Ancient Campania

[2] From Capuani, in fact, we would have Campani and, therefore, Campania; furthermore, both Livio and Polybius say of an Ager Campanus with a clear reference to Capua and the surrounding area.

[citation needed] The main inhabited centers of this historical region were (from north to south) Capua, Atella, Liternum, Cumae, Baiae, Puteoli, Acerrae, Nola, Neapolis, Caprae, Oplontis, Pompei, Sorrentum, Stabiae, Nuceria Alfaterna and Salernum.

[citation needed] Necropoleis on the edges of modern Santa Maria Capua Vetere suggest the region has been continuously inhabited since the 10th century BCE.

At the beginning of the First Samnite War in 343 BCE, Capua either "surrendered" or "allied" itself to Rome, depending on one's interpretation of Livy's meaning of the word deditio, and how historically reliable his account is.

[16] Initially Campania also included the ager Falernus,[17] then it was heavily downsized by Rome due to the alliance of the city of Capua with Hannibal.

[citation needed] The late Roman historian Festus wrote in the 4th century CE that Campania was divided into ten praefecturae, although he does not indicate when this supposedly happened.

[citation needed] In the Middle Ages, the toponym Terra Laboris, recorded for the first time in 1092 (although there are doubts about the originality of the document), replaced the name Campania.