HIRPINI, a people of Italy who inhabited the s. portion of Samnium. They have been considered by some authorities as merely a Samnite tribe, while by others they arc looked on as an independent nation. The country they inhabited was the wild and mountainous district traversed by the Sabatus, Calor, and Ttunarus, tributaries of the Vulturnus, and on the e. side of the Apennine ridge, the upper course of the Aufidus. In the early history of Rome the Hirpini are found identifying themselves with their Samnite neighbors against their common foes. They seem to have been, subdued in the early part of the 3d c. B.C., as in 205 B.C. Beneventum, the key of all their military posi tions, was colonized by Roman settlers. They appear in history for the first time as an independent people after the second Punic war. Revolting from their old conquerors, they joined the Carthaginian invaders, and though they were unable to recapture their stronghold of Beneventum, they remained faithful to Hannibal till the defeat at the Metaurus restored the empire of Italy to his opponents. In the year of that event the
Hirpini made peace with their old masters by betraying into their hands the garrisons of their allies. From this dine till the outbreak of the social war, the Hirpini seemed to have continued steadfast in their allegiance. On that OCC£1.SiOn, however, they set the example of revolt to the allies, and might have become formidable enemies, had not the rapid successes of Sulla induced them to repair their error by a complete submission. At the close of this war the Hirpini obtained the franchise, and do not again appear in history as an independent people. Their chief towns were Beneventum, Aeculanum, Trivieum, Equus, Tnticus, Murgantia, and AquiIonia.