Capua (/ˈkæpjuə/ KAP-yoo-ə; Italian: [ˈkaːpwa]) is a city and comune in the province of Caserta, in the region of Campania, southern Italy, located on the northeastern edge of the Campanian plain.

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.

[3] 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.

[4] The number of colonists was increased by Mark Antony, Augustus (who constructed an aqueduct from the Mons Tifata and gave the town of Capua estates in the district of Knossos in Crete valued at 12 million sesterces) and Nero.

Under the later empire it is not often mentioned, but in the 4th century it was the seat of the consularis Campaniae and its chief town, though Ausonius put it behind Mediolanum (Milan) and Aquileia in his ordo nobilium urbium.

When the Lombards invaded Italy in the second half of the 6th century, Capua was ravaged; later, it was included in the Duchy of Benevento, and ruled by an official styled gastald.

In 840, ancient Capua was burned to the ground by a band of Saracen mercenaries called by Radelchis I of Benevento[6] with only the church of Santa Maria Maggiore (founded about 497) remaining (which was purposely spared by the invading Muslims, whose policy was that to leave houses of worship alone).

In the early 1500s, it was reported to Pope Alexander VI that his son, Cesare Borgia, had captured the city and promptly killed all 6,000 citizens, which included women and children, while commanding French troops during the sieges of Naples and Capua.

[8] On 3 January 1799, during the French Revolutionary Wars, this community was successfully attacked by a French-controlled 1798–1799 Roman Republic Army led by Governor MacDonald.

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.

A group of 150 tuff statuettes represent a matron holding one or more children in her lap: three bore Latin inscriptions of the early Imperial period.

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 Arch of Hadrian (a triumphal arch of brickwork, once faced with marble, with three openings, erected in honour of some emperor unknown), and continues to run in this direction for 1,600 metres (5,200 ft) (6,000 ancient Oscan feet).

Beloch fixes it at 4,000 Oscan feet = 1,100 metres (3,600 ft), 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.

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 Roman colony was divided into regions and possessed a capitolium, with a temple of Jupiter, within the town, and the marketplace, for unguents especially, was called Seplasia; an aedes alba is also mentioned, which is probably the original senate house, which stood in an open space known as albana.

[9] Outside the town, in Santa Maria Capua Vetere, there 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.

[5] 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.

[5] 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.