The four Sabine tribes of the upper confederation occupied the country from the hills, which form the watershed between the Liris and the Vulturnus, to the Adriatic. They formed together one confederate state, and their connection is repeatedly alluded to in our authorities, as, for example, in Polybius, where he enumerates the Italian contingents levied against the Cisalpine Gauls; and in Ennius where we read _Marsa manus, Peligna cohors, Vestina virum vis_. At the time when the Vestinians declared for the Samnites, and the Romans wished to overcome them by a sudden attack, Livy remarks that the Romans ought to have considered that, by attacking the Vestinians, they would also make the Marsians, Marrucinians, and Pelignians their enemies. They were united as a confederation, in the same manner as the Romans were united with the Latins and Hernicans. In regard to origin, they were the same as the far ruling Samnites, but in their political system they were entirely different from them. Once only, in the second Samnite war, they hesitated as to whether they should not join the Samnites against the Romans; but the latter succeeded in preventing it. It was the consequence of the fatality by which the Romans were destined to become the rulers of Italy, that the Marsians began to move during the interval between the second and third Samnite war: it was then a piece of folly on their part, which they had reason bitterly to repent; they ought to have done so before, and to have joined the Samnites. They were subdued and had to submit to hard terms, though afterwards the Romans again placed them in an honorable position, in which they remained until the outbreak of the great Marsian or Social War. There existed various causes, why they separated themselves from the Samnites, so that the latter did not obtain the support which, had the others not been infatuated, ought to have been given to them. It has often been observed, that people of quite different religions do not hate one another as much as those belonging to different sects of the same religion, even though their differences should be slight, nay the more trifling the differences are, the bitterer is their hatred. Thus, e.g., in France the Jansenists and Jesuits, as they are called, are more embittered against each other, than either of them is against the Calvinists; the united and non-united Armenians are enraged against each other, though their difference is only a formal one not affecting their dogmas. The Samnites and the other tribes were one nation, but the Samnites had become great, and hence the unfortunate envy and jealousy of their less powerful kinsmen. This is the chief reason, why they formed friendship with the Romans. They had, however, another reason besides, which afforded them a specious pretext, and draws a veil over the odiousness of their conduct. They were mountaineers and a pastoral people, who, during winter, required pastures