HIRPINI, from an Oscan or Sabine stem hirpo-, "wolf." An inland Samnite tribe in the south of Italy, whose territory was bounded by that of the Lucani on the south, the Campani on the south-west, the Appuli (Apuli) and Frentani on the east and north-east. On the north we find them, politically speaking, iden tified with the Pentri and Caraceni, and with them constituting the Samnite alliance in the wars of the 4th century B.C. (See SAM NITES.) On the final defeat of the Samnites by Sulla in 83 B.c., they received the Roman franchise. Of their Oscan speech, be sides the evidence of their place-names, only a few fragments survive.
See R. S. Conway, The Italic Dialects (1897), pp. 170 ff. ; and for hirpo-, ib. p. 200.