Atella

Remains

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, the last three of which formed the comune of Atella di Napoli in the mid‑20th century. The territory of ancient Atella is now in the comuni of Caivano, Cardito, Cesa, Frattamaggiore, Grumo Nevano and Sant'Antimo. The archaeological museum of Atella is at Succivo.

The Atellan farce was one of the forms of entertainment of local origin that influenced the Latin theatre.

History

Atella was a city of Oscan origin, one of the oldest in Campania and one of the first to have obtained the Roman civitas. It was crossed by the Via Atellana, which led southwest to Cumae and northeast to Capua. Part of the route of Via Atellana is preserved today, with the same name, in the stretch that crosses Frattaminore.

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. 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. 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.

In the slave revolt of Spartacus, the slave army was brought to the city after they defeated Lucius Furius and Lucius Cossinius in Nuceria. Near the city, a fight broke out between the rebels and a Roman force.

Augustus was cured here of a serious illness by the physician Marcus Antonius Musa with a therapy of cold baths in 23 BC.