Capua

Capua (modern Santa Maria Capua Vetere) was the chief ancient city of Campania, and one of the most important towns of ancient Italy, situated 25 km (16 mi) north of Neapolis, on the northeastern edge of the Campanian plain.

Remains

No pre-Roman remains have been found within the town of Capua itself, but important cemeteries have been discovered on all sides of it, the earliest of which go back to the 7th or 6th century BC.

Related Topics:
7th - 6th century BC

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The tombs are of various forms, partly chambers with frescoes on the walls, partly cubical blocks of peperino, hollowed out, with grooved lids. The objects found within them consist mainly of vases of bronze (many of them without feet, and with incised designs of Etruscan style) and of clay, some of Greek, some of local manufacture, and of paintings. On the east of the town, in the Patturelli property, a temple has been discovered with Oscan votive inscriptions originally thought to be Oscan, now recognized as Etruscan, some of them inscribed upon terracotta tablets, the most famous of which is the Tabula Capuana, conserved in Berlin, still, after more than a century of searching, the second-longest Etruscan text. Other brief inscriptions are on cippi. A group of 150 tufa statuettes represent a matron holding one or more children in her lap: three bore Latin inscriptions of the early Imperial period.

Related Topics:
Peperino - Etruscan - Tabula Capuana - Tufa

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The site of the town being in a perfectly flat plain, without natural defences, it was possible to lay it out regularly. Its length from east to west is accurately determined by the fact that the Via Appia, which runs from north-west to south-east from Casilinum to Calatia, turns due east very soon after passing the so-called Arco Campano (a triumphal arch of good brickwork, once faced with marble, with three openings, erected in honour of some emperor unknown), and continues to run in this direction for 5413 3/4 English ft (1,600 m) = 6000 ancient Oscan feet.

Related Topics:
Arco Campano - Triumphal arch

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The west gate was the Porta Romana; remains of the east gate (the name of which we do not know) have been found. This fact shows that the main street of the town was perfectly oriented, and that before the Via Appia was constructed, i.e. in all probability in pre-Roman times. The width of the town from north to south cannot be so accurately determined as the line of the north and south walls is not known, though it can be approximately fixed by the absence of tombs. Beloch fixes it at 4000 Oscan feet = 3609 English feet (1,100 m), nor is it absolutely certain (though it is in the highest degree probable, for Cicero praises its regular arrangement and fine streets) that the plan of the town was rectangular.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Within the town are remains of public baths on the north of the Via Appia and of a theatre opposite, on the south. The former consisted of a large cryptoporticus round three sides of a court, the south side being open to the road; it now lies under the prisons. Beloch (see below) attributes this to the Oscan period; but the construction as shown in Labruzzi?s drawing (v. 17) 1 is partly of brick-work and opus reticulatum, which may, of course, belong to a restoration. The stage of the theatre had its back to the road; Labruzzi (v. 18) gives an interesting view of the cavea. It appears from inscriptions that it was erected after the time of Augustus.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Other inscriptions, however, prove the existence of a theatre as early as 94 BC, so that the existence of another elsewhere must be assumed. We know that the Roman colony was divided into regions and possessed a capitolium, with a temple of Jupiter, within the town, and that the market-place, for unguents especially, was called Seplasia; we also hear of an aedes alba, probably the original senate house, which stood in an open space known as albana. But the sites of all these are quite uncertain.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Amphitheatre

Outside the town on the north is the amphitheatre, built in the time of Augustus, restored by Hadrian and dedicated by Antoninus Pius, as the inscription over the main entrance recorded. The exterior was formed by 80 Doric arcades of four storeys each, but only two arches now remain. The keystones were adorned with heads of divinities.

Related Topics:
Amphitheatre - Hadrian - Antoninus Pius

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The interior is better preserved; beneath the arena are subterranean passages like those in the amphitheatre at Puteoli. It is one of the largest in existence; the longer diameter is 185 yd (170 m)., the shorter 152 yd (140 m), and the arena measures 83 by 49 yd (75 by 45 m)., the corresponding dimensions in the colosseum at Rome being 205, 170, 93 and 58 yd (188, 155, 85, 53 m).

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

To the east are considerable remains of baths — a large octagonal building, an apse against which the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie is built, and several heaps of debris. On the Via Appia, to the south-east of the east gate of the town, arc two large and well-preserved tombs of the Roman period, known as le Carceri vecchie and la Conocchia.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

To the east of the amphitheatre an ancient road, the Via Dianae, leads north to the Pagus Dianae, on the west slopes of the Mons Tifata, a community which sprang up round the famous and ancient temple of Diana, and probably received an independent organization after the abolition of that of Capua in . The place often served as a base for attacks on the latter, and Sulla, after his defeat of C. Norbanus, gave the whole of the mountain to the temple.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Within the territory of the pagus were several other temples with their magistri. After the restoration of the community of Capua, we find magistri of the temple of Diana still existing, but they were probably officials of Capua itself.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The site is occupied by the Benedictine church of S. Angelo in Formis which dates from 944, and was reconstructed by the abbot Desiderius (afterwards Pope Victor III) of Monte Cassino), with interesting paintings, dating from the end of the 11th century to the middle of the 12th, in which five different styles may be distinguished. They form a complete representation of all the chief episodes of the New Testament. Deposits of votive objects (favissae), removed from the ancient temple from time to time as new ones came in and occupied all the available space, have been found, and considerable remains of buildings belonging to the Vicus Dianae (among them a triumphal arch and some baths, also a hail with frescoes, representing the goddess herself ready for the chase) still exist.

Related Topics:
944 - Pope Victor III - Monte Cassino - 11th century

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The ancient road from Capua went on beyond the Vicus Dianae to the Volturnus (remains of the bridge still exist) and then turned east along the river valley to Caiatia and Telesia. Other roads ran to Puteoli and Cumae (the so-called Via Campana) and to Neapolis, and as we have seen the Via Appia passed through Capua, which was thus the most important road centre of Campania.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Capua has recently been included in the hit PC game Rome:Total War as the governing settlement of Campania and the Capital of the Roman Faction of Scipii.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~