Greek Texts & Translations

other smaller settlements, some of which are said to be Sam- nite. ^note The Samnites, by making incursions into Latium as far as Ardea, and afterwards devastating Campania itself, greatly extended their power. The Campanians, being otherwise accustomed to a despotic government, yielded ready obedience to their commands. At the present day they have been almost entirely exterminated by the various Roman generals, and last of all by Sulla, who was absolute master of the republic. He, after having by numerous battles extinguished the Italian revolt, observing that the Samnites, almost without exception, remained in one body, and with one sole intention, so that they had even marched upon Rome itself, gave them battle under the walls, and as he had issued orders to make no prisoners, many of them were cut to pieces on the field, while the remainder, said to be about three or four thousand men, who threw down their arms, were led off to the Villa Publica in the Campus Martius, and there shut in; three days after soldiers were sent in who massacred the whole; and when [Sulla] drew up his conscription list, he did not rest satisfied until he had destroyed, or driven from Italy, every one who bore a Samnite name. To those who reproached him for this animosity, he replied that he had learned by experience that not a single Roman could rest in peace so long as any of the Samnites survived. Thus their cities have now dwindled into villages, some indeed being entirely deserted, as Boianum, ^note Aesernia, ^note Panna, Telesia ^note adjoining Venafrum, and others similar, none of which can be looked upon as cities; but in a country so renowned and powerful as Italy, we thought proper to mention places even of second-rate importance. [We should add that] Beneventum ^note and Venusia ^note are still prosperous. 12

The following is the tradition concerning the [origin of the] Samnites. The Sabines having been engaged for