Caudini

The Caudini were a Samnite tribe that lived among the mountains ringing Campania and in the valleys of the Isclero and Volturnus rivers.

Together with the Hirpini, Pentri, and Caraceni tribes, the Caudini people were described as rustic, thriving on an agrarian economy mainly as massari (peasant farmers) and pecorari (herdsmen and shepherds).

But the name is not recognised by any of the geographers as a general appellation, and appears to have fallen into disuse: the Caudini of Pliny (iii.

1) says that it was with the Caudini that the Romans made their treaty following their defeat at the Battle of the Caudine Forks, where Livy uniformly talks of the Samnites.

It is suggested that the tribe was encouraged to turn against the Romans after the arrival of Hannibal's army near Capua.