Atella

Atella was an ancient Oscan city of Campania, located 20km directly north of Naples [1]. The ruins of the city walls, private houses, the so-called garden of Virgil and many tombs remain, on sites in the comuni of Frattaminore, Orta di Atella, Sant'Arpino and Succivo [1]. Atella was a city of Oscan origin, one of the oldest in Campania and one of the first to have obtained the Roman civitas [1]. It was crossed by the Via Atellana, which led southwest to Cumae and northeast to Capua [1]. Atella is not mentioned until the Second Punic War, when, although an independent city striking its own coinage, it was allied with Capua and the other Campanian cities in siding with Carthage after the battle of Cannae [1]. It was occupied by Rome in 210 BC, the chief citizens executed and the survivors enslaved or exiled to Calatia; the city was refounded as a home for the refugees from Nuceria [1]. In the 1st century BC, Cicero speaks highly of it and appears to have been its patron; it continued into imperial times as a municipium [1].