Capua ( , ) is a city and comune in the province of Caserta, in the region of Campania, southern Italy, situated north of Naples, on the northeastern edge of the Campanian plain.
History
Ancient era
The name of Capua comes from the Etruscan Capeva. The meaning is 'City of Marshes'. Its foundation is attributed by Cato the Elder to the Etruscans, and the date given as about 260 years before it was "taken" by Rome. If this is true it refers not to its capture in the Second Punic War (211 BC), but to its submission to Rome in 338 BC. This places the date of foundation at about 600 BC, while Etruscan power was at its highest. In the area, several settlements of the Villanovian civilization were present in prehistoric times. These were probably enlarged by the Oscans, and subsequently by the Etruscans.
Etruscan supremacy in Campania came to an end with the Samnite invasion, in the latter half of the 5th century BC.
About 424 BC Capua was captured by the Samnites, and in 343 BC sought Roman help against its conquerors. They allied for protection against the Samnite mountain tribes, along with its dependent communities Casilinum, Calatia, Atella, so that the greater part of Campania now fell under Roman supremacy. The citizens of Capua received the (citizenship without the vote).
In the second Samnite War with Rome, Capua proved an untrustworthy Roman ally, so that after the defeat of the Samnites, the Ager Falernus on the right bank of the Volturnus was confiscated. In 318 BC the powers of the native officials () were limited by the appointment of officials with the title praefecti Capuam Cumas (taking their name from the most important towns of Campania); these were at first mere deputies of the praetor urbanus, but after 123 BC were elected Roman magistrates, four in number; they governed the whole of Campania until the time of Augustus, when they were abolished. It was the capital of Campania Felix.
In 312 BC, Capua was connected with Rome by the construction of the Via Appia, the most important of the military highways of Italy. The gate by which it left the Servian walls of Rome bore the name Porta Capena; perhaps the only case in which a gate in this line of fortifications bears the name of the place to which it led. At some time the Via Latina was extended to Casilinum. It afforded a route only longer, and the difficulties with its construction were much less; it also avoided the troublesome journey through the Pontine Marshes.
The importance of Capua increased steadily during the 3rd century BC, and at the beginning of the Second Punic War it was considered to be only slightly behind Rome and Carthage themselves, and was able to furnish 30,000 infantry and 4,000 cavalry. Until after the defeat of Cannae it remained faithful to Rome, but, after an unsuccessful demand that one of the consuls should always be selected from it (or perhaps in order to secure regional supremacy in the event of a Carthaginian victory), it defected to Hannibal. He made it his winter quarters, and he and his army were voluntarily received by Capua. Livy and others have suggested that the luxurious conditions were Hannibal's "Cannae" because his troops became soft and demoralized by luxurious living. Historians from Reginald Bosworth Smith onwards have been skeptical of this, observing that his troops gave as good an account of themselves in battle after that winter as before. After a long siege, Capua was taken by the Romans in 211 BC and severely punished in the Second Battle of Capua; its magistrates and communal organization were abolished, the inhabitants who weren't killed lost their civic rights, and its territory was declared (Roman state domain). Parts of it were sold in 205 BC and 199 BC, another part was divided among the citizens of the new colonies of Volturnum and Liternum, established near the coast in 194 BC, but the greater portion of it was reserved to be let by the state.
Considerable difficulties occurred in preventing illegal encroachments by private persons, and it became necessary to buy a number of them out in 162 BC. It was, after that period, let, not to large but to small proprietors. Frequent attempts were made by the democratic leaders to divide the land among new settlers. M. Junius Brutus the Elder in 83 BC actually succeeded in establishing a colony, but it was soon dissolved; and Cicero's speeches De Lege Agrania were directed against a similar attempt by Servilius Rullus in 63 BC.