The Ancient Sannio Map

The Sanniti warriors in a fresco - IV cent. b.C

Sheep along the lake

The spacious community of the Sanniti, in its time, was composed mainly of four tribes: the Carecini, the Pentri, the Caudini and the Irpini. The names of other possible groups were not handed down to us. These four tribes gathered to form the Sannitica League, which was initially formed for religious and sacred purposes, but later was also used for military reasons.

It is difficult to characterize the dividing lines between the several Sanniti tribes. The Pentri were above the rest, mountaineers who populated the heart of the Sannio, the region of the Massive Matese, its vicinity and the valleys of the rivers Trinius and Trifernus. They were thought of as strong and frightening and frightening, the thorn in the back of the Sannita nation. A good number of them were concentrated in the only open area of the Sannio, a valley dominated with Bovianum and Saepinum.
The Sannitiche tribes were devoted to breeding and agriculture. The lands of the Carecini and Pentri were unfit for cultivations, so the breeding of cattle prevailed. This has been practiced in such areas from prehistoric times and it was certainly of capital economical importance.

This was indicated not only by the bulls that acted, as animal-guides in the ritual of the Ver Sacrum, and therefore the name of their capital town became Bovianum, but also by the allusions to the herds of cattle in available literature. In effect, the breeding of the cattle had to be as important in antiquity as it is today since many of the bare rocky hills now have limited pastureland because of the exploitation through time. It was this area in the Matese in which the production of dairy products blossomed.

From the administrative point of view the political unit of the Sannio was not municipal but touto. This was a unit that had corporative character. Most likely each of the four tribes formed, as one together, the Sannita people, constituted a touto.

The political unit under the tribe was a typical Italian ancient institution, the Pagus. This was an administrative lower community, the smallest that existed of the Italian people. It was not a town, but a district of variable range, which had greater funds than was usual for smaller territories. Therefore the Pagus was a semi-independent rural district that took care of social, agricultural and above all religious issues. It carried out governmental functions from a local level. For this purpose it possessed town property, including some buildings.

Each touto included various Pagi. Indeed a touto was formed when a certain satisfied number united in a tight association, therefore immediately being able to count on the absolute fidelity of all its members. Likely each tribe had a locality that was its capital, the administrative center of the whole touto. Bovianum was the capital of the tribe of the Pentri.