 In the late 1st century BC, Nicolaus of Damascus believed they were Etruscan.A generation later, Livy wrote that they were first held in 310 BC by the Campanians in celebration of their victory over the Samnites.Long after the games had ceased, the 7th century AD writer Isidore of Seville derived Latin "lanista" (manager of gladiators) from the Etruscan word for "executioner," and the title of Charon (an official who accompanied the dead from the Roman gladiatorial arena) from Charun, psychopomp of the Etruscan underworld.