Campania

Campania, anciently a province on the west coast of Italy, having Capua as its capital (now subdivided into the provinces of Benevento, Naples, Salerno, Avellino, and Caserta), lying between Latium, Samnium, and Lucania. It was one of the most productive plains in the world, yielding in extraordinary abundance corn, wine, and oil; and by both Greek and Roman writers is celebrated for its soft and genial climate, its landscapes, and its harbours. It was the regio felix of the Romans, who built here many of their most splendid villas, and made Baiae, with its hot springs, the centre of their fashionable world. The promontory Misenum, Mount Vesuvius, the river Voltturnus, the towns Baiae, Cumæ, Liternum, Puteoli, Naples, Herculaneum, Pompeii, Nola, Salernum, Capua, &c., belonged to Campania. In very early times the Greeks founded Cumæ, from which Puteoli, Naples, and other places were colonised. The district was next conquered by the Etruscans, by whom Capua, Nola, and other towns, were founded, but who succumbed to the more warlike and hardy Samnites, who, in their turn, yielded to the irresistible valour of Rome. Through all these vicissitudes of conquest the substratum of the people remained as at the beginning. The mass of the Campanians were essentially of Oscan (q.v.) race, and Oscan they remained. Indeed it is mainly from them that our knowledge of the Oscan language is derived, and one of their towns, Atella, introduced to the early Roman stage a species of popular drama or comedy. See ATELLANÆ.