one of the principal districts of ancient Central Italy. The name was sometimes used in a more extensive, sometimes in a more restricted sense. In the more usual sense of the term, Samnium was an inland district, bounded on the N. by the Mursi, Peligni, and Frentani, E. by Apulia, S. by Lucania, S.W. and W. by Campanium and Latium. The Samnites were a people of Sabine origin, who migrated into this country at a comparatively late period. The date either of their earlier or later migration is unknown. They became finally swallowed up by the Roman people, after having engaged in a long series of desperate struggles known as the Samnite Wars. (See Roman History.)