Samnites

The Samnites were a people living in the center of Italy at the age of the Roman Republic, and were one of its most famous opponents.
Romans and Samnites fought each other during the three Samnites Wars which occured in the 4th-3rd centuries BC. The Samnites were eventually defeated and were compelled to become allies to Rome. Rome just became powerful enough to stand against Pyrrhus and thereafter Carthage.

I used the Italian Allies box by Hät to represent the Samnites.

The warrior on the left has colorful clothes and shield, and wears a bronze armor.

The other warriors are dressed in white, with silver armor. They are noble members of a particular unit called Legio Linteata.

In the last photo, I show the Samnites together with Italian troops in Roman service (more concerning these troops here). They certainly fought each other during the Samnites wars, before the became forced allies.
 

I hope you like them :)

Republican Romans - Italian Allies

There's a lot of roman soldiers on this blog these days, and today you will have some more :)

After the Empire, I go back through time until the days of the Republic, in a time where Rome's opponents were Carthaginians, Celts, Macedonians... There were also many wars between the different peoples of the Italian peninsula, but all of them eventually became Italian allies to roman power - and in the end, became roman citizens, and soldiers.

This is an attempt to represent the Italian Allies during the III and II century BC - I suppose that they closely looked like roman Hastati, with maybe less uniformity in their tunics and equipment. And since I like to paint shields, there will be no transfers on them :)

I am certainly not a specialist of this period, so any comment concerning accuracy is highly welcome (and other comments too :)).

Figures by Hät and Zvezda (the officer).

The four hastati together

The officer - I tried to paint wolves on his shield

Ordinary hastatus - Hät figure