Who Were the Samnites? Rome's Last Italian Enemy? (Rome and Romans)

The Samnites were not as famous as say the Gauls or the Etruscans. However, they were no less of a frightening enemy for the Roman Republic. Clad in Greek armor and efficient in both the phalanx and maniple system, they were a force to be reckoned with. Their ancient origins with the Sabine peoples meant that their history was intertwined with that of Rome itself. Their mountainous homeland of Samnium was a venerable fortress that protected them for centuries. In the end however, Rome was simply too hungry for land and population and conflict between the two great peoples could not be avoided. This would culminate in the three Samnite Wars. Wars that would change the course of Roman and world history. But who were the Samnites? How did they split off from the Sabines? And how were they meant to fight the Roman Republic? Let's talk about it.
My Socials:
Twitter: / gibbonpogs
Twitch: / gibbonpog
YT Channel: / @idiottalkshistory
All media displayed in this video is displayed with either permission from the copyright owner, fair use, or is creative commons.
If I failed to give proper credit or you do not want your images displayed here, please contact me and I will give credit or immediately remove them at your request.
Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research.
#Rome #RomanHistory #Etruscan #Etruscans #ancient #ancienthistory #italy #italianhistory #mediterranean #war #ancientwar #battle #Samnite #Samnites #Roman #romanrepublic #IdiotTalksHistory
0:00 - Intro
0:46 - Where did the Samnites Start?
3:18 - The Ver Sacrum
7:13 - The Samnite League/Samnite Government
9:00 - Samnite Expansion
10:47 - Samnite Military
13:22 - Outro

[@user-ol2fb9fo7r]

Please make a video on the history of every Italic tribe.

[@chuckfriebe843]

The Samnites make great luggage.

[@TylerSolvestri]

Underrated videos, the Algorithm worked on mysterious ways to bring me here

[@relaxedsack1263]

Good, he has a ton of video, been wondering when the algorithm would notice him

[@etherealdragon207]

My mom's Italian grandfather was from Molise, so his people were Samnite.

[@k0iip0ndzz]

My dad’s father was Samnite, which I find really cool 😌

[@gilbertobertozzi7510]

Exactly

[@reneemarie618]

My genealogy puts my family right in this area until 1908 when they immigrated to the States. I really enjoyed this video.

[@Mrnewkrakbo]

Keep going man, your videos are not what KZbin deserves, they are what it needs

[@probabilmente_paolo]

great video, cool to hear familiar names in 2500 years old history: like the place of the tribe of the Hirpines is still called Irpinia or like Bovianum is now Bojano

[@foolishmortal299]

To give an idea of exactly how formidable the Semnites were, Romans considered their defeat at "Coldine Forks" to the Semnites "more embarrassing" then their loss at Cannae to Hannibal... Because at Coldine Forks, The Romans lost that battle... Without even fighting..., tricked, Completely surrounded, had to leave without their weapons, had to pass under the yoke, (the worst kind of act of submission).... Cause of that embarrassing loss, that's how we got the manipular legions that conquered the Mediterranean

[@tonitemperance9960]

I'm an Irpini and our name means wolf, if you visit Irpinia, you'll hear and see many wolves, hence the wolf being it's guide. Visit Benevento and see more amazing relics ❤

[@g_rec_attempt6782]

Amazing work and great Video! Please keep it up. I regularly watch history videos about the various italic peoples. And there is always more to learn.

[@hesamvalizadeh7693]

Not many documents and videos are about atalic tribies before rome been created .thank you

[@buddycharley2413]

Born in March I would've been sacrificed, bad times for pisces's and Aquarius's

[@Awakeningspirit20]

Fall birthday for me haha, thank God (or I guess "gods") for me, too, as I descend from these people... but I also wouldn't exist as my dad was born in March, but early March, before astronomical spring, so maybe we'd be ok

[@freedombro6502]

I was looking for a video like this a couple of days ago but couldn't find it. The algorithm did us right here, great history here . Ver sanctum sounds messed up 😅

[@antoniofarinaccio541]

There are many sites that have not been excavated yet, Boyano, for once considered the capital. Near by recently, Monte Vairano inside the megalithic walls that runs for 3 km. recent excavation have brought to light streets, sidewalks, homes and objects found no sight from other parts of the Mediterranean basin. Puts in to question of been a tribe people. One sight above all distinguishes it self for its temples, theater with the first 3 rows seats in monolete stone with a anatomical back, the sites include a recently excavated "Domus Publica" residence of the high state priest, the town name is Pietrabondante. Many more sights still to excavates.

[@idiottalkshistory]

Agreed, I really think the next few decades will be very important in understanding the histories of the peoples of Italy outside of the Romans. Now that we've exhaustively looked at the Roman stuff, historians and archeologists are really turning towards other native historical Italians. Very interesting times! Thanks for watching!

[@antoniofarinaccio541]

@@idiottalkshistory May I suggest two Italian archeologist that in recent years have worked on two main sights in the Molise region, that is the old Pentri people. One is Pietrabondante archeological site by la Regina. Recently the Domus Publica was excavated next to the temple B and theater complex. Second De Benedictis archeologist that has uncovered on Monte Vairano in a 3km. radius, cyclops stone walled city with paved streets, sidewalks and building foundations. There is a strong evidence that the city was burned at the time of the Roman Counsel Sulla, some of the artifacts uncovered are from distant areas from the Mediterranean basin. Just type the places mention above and the name of the archeologists you can see a number of videos on you-tube, unfortunately only in Italian. The two places are on remote areas but still located on green pasture highway that connected the low land of Apulia with the mountainous region of Abruzzi. For thousands of years these green pasture lands represented a highway a means to communicate and commerce in central Italy. Some archeological finds are going back to Micean age and as far as the Paleolithic age Isernia has a interesting museum a Sacrificial altar from Pietrabbondante also a Paleolithic remains in a second museum recently uncovered.

