard. They also served as political police, until they were replaced by the frumentarii as police in the third century. As bodyguards, they were tasked with clearing the emperor's pathway of crowds. To do this, they used a type of non-lethal spear known as a lancea. They also served as scouts, executioners, torturers, and assassins. During their operations, they worked in small numbers. Usually in pairs or as individuals. The speculatores were trained by an official known as a centurio exercitator to become skilled in fighting, horseriding, parading, and escorting. Three other officials had important roles in the speculatores. These were the centurio and the centurio speculatorum, centurio trecenarius, and the centurio speculatorum equitarum. There were around 300 members of the speculatores. They were chosen based on their discretion and loyalty. Many speculatores would go on to become couriers. Their duties led to them becoming feared and despised by the populace.

The gens Papia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. Members of this gens are first mentioned at the time of the Samnite Wars, but do not appear at Rome until the final century of the Republic. Marcus Papius Mutilus was the only member of the family to attain the consulship, which he held in AD 9.