The Hirpini
Ex Italia semper aliquid novi
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3939146 |
|---|---|
| Authors | E T Salmon (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1989 |
| Volume | 43 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 225 |
| Publication date | 1989-01-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Phoenix (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0031-8299 • E-ISSN: 1929-4883 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/1088459 |
| OpenAlex | W2319631156 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
NEWS HAVE INDEED COME FROM SAMNIUM, and more specifically from the Samnite tribe of the Hirpini. In the very centre of their country, south-east of Beneventum, recent extensive and important discoveries have shed new light on their history from the time of the Samnite expansion in southern Italy and onwards.1 Like most tales of origins in antiquity, the story of the Hirpini begins with a legend. It will be remembered that their name is said to derive from hirpus, the Oscan word for wolf,2 the tradition being that the Hirpini had been originally led to their historical habitat by a wolf on the occasion of a ver sacrum or Sacred Spring. The ethnology and the geography of the Hirpini from about 600 B.C. on are not in serious doubt.3 Ancient writings and archaeological investigations proclaim then an inhuming and Oscanspeaking Samnite people who lived in the part of southern Italy, due east of Campania, that extends 60 miles or so to the vicinity of Luceria, the Latin colony established by Rome in 314, and to the Daunian mountains. On the south, the Ofanto, Horace's tauriformis Aufidus,4 separated the Hirpini from the Lucani, although Compsa south of the river was Hirpinian. On the north, the Calor, a tributary of the Volturnus and the most Samnite of rivers, to some extent separated the Hirpini from the Pentri, these latter being the Samnites par excellence. Because of their proximity to Magna Graecia and to hellenized Campania, the Hirpini were far more exposed to Greek cultural influences5 than
Ex parte · Humanities · Political science · Ancient and Medieval Archaeology Studies · Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History · Historical and Archaeological Studies · Law · Philosophy
| Citations per year | 0.36 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2012 - 2019 (8) |
| Highly cited | No |