448 Gary D. Farney
of the Samnites. For example, Cato the Elder claimed that “all Ligurians are liars,” and
that he was unable to discover their origins, because they were illiterate and incapable
of remembering the truth (FRH3F2.2; Del Ponte 1999). Cato lived during the con-
quest of Liguria, a bitter struggle that took several decades. Later, the writers Posidonius,
Cicero, and Vergil claimed that no finer soldiers existed anywhere, principally because (as
with the Sabines and Samnites) their harsh soil had made the Ligurians hardy (FGrH
87F57–58; Cicero,De Lege Agraria2.95; Vergil,Georgica2.167–69).
It seems clear that, in many ways, just as the Greeks admired some barbarian groups
for their “alien wisdom,” particularly in spiritual matters, the Romans regarded some
central Italian people to be especially close to the gods (Dench 2005: 321–2). The
Marsi had among them snake charmers and herbalists, and Horace (Sermones1.9.28–34,
Epodi17.28–30 and 17.60–61) claimed to have consulted Paelignian and Marsic fortune
tellers. As with the Etruscandisciplina, mastery of these arcana was perhaps thought to
be unique to their ethnic group: Aulus Gellius (16.11.1–2) says that the Marsi, descen-
dants of the sorceress Circe, practiced endogamy to ensure their immunity to serpent
venom and thereby continue to practice their art (Letta 1972). Similar to the Marsi’s
descent from Circe, various genealogies “explained” the reputations of south Italian and
Apennine peoples. However, more often, the standard, wandering Greek heroes were
assigned to (or selected by) them: Odysseus, Diomedes, Orestes, and Aeneas. There
were local differences; we hear about Philoctetes and Heracles more often in south Italy
than elsewhere (Giangiulio 1991; 1996; Musti 1991).
One of the most interesting of the Hellenized genealogies is the supposed descent
of the Samnites and other central Apennine people from the Spartans. Strabo (5.4.12)
claims that a colony of Spartans joined the Samnites, and that, for this reason, the latter
became philhellenes. Some were even called “Pitanates” after a region near Sparta called
“Pitane.” However, he goes on, it is thought that Tarentum in southern Italy, a Spartan
foundation, invented this legend to flatter and justify an alliance with the neighboring
Samnites. Moreover, a similar genealogy existed for the nearby Lucanians and, by exten-
sion, the Bruttians (Justinus 23.1). Here, we may see Greeks trying to include Italian
natives within their worldview for the purposes of honorable alliance, from perhaps as
early as the fourth centuryBCE. However, this genealogy had a moral dimension to it
as well, since an idealized Sparta was prevalent in Greek thought as a model of austerity,
self-discipline, and, of course, martial prowess (Farney 2007: 201–3). These very same
qualities were assigned to the central Apennine peoples as a whole, as we have seen. At
the same time, numismatic and epigraphic evidence suggests that some central Apennine
people embraced a Spartan pedigree (La Regina 1990; Cantilena 1996). Therefore, we
should not see them as purely passive recipients of this genealogy, but actors in shaping
their own image.
We have seen the Spartan genealogy before, assigned as early as Cato the Elder to
the Sabines. By the late Republic, the Sabines were considered to be the kinsmen of the
Samnites and other Apennine people (see the text that follows). Therefore, Dench (1995:
86–7; 1998: 135–6) postulates that Cato adopted a Spartan ancestry for the Sabines,
thereby inserting the Sabines as ancestors of the Samnites, while simultaneously co-opting
the Spartan reputation for the Sabines. This works well with the other themes we have