Hirpini

They inhabited the southern portion of Samnium, in the more extensive sense of that name, roughly the area now known as Irpinia from their name—a mountainous region bordering on Basilicata towards the south, on Apulia to the east, and on Campania towards the west.

Their name does not once occur in history during the long protracted struggle between the Romans and the Samnite confederacy (the Samnite Wars), though their territory was often the theatre of the war, and several of their cities, especially Maloenton (Roman Maleventum, modern Benevento), are repeatedly mentioned as bearing an important part in the military operations of both powers.

[5] The latter people was one of those that declared in favour of Hannibal immediately after the battle of Cannae, 216 BC;[6] but the Roman colony of Beneventum never fell into the hands of the Carthaginian general.

[8] It was not until 209 BC, when Hannibal lost all footing in the center of Italy, that the Hirpini submitted to Rome, and gained favourable terms by betraying the Carthaginian garrisons in their towns.

They appear to have suffered less than their neighbours, the Samnites, from the ravages of the war, but considerable portions of their territory were confiscated, and it would seem, from a passage in Cicero, that a large part of it passed into the hands of wealthy Roman nobles.

Aquilonia (modern Lacedonia), Trivicum, Aequum Tuticum and Vescellium [it] were near the border with Apulia, in the eastern portion of the Hirpinian territory.

In the valley of the River Tamarus, which was mentioned as being 5 miles above Beneventum in the Itinerary of Antoninus, there was Ligures Baebiani et Corneliani, a colony of Ligurians relocated in the heart of this mountain region by the Romans in 180 BC.

[18] Three of the minor towns of the Hirpini were mentioned by Livy as having been retaken by the praetor M. Valerius in 215 BC;[19] but the names given in the manuscripts, Vescellium, Vercellium, and Sicilinum, are probably corrupted.

[22] Fratulum, whose name is found only in Ptolemy, is equally uncertain, although the author set it in the South, at the same latitude of Compsa and the same longitude of Aquilonia.

[23] The most remarkable natural curiosity in the land of the Hirpini was the valley and lake, or rather pool, of Amsanctus, celebrated by Virgil in a manner that shows its fame to have been widely spread through Italy.

[24] It is remarkable as the only trace of volcanic action remaining in the central chain of the Apennines along with nearby Monte Vulture, an extinct volcano located on the eastern shore of the Ofanto River.