[@johnwiles4391]

Regarding the Samnite weaponry and armor, did they import them from the Greeks or others, or did they have indigenous metallurgical skills?

[@Texasmade74]

Both

[@idiottalkshistory]

Sorry for the late response! As the other gentleman said, it was a bit of both. Greek imported armor and weapons would normally be reserved for the upper class, just like in Rome, as those were normally of higher quality than what the Samnites were able to make back home. For a normal soldier they would be given a homemade sword and homemade knockoffs of Greek armor!

[@bradkempton7905]

Another great video, sir! I know I ask a lot of questions and I apologize if it's getting irritating. However, I have another question for you. As Rome conquered all of these different groups of peoples in what today is Italy and incorporated them into the Kingdom and then Republic, was there a prejudiceness against the general people of all these different groups from the "original" Romans? If so, at what point were they seen as "Romans" and not Etruscan or Samnite and etc.?

[@idiottalkshistory]

It's no problem at all! I love to attempt to answer any questions you might have! To answer this question, yes. Most of the time newly conquered peoples, even those closely related to Rome itself, within the Roman Republic were viewed as not quite as civilized or important as native Romans. This becomes much more obvious/widespread as Rome begins to conquer peoples outside of Italy. In Italy the process typically played out something like this: Rome would conquer the people in question, they would then begin a campaign to Latinize/Romanize the conquered people, during this campaign most peoples were viewed with prejudice or at least looked at suspiciously, that campaign would continue until the people in question were Latinized, after that they would be granted citizenship. At the point where they were granted citizenship a lot of the governmental/legal prejudice disappeared. Roman citizens were Roman citizens. However, there would always be a prejudice reserved for those who were not from Rome itself or at least the surrounding countryside (something that would expand over the course of the centuries.) For the Etruscans, they were granted citizenship in 90 BCE and for the Samnites it happened after the end of the Social War in 87 BCE. At that point most of the prejudice would disappear and they would be considered "Roman" however, people from the city of Rome itself would always consider themselves a cut above the rest so to speak. Hopefully that mostly answers your question! It's a pretty complicated topic with a lot of different exceptions depending on what group you're looking at! Thanks for watching!

[@bradkempton7905]

@idiottalkshistory thank you so much for your response! That most definitely answered my question. I figured there was some prejudice against the people from outside of Rone proper as throughout the history of Rome, there are numerous accounts referring to non-Romans as "savages" or "barbarians." I am, however, very surprised that it took so long for the Etruscans to be granted Roman citizenship. Considering 3 out of the 7 Roman Kings were Etruscan by birth and the Etruscan culture had such an impact on early Rome and its society in the 500+ years since the original Etruscan King of Rome in 616 BCE, one would think they would be granted citizenship much earlier than that.

[@idiottalkshistory]

It is actually a little surprising how stingy the Romans were with citizenship early on in their history. It was only after the Social War and the various levels of infighting after their conquest of Italy that they started to hand out citizenships like candy! I'm honestly not too sure why it took the Etruscans so long to be granted citizenship. If I had to guess it would be because the Etruscans took a long time to "Latinize" but I really don't know. Definitely, something I will look into!

[@bradkempton7905]

@idiottalkshistory correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Julius Ceaser grant citizenship to the Gauls after he had conquered them and then granted Senatorial rank to their leaders so that he could have an entire group of peoples loyal to him? I could be wrong on that and if I am please correct me, but if I'm right, it went from being incredibly stingy to incredibly loose pretty fast if the Etruscans weren't granted citizenship until 90 BCE.

[@idiottalkshistory]

That is indeed correct! (sorry about the late reply, KZbin didn't notify me for some reason) One of the reasons we see such a quick change is because of the Social War in 91 BCE, that completely changed how the Romans thought about and used the idea of citizenship!

[@adelchidipalma9857]

I am a Samnite; My blood boils when my rights are violated and still in a fighting mood, so far with the pen but i have the urge of using more convincing methods.

[@k0iip0ndzz]

My dad’s father was Samnite. I don’t know about his mother or my other grandparents, so I’m at least 1/4th Samnite 😅

[@adelchidipalma9857]

I made a discovery more important than the discovery of America, if you are interest to learn then write to me. Its the most secret knowledge in existence which affects our lives in negative way.

[@deepakraag]

How does somebody born in southern Italy end up with 10% Etruscan DNA? Capua?

[@idiottalkshistory]

Probably. There was a huge amount of migration both just before Rome came onto the scene and during the early ages of the Roman Kingdom/Republic. Before Rome had really risen the Etruscans actually held some control over southern Italy!

[@sarahnikas1344]

Your pronunciations are pretty far off on a lot of these terms. You might want to work on them.

[@Awakeningspirit20]

Lol you should hear how my Italian-American family pronounces their own names and place names of our Samnite homeland, it's pretty cringe-worthy... even more so for me when I repeated their pronunciation of "Molise" to an actual Italian person

[@josiaspena8623]

Oh shush

[@UmiDelMare]

Also Ariana Grande

[@koarz]

Greetings from Turkey. Were they Greek?

[@schurlbirkenbach1995]

No

[@giulianoilfilosofo7927]

He litterally said they were and Italic people......