Samnite Wars - Background

Background

For centuries the Sabellian highlanders of the Apennines had struggled to force their way into the plains between the hills and the Mediterranean. But Etruscans and Latins had held them in check, and for the past hundred years the direction of their expansion had been not on Latium but east and south-east. They had begun to stream into Campania where they had become accustomed to a more civilized life, and in turn had become less warlike and ill-fitted to cope with their kinsmen of the hills. In the middle of the fourth century, the most powerful group of the highlanders, the confederated Samnites, were swarming down upon their civilized precursors in Campania. Farther east and south, Lucanians and Bruttians were pressing upon the Greek colonies of Magna Graecia. The Samnite warrior-herdsmen from nearby hills wished to use the grasslands of the plains for their animals — lands that the plains people had fenced. The Greeks were appealing for help to Epirus; those on the plains — the Campanians — appealed to Rome and Rome came to their rescue.

Diodorus and Livy report that in 354 Rome and the Samnites concluded a treaty, but neither list the terms agreed upon. Modern historians have proposed that the treaty established the river Liris the boundary between their spheres of interest.