Samnite Religion

The Samnites were an ancient Italic people who lived in modern south-central Italy, placing them between the Latins to the north and Greek settlements to the south. During the 4th-century BCE, the Samnites grew to become the strongest group of the central highlands. Samnium expansion brought them into conflict with Rome's growing influence in central Italy. Samnites were the only group who possessed power equivalent to that of Romans. A series of Roman-Samnite wars (343-341 BCE, 326-304 BCE, and 298 to 290 BCE) determined which would be the leading power in Italy. The last of these wars secured Rome's leadership in Italy. The Samnites shared anthropomorphic deities with both Rome and Greece. Evidence suggests that the Samnites also believed in spirits called numina: kinless, animistic spirits that could take human form to walk amongst the living. Numina lived in places like houses, rivers, and mountains, and in natural events such as day and night. To the Samnites, maintaining good relations with these spirits was critical. To honor the numina, the Samnites would sacrifice living things or make votive offerings. Eventually, the Numina evolved into the Samnite gods and goddesses. The Samnites practiced a type of sacrifice called the ver sacrum where infants were offered to the god Mamers (the Samnite equivalent of Roman war and agricultural god Mars) in hopes of increasing their herds and offspring. Once the consecrated infants reached adulthood, they would be exiled from their community. The Samnites used a small, fenced area covered in linen cloth to sacrifice animals such as pigs, sheep, goats, birds, cows, fish, roe deer, and oysters.[3][10] In the 5th century BCE, they began to use votive offerings such as bronze figurines, terracotta figurines, pottery, coins, beverages, cakes, animal statuettes, and weapons taken from their defeated enemies. Samnites believed that magic rites and talismans could influence reality. Warriors would vow to the gods that they would not retreat in battle whatever the circumstance. Betraying these vows was forbidden. Sanctuaries were central Samnite religion, and they served many functions like marking the routes of seasonal livestock migrations and defining territorial borders. Few Samnite gods are known, but some names have survived. Many Samnite gods were also Roman gods such as Vulcan (god of fire and volcanoes, deserts, metalworking, and the forge), Flora (goddess of the flowering of plants), Mefitis (a minor goddess of the poisonous gases emitted from the ground in swamps and volcanic vapors), Apollo (a deity whose many duties include oversight of the sun, music, archery, prophecy, and healing), Angitia (associated in antiquity with snake-charmers), and Diana (goddess of wild animals and the hunt). Some deities were not embraced by the Samites until after the Roman conquest. Examples are Fortuna (goddess of chance), Fides (goddess of trust and faithfulness), and Spes (goddess of hope and one of the divine personifications in the Imperial cult of the Virtue). There were Samnite gods unique to Samnite or Oscan culture. Herentas was the Oscan equivalent of Venus. The most prominent gods in Samnite religion were Mars, previously known as Mamers, and Greek/Roman hero Heracles/Hercules. Heracles was worshipped as a divine protector of pastoralism, an important component of the Samnite economy. From the third century onwards, Samnite sanctuaries slowly became derelict due to increasing Roman influence. Roman dominance ultimately led to the extinction of Samnite civilization and language.