Capua

An ancient city of Italy, founded around 600 BC by the Etruscans, whose people spoke the Oscan dialect of Italic. There had been an early Iron Age settlement in the 9th century BC. After the period of Etruscan domination, it fell to the Samnites c 440 BC. Capua supported the Latin Confederacy in its war against Rome in 340 BC. After Rome's victory in the war, Capua became a self-governing community, and its people were granted limited Roman citizenship. In 312 BC, Capua was connected with Rome by the Appian Way and its prosperity increased to make it the secondmost important in Italy. During the Second Punic War (218-201 BC) Capua sided with Carthage against Rome. When the Romans recaptured the city in 211 BC, they deprived the citizens of political rights. Spartacus, the slave leader, began his revolt at Capua in 73 BC. Although it suffered during the Roman civil wars in the last decades of the republic, it prospered under the empire until 27 BC. The Vandals sacked Capua in 456 AD and Muslim invaders destroyed everything except the church of Sta. Maria in 840. Capua was famous for its bronzes and perfumes. There are ruins of a theater, amphitheater, baths, ceremonial arch of Hadrian, and a mithraeum with painted frescoes. The Etruscan artifacts include characteristic pottery, bronzes, and tombs, and an important document of the Etruscan language - the Capua Tile, an inscription of some 62 lines that was either religious or ritual text.

[present-day Santa Maria di Capua Vetere]. This important coastal town in Campania, southern Italy, already had an early Iron Age settlement in the 9th century bc. Some time towards the end of the 7th century bc it was occupied by the Etruscans, who transformed it into a very prosperous city, famous for its bronzes and notorious for the luxury of its life-style. The Etruscan period has left behind characteristic pottery, bronzes and tombs, and one of the principal pieces of evidence for the still little-understood Etruscan language—the so-called Capua Tile, an inscription of some 62 lines. Majority orthodox opinion, if there is such a thing in Etruscan language scholarship, would regard it as a religious or ritual text. In the 5th century bc Capua was taken over by the Samnites, and from 338 BC it became Roman, apart from a brief period of secession after Rome’s defeat at Cannae. The reputation for high living seems to have survived into the imperial period, when its amphitheatre (associated with a notorious gladiatorial school) rivalled the Colosseum at Rome for magnificence. Still listed by Ausonius Magnus as a great city in the 4th century ad, Capua was sacked by the Vandals in 456 and virtually destroyed by the Saracens in 840. The modern name would perhaps confirm that only the church survived, the remnant of the population fleeing to nearby Casilinum. Besides the fine amphitheatre, imperial remains include a theatre, a ceremonial arch of Hadrian, and a Mith-