Probably the most famous Osco-Umbrian people of all, the Samnites are remembered for their fierce fight against Rome, starting with the Samnite Wars, then during the Pyrrhic War, up to the Social War.

Perhaps it was precisely the protracted conflict with the Romans that transformed the reality of these rugged Sabellian people of the mountains, to the point of turning them into a powerful confederation capable of aspiring to dominate Central-Southern Italy, and two centuries after the end of the Samnite Wars was still able to theorize for Italy a federal model antithetical to the Roman one.

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18 - WHO WERE THE SAMNITES?
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02:41 - The Myth
04:59 - Opici, Ausoni, Aurunci, Osci ...
07:12 - History
14:19 - The Territory
15:13 - The relationship with Rome
21:00 - A Roman "invention"?
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on the cover: Background - Detail from a fresco from Nola, IV BC
First Floor - Modern statue of a Samnite warrior from Pietrabbondante

Curated by Gioal Canestrelli
Institute of Experimental Archeology "Fianna ap Palug" of Verona

Editing by Angela Ruggero