Samnite Wars

Three wars between the Roman Republic and the Samnites, a confederation of Oscan-speaking tribes of the central Apennines, fought intermittently from 343 to 290 BC. The First Samnite War (343-341 BC) began when Rome intervened to protect Campania from Samnite incursions and ended inconclusively. The far longer Second Samnite War (326-304 BC) saw a Roman army trapped and forced to pass under the yoke at the Caudine Forks in 321 BC, one of the Republic's most humiliating early defeats, before Rome rebuilt its forces and gradually extended roads and colonies through central Italy. The Third Samnite War (298-290 BC) brought the Samnites into a coalition with the Etruscans, Umbrians and Gauls, defeated decisively by Rome at the Battle of Sentinum in 295 BC. Samnite defeat left Rome the dominant power of the Italian peninsula and cleared the way for its subsequent wars with the Greek cities of southern Italy and, ultimately, Carthage.