The third Samnite tribe, or, including the Frentanians, the fourth, are the HIRPINIANS, in the district of the modern Avellino, inhabiting one of the most beautiful hilly countries, between Beneventum, Lucania, and Salernum. It possesses extraordinary advantages over the northern part of the territory of Naples in regard to climate, for it is a perfectly southern country, although its heights are not inconsiderable: its capital was COMPSA, about which I have nothing particular to relate; it was one of the towns that joined Hannibal, and after having already suffered greatly during a previous conquest, it was completely razed to the ground somewhere between the seventh and tenth year of the war. But as it was afterwards rebuilt, the Romans nevertheless restored its independence. During the Social War it made common cause with the Samnite nation. The really Greek portion of the Samnite territory is about the cape of Minerva from Surrentum to Salernum. On the ridge of this part, between mount Vesuvius and Salernum, we have NUCERIA, a very large and flourishing town, the wealth and character of which are attested by its extremely beautiful silver coins, which are in no way inferior to those of Greece. I have already mentioned _Pompeii_ and _Herculaneum_ in speaking of Campania. SURRENTUM is well known as one of the most enchanting places on the whole face of the earth. Although the ancients were not as enthusiastic in their admiration of beautiful scenery as the moderns, still even among them it was celebrated as a place of indescribable charms. The coast on the bay of Salernum was occupied by the PICENTINI, whom I have already mentioned, and whom the Romans had transplanted thither from Picenum after the Samnite wars. In the earliest times, a great number of Tyrrhenian places existed on that bay, from which it is evident that there was in that part a considerable Pelasgian population, which, though subdued, maintained itself for a long time. SALERNUM was not a place of great importance in antiquity, but in the history of the middle ages it is celebrated as the place of residence of the Lombard kings. Until the Hannibalian war, Salernum and the surrounding country belonged to the Campanians, for the Romans appeased their allies of those places on which they had conferred the franchise without the suffrage, by ceding domain lands to them. Afterwards Salernum became a Roman colony. The river Silarus formed the boundary between that part of Samnium and Lucania.