serve as a central rallying point and bond of union for the Samnite stock, such as Rome was for the Latins.  The strength of the land lay in its -communes-of husbandmen, and authority was vested in the assembly formed of their representatives; it was this assembly which in case of need nominated a federal commander-in-chief.  In consequence of its constitution the policy of this confederacy was not aggressive like the Roman, but was limited to the defence of its own bounds; only where the state forms a unity is power so concentrated and passion so strong, that the extension of territory can be systematically pursued.  Accordingly the whole history of the two nations is prefigured in their diametrically opposite systems of colonization.  Whatever the Romans gained, was a gain to the state:  the conquests of the Samnites were achieved by bands of volunteers who went forth in search of plunder and, whether they prospered or were unfortunate, were left to their own resources by their native home.  The conquests, however, which the Samnites made on the coasts of the Tyrrhenian and Ionic seas, belong to a later age; during the regal period in Rome they seem to have been only gaining possession of the settlements in which we afterwards find them.  As a single incident in the series of movements among the neighbouring peoples caused by this Samnite settlement may be mentioned the surprise of Cumae by Tyrrhenians from the Upper Sea, Umbrians, and Daunians in the year 230.  If we may give credit to the accounts of the matter which present certainly a considerable colouring of romance, it would appear that in this instance, as was often the case in such expeditions, the intruders and those whom they supplanted combined to form one army, the Etruscans joining with their Umbrian enemies, and these again joined by the Iapygians whom the Umbrian settlers had driven towards the south.  Nevertheless the undertaking proved a failure:  on this occasion at least the Hellenic superiority in the art of war, and the bravery of the tyrant Aristodemus, succeeded in repelling the barbarian assault on the beautiful seaport.

Notes for Book I Chapter VIII

1.  In the alphabet the -"id:r” especially deserves notice, being of the Latin (-"id:R”) and not of the Etruscan form (-"id:D"), and also the -"id:z” (—­“id:XI"); it can only be derived from the primitive Latin, and must very faithfully represent it.  The language likewise has close affinity with the oldest Latin; -Marci Acarcelini he cupa-, that is, -Marcius Acarcelinius heic cubat-:  -Menerva A. Cotena La. f...zenatuo sentem..dedet cuando..cuncaptum-, that is, -Minervae A(ulus?) Cotena La(rtis) f(ilius) de senatus sententia dedit quando (perhaps=olim) conceptum-.  At the same time with these and similar inscriptions there have been found some others in a different character and language, undoubtedly Etruscan.

2.  I. IV.  Tities, Luceres