Samnite religion
The Samnites were an ancient Italic people who lived in modern south-central Italy, placing them between the Latins to the north and the Greek settlements to the south. Consequently, the Samnites had anthropomorphic deities shared with both Rome and Greece, especially after their conquest of Campania at the end of the fourth century BCE. There is additional evidence that suggests the Samnites also believed in spirits called numina. Numina are believed to have been kinless, animistic spirits that could take human form to walk amongst the living. To the Samnites, having good relations with these spirits was of the utmost importance. To honor these deities, the Samnites would sacrifice either living things or make votive offerings.
The Samnites practiced a type of sacrifice called the ver sacrum. In this kind of sacrifice, infants were offered to the god Mamers in hopes of more cattle and offspring. Once they reached adulthood they would be exiled from their community. Superstition was very important in Samnite religion, and they believed that magic and talismans could influence reality. Warriors are said to have been vowed to the gods that they would not retreat in battle under any circumstance, and betraying these vows were forbidden. Sanctuaries were a pillar of Samnite religion and they served many functions, such as marking transhumance routes and establishing borders. From the third century onwards, Samnite sanctuaries slowly became abandoned due to increasing Roman influence in the area that would ultimately result in the extinction of Samnite civilization and language.
Gods and spirits
Vaguely defined spirits called Numina were prominent in Samnite mythology. It was essential to establish proper relations with these spirits. They may or may not have had human forms, and could have been genderless, nameless, and kinless. Numina lived in localities such as houses, rivers, mountains, the day, the night. They also excised certain powers, that possibly amounted to nothing more than divine will. Eventually, the Numina evolved into the Samnite gods and goddesses.Few Samnite gods are known, but some names have survived. Many Samnite gods were also Roman gods. For example, Vulcan, Loesius, Flora, Mefitis, Apollo, Angitia, and Diana were all worshipped. Some gods like Fortuna, Fides, and Spes did not gain importance until after the Roman conquest. There were Samnite gods unique to Samnite or Oscan culture. Such as Herentas, who was the Oscan equivalent of Venus. The most prominent gods in Samnite religion were Mars, and Heracles. Heracles was worshipped by the Samnites as a divine protector of pastoralism, an important aspect of the Samnite economy.
Practices
Sacrifices and offerings
The Samnites would use a fenced off 200 square feet area that was covered in linen cloth to sacrifice animals such as pigs, sheep, goats, birds, cows, fish, roe deer, and oysters. In the beginning of the 5th century BCE, they began to use votive offerings. Such as votive bronze figurines, terracotta figurines, pottery, coins, beverages, cakes, animal statuettes, and weapons taken from their defeated enemies. These gifts needed to be important to the populace, and they could entice the gods to aid the offeror.Ver Sacrum
The Ver Sacrum, or Sacred Spring, was a ritual practiced by both ancient Italic civilizations and Romans. In a Ver Sacrum all the offspring of plants and animals were declared property of the gods. Human offspring would be exiled from their homeland once they reached adulthood. It has been suggested that this was done to alleviate overpopulation. However, overpopulation was not a problem for the Samnites, as they had highly developed systems of agriculture.The Samnites believed that the Ver Sacrum was the origin of their society. The found myth of the Samnites was that bull sent by the war god Mamers, who was the Samnite equivalent of Mars, to lead the Samnites to a new country once they had been exiled Ancient sources claim that all of these sacrifices would be made to Apollo or Mars instead of Mamers. Bulls had symbolic connections to the military in Samnium. The Hirpini believed that they were guided by a wolf to their land. Hence the name Hirpini, from Hirpus, meaning wolf. These myths have often been associated with the founding myth of Rome. Despite how often the ver sacrum appears in ancient literature, very little architectural evidence of this practice exists.
Funerary practices
The Samnites believed in an afterlife. To bury a dead Samnite, their corpse needed to be fully dressed, laid out in a supine position, and their head needed to be set upon an object. Goods would be buried with the dead in order to ease their journey into the afterlife. Common goods were food, impasto pottery, purification rites, and bronze and iron ornaments, spindles, loom weights, bowls, weaponry, and armor. It was rare for a Samnite to be buried with gold or silver, on account of how hard they were to import to Samnium. The Samnites may have honored their dead. Burial goods such as weapons, armor, steles, and statues may all have been ways of indicating that the deceased individual was of high status. For a Samnite warrior, the number of burial goods depended on how they died. If they had what they considered to be a "good death," they were buried with much more goods. While soldiers who had a "bad death" were buried with little goods. To put the Manes, or spirits of the dead to rest, games involving combat were played near the tombs.Dead Samnites were buried in graves consisting of rectangular trenches or limestone cists. These graves were lined with gravel for drainage, and were usually marked with stone. On other occasions, ollae, wooden planks, tiles, or stelae were used. Funerary statues were another way of marking graves. They usually marked the graves of important and powerful Samnites, such as chieftains. One notable example of these statues is the Capestrano Warrior. This statue depicts a figure of local authority, such as a chieftain. In some parts of Samnium, such as Alfedena, graves were organized in circular rows to showcase the relationships between the dead. Elders were buried closer to the center. While those who died younger were buried further. Other parts of Samnium, such as those closer to the Adriatic Coast do not organize graves according to those principles. These graves are organized according to no principles or authority, implying that these areas were more egalitarian.
The number of funerary sites throughout Samnium sharply decline around the fifth to fourth centuries BCE in the Sangro. In Bisaccia, Oliveto Citra, and Cairano funerary sites begin to decline around the sixth century BCE. Alongside this decline, Samnite funerary practices changed. Samnites began to cremate their dead, and either scatter their ashes or place them in a bronze urn called a stamnoi. Burial sites also started to contain fewer goods. Possibly due to the difficulty of acquiring materials necessary for burial, or that high social status was required for burial. Alternatively, the shifting funeral practices could be emblematic of a cultural shift in Samnium. Funerals could have become less prominent in Samnite religion. Alternatively, these changes could be caused due to Samnite culture valuing austerity. However, this theory is contradicted by archaeological evidence. As numerous lavish Samnite graves have been found during this period. Another explanation is that this decline could be the result of sociopolitical changes in Samnium.