Cālātia was an ancient town of

Campania Campania is an administrative Regions of Italy, region of Italy located in Southern Italy; most of it is in the south-western portion of the Italian Peninsula (with the Tyrrhenian Sea to its west), but it also includes the small Phlegraean Islan ...

, southern

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, c. 10 km southeast of

Capua Capua ( ; ) 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. History Ancient era The name of Capua comes from the Etruscan ''Capeva''. The ...

, on the

Via Appia The Appian Way (Latin and Italian: Via Appia) is one of the earliest and strategically most important Roman roads of the ancient republic. It connected Rome to Brindisