As the Roman state emerged the people of the surrounding areas became increasingly worried about their territories. The reaction of the Samnites living in the mountains and valleys of the central Apennines was to build an extraordinary network of hill-top forts. This volume describes all the fortified centres which are known in Samnium and interprets their date and purpose. the study is divided into three parts. The first introduces the Samnites and their territory and discusses the identification of their hill-forts. The second part provides a detailed inventory of all known sites while the third section is analytical, discussing the role of hill-forts in the third century BC Samnite wars and in peacetime settlement.