| Battle of Bovianum | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Second Samnite War | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Roman Republic | Samnium | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Tiberius Minucius Augurinus, Lucius Postumius Megellus | Statius Gellius | ||||||
  Location within Italy  Battle of Bovianum (Europe) | |||||||
The Battle of Bovianum was fought in 305 BC between the Romans and the Samnites.
The Romans were led by two consuls, Tiberius Minucius Augurinus and Lucius Postumius Megellus. The result was a Roman victory and end of the Second Samnite War.
The consul Tiberius Minucius Augurinus died of his wounds during or after the battle.The battle of Bovianum at last completely crushed the spirit of the Samnites, who, unable to continue the war, were obliged to accept the terms dictated by Romans. [2] The Romans then proved victorious at the Battle of Bovianum and the tide turned strongly against the Samnites from 314 BC onwards, leading them to sue for peace with progressively less generous terms. By 304 BC the Romans had effectively annexed the greater degree of the Samnite territory, founding several colonies. This pattern of meeting aggression in force and almost inadvertently gaining territory in strategic counter-attacks was to become a common feature of Roman military history.
Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus, surnamed Cunctator, was a Roman statesman and general of the third century BC. He was consul five times and was appointed dictator in 221 and 217 BC. He was censor in 230 BC. His agnomen, Cunctator, usually translated as "the delayer", refers to the strategy that he employed against Hannibal's forces during the Second Punic War. Facing an outstanding commander with superior numbers, he pursued a then-novel strategy of targeting the enemy's supply lines, and accepting only smaller engagements on favourable ground, rather than risking his entire army on direct confrontation with Hannibal himself. As a result, he is regarded as the originator of many tactics used in guerrilla warfare.
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The year 305 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Megellus and Augurinus. The denomination 305 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
The Osci were an Italic people of Campania and Latium adiectum before and during Roman times. They spoke the Oscan language, also spoken by the Samnites of Southern Italy. Although the language of the Samnites was called Oscan, the Samnites were never referred to as Osci, nor were the Osci called Samnites.
The First, Second, and Third Samnite Wars were fought between the Roman Republic and the Samnites, who lived on a stretch of the Apennine Mountains south of Rome and north of the Lucanian tribe.
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Samnium is a Latin exonym for a region of Southern Italy anciently inhabited by the Samnites. Their own endonyms were Safinim for the country and Safineis for the people. The language of these endonyms and of the population was the Oscan language. However, not all the Samnites spoke Oscan, and not all the Oscan-speakers lived in Samnium.
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Lucius Minucius Esquilinus Augurinus was a Roman politician in the 5th century BC, consul in 458 BC, and decemvir in 450 BC.
Gaius Papius Mutilus was a Samnite noble who is best known for being the leader of the southern rebels who fought against the army of Rome in the Social War of 91-87 BC ; was member of the clan Variani/Varriano. His father was Gaius Papius Mutilus, who held the highest Samnite magistracy in Bovianum a number of times in the second half of the 2nd century BC
The gens Minucia was an ancient Roman family, which flourished from the earliest days of the Republic until imperial times. The gens was apparently of patrician origin, but was better known by its plebeian branches. The first of the Minucii to hold the consulship was Marcus Minucius Augurinus, elected consul in 497 BC.
Lucius Postumius Megellus was a politician and general during the middle years of the Roman Republic. Reportedly an arrogant and overbearing man, he was elected consul in 305 BC. The Second Samnite War was ongoing, and as consul he led troops against the Samnites. He defeated them at the Battle of Bovianum and took the town of Bovianum, which caused the Samnites to sue for peace, ending the war. Megellus was awarded a triumph.
Gnaeus Fulvius Maximus Centumalus was a military commander and politician from the middle period of the Roman Republic, who became consul in 298 BC. He fought in the final wars against the Etruscans and later led armies in the Third Samnite War. He was appointed dictator in 263 BC with responsibility for overseeing the start of the Roman ship building effort in the First Punic War.
Publius Minucius Augurinus was a Roman Republican politician of the patrician gens Minucia during the beginning of the 5th century BC. He served as Consul of Rome in 492 BC
Marcus Fulvius Curvus Paetinus was a Roman suffect consul in 305 BC with Lucius Postumius Megellus. He was elected to replace Tiberius Minucius Augurinus, who died in office.
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Quintus Minucius Esquilinus was, according to tradition, a Roman politician and general from the early Republic, who served as consul in 457 BC as the colleague of Gaius Horatius Pulvillus. During his term of office, a military threat from the Aequi and then the Sabines was said to have prevented internal conflict between the patricians and plebeians. Minucius marched with a force against the Sabines, but was unable to bring the enemy to battle.
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