Samnites The
Samnites comprised several distinct tribes in Samnium, a wholly inland district of south-central Italy named after them. The
Pentri tribe of the Samnites was the most powerful and based in
Bovianium, which was a city some south of present Agnone. Agnone is in the centre of important archaeological vestiges of the old Oscan-Samnite civilization and has been called "the Athens of the Sannio" due to the large number of ancient ruins of the Samnite culture. According to tradition, the name of Agnone derives from the old city of Aquilonia that was destroyed by the Romans. The small bronze tablet was discovered in 1848 at Fonte di Romito, between
Capracotta and Agnone, near the river
Sangro. It provides an example of the most southerly dialect of the Samnite language. The tablet speaks of a series of dedications to different deities or holy beings
Romans During the Roman Period,
Christianity was spread to Molise. Agnone appears on Roman maps under different regions at various times as Aprutium, Picenum, Sabina et Samnium, Flaminia et Picenum and/or Campania et Samnium. The Roman penchant for building seems to have passed Agnone over as Samnitic architecture still prevailed.
Medieval Agnone was an important centre during the rule of the
Lombards, but was then left decaying in the centuries immediately preceding 1000, while the Verrino Valley and surrounding hills became a place of hermitages, monasteries, and small agricultural colonies. In 1139, the powerful Borrello family, supported by
soldiers of fortune from
Venice, probably originating from the Dalmatian colonies of the "Serenissima" took control of Agnone. The importance of Agnone grew during the
Angevin and also in the
Aragonese reigns to the point that during the reign of the
Bourbons of the
Two Sicilies, the city was among the 56 royal towns that reported directly to the King, and was free from any other type of
feudal subjection.
Joseph Bonaparte decided to create the region Molise, which was to exclude Agnone, but during the reign of
Joachim Murat, the elders of Agnone asked and obtained the transition to Molise, basing the request on the geographical difficulties of the links to
Abruzzo, and hoping to rise to a new role for the small region. During this period, the natural resources surrounding Agnone impacted its economy where skilled craftsmen produced gold jewellery, copperware, watches, and bells.
Post-Unification Agnone suffered a significant decline in the years following the
Unification of Italy in the 1860s. In 1884, the local newspaper ''L'Aquilonia'' reviewed the causes of
emigration of peasants from Agnone and concluded that the two main factors were excessive taxes on consumers' goods and usurious interest rates that at times surpassed 20 percent in the town. The peasants were arrested for stealing the crops of the
galantuomini ("gallant men" or ruling class), and a particularly frequent crime was the illegal cutting of timber on the town commons. In 1863, for example, the authorities actually prosecuted 624 cases of illegal felling of trees. Consequently, when by the 1870s, owing to improvements in sea travel, a lowering of fares, and the expansive nature of the economies of both the United States and the
Rio de la Plata region of southern South America, transatlantic emigration became a viable alternative, the lower classes of Agnone were, out of a sense of desperation, prime candidates. Politically alienated by decades of unfulfilled promises of land reform, mired in endemic poverty, dependent on a rapacious class of galantuomini for what was, by any yardstick, a meagre existence, the peasantry was further squeezed by relentless population increase throughout the first seven decades of the 19th century.
World War II to present When
Benito Mussolini's
fascist regime came to power, they effectively put a stop to Italy's out-migration. During the Fascist era, Agnone was the site of a fascist internment camp administered and operated by the
province of Campobasso. It first held only male "enemy subjects", which included British, Czech, and Slovakian nationals, as well as German and Austrian Jews. It was later changed to a camp for men and women Romani people from Yugoslavia. Many opponents of the fascists were sent here, including Don Raimondo Viale, the protagonist of "The Just Priest" by
Nuto Revelli. The Germans sat up a concentration camp in Molise for
gypsies where Father Viale tried to help them. The War would finally reach Agnone in December 1943, as the Allied Forces would land on Italy's
Adriatic coast and make their way northward and westward to Rome. The
1st Canadian Infantry Division would drive the Germans and Fascists out of Molise, and on 2 and 3 December, the West Nova Scotia Regiment would billet in Agnone during the
Ortona offensive. Presently, Agnone's population is still declining. As Molise is starting to find recognition as a tourist destination, Agnone is marketing itself on the
agritourism market and for its unique Pre-Roman and Medieval architecture. ==Main sights==