CARACE´NI
Eth.
CARACE´NI (
Καρακηνοὶ tribe of the Samnites, which according to Ptolemy inhabited the most northern part of Samnium, bordering on the Peligni and the Frentani; but more especially the upper valley of the Sagrus (
Sangro).
The only city that he assigns to them is
AUFIDENA and their name is not mentioned by any other geographer.
But it is generally supposed that the CARICINI (
Καρίκινοι) of Zonaras, whom he speaks of as a Samnite people (8.7), are the same with the Caraceni of Ptolemy.
He describes them as possessing a town or stronghold, which was not taken by the Roman consuls Q. Gallus and C. Fabius without difficulty.
This town has been supposed by local topographers to be the same with the modern
Castel di Sangro, which seems, from the inscriptions and other remains discovered there, to have been an ancient town, but there is no authority for this. Nor is there any ground for identifying the Carentini of Pliny (
3.12. s. 17), whom that author seems to place among the Frentani, with the Caraceni. (Romanelli, vol. ii. pp. 483, 490.)
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E.H.B]
