The Sabellian people had this peculiarity, that they formed both distinct tribes and different confederations. Some of them accordingly, such as the Picentians, were without any federal relations, while the four tribes dwelling in the Abruzzi, the Marsians, Marrucinians, Pelignians, and Vestinians, were on many occasions inseparably united, and evidently formed a confederation with isopolity, similar to that subsisting between the Romans and Latins; it was, no doubt, at the same time, at least a defensive, if not an offensive, alliance. The supremacy must have belonged to one of these tribes by rotation, so that each of them may conveniently be called a canton. They stand completely by themselves, and without any connection with the mother people, the Picentians, Samnites, etc. This isolation of the Sabellian tribes was their misfortune. The Marsians and their allies never assisted the Samnites, but allowed themselves to be captivated by the Romans, by favourable terms, first to remain neutral, and afterwards to become their allies. Nor can the Samnites be regarded as a compact nation in their struggles against Rome; if this had been the case, they would unquestionably have offered a very different resistance, for they had a large population and an extensive territory. The Samnites, like the northern tribes, formed a confederation, but their bond of union was scarcely closer than that among their neighbours: they formed perfectly distinct states, which joined one another for a common purpose. The Hirpinians, Caudines, and Pentrians certainly formed a confederation; but the Frentanians did not, strictly speaking, belong to this union; they separated at an early time. To these we must add a fifth Samnite state, to which Nuceria Alfaterna belonged; its name is unknown, though it was perhaps called Alfaterna, and extended from Surrentum to the Silarus. Scylax of Caryanda clearly proves, that this district, from Surrentum to the Silarus, before it was occupied by Greeks, was inhabited by Samnites, and the same is manifest from Livy’s account. When the Romans penetrated there, Nuceria was a Samnite town, and they conquered it as such. In this manner we have, exclusive of the Frentanians, who took no great part in the second Samnite war, four Samnite cantons, which were very populous. In no map are the Caudines mentioned as a tribe, but that they were one is clear from Strabo and Velleius; manuals of geography and maps mention Caudium only as a town.