The Third Samnite War (298-290 BC) was a crucial episode in the early history of Rome. Upon its outcome rested mastery of central Italy, and the independent survival of both Rome and the Samnites. Determined to resist aggressive Roman expansion, the Samnites forged a powerful alliance with the Senones (a tribe of Italian Gauls), Etruscans and Umbrians. The result was eight years of hard campaigning, brutal sieges and bitter battles that stretched Rome to the limit. The desperate nature of the struggle is illustrated by the ritual self-sacrifice (devotio) by the Roman consul Publius Decimus Mus at the Battle of Sentinum (295 BC), which restored the resolve of the wavering Roman troops, and by the Samnite Linen Legion at the Battle of Aquilonia (393 BC), each man of which was bound by a sacred oath to conquer or die on the battlefield.
Mike Roberts, who has travelled the Italian landscape upon which these events played out, mines the sources (which are more reliable, he argues, than for Rome's previous wars) to produce a compelling narrative of this momentous conflict.
- ISBN13 9781526744081
- Publish Date 1 June 2020 (first published 30 March 2020)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Pen & Sword Military
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 320
- Language English