This book is devoted to the Third Samnite War where, with the
Samnites' own independence on the line, they mobilized a powerful
coalition with Bruttians, Etruscans and the Senones Gauls to fight for
their freedom
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.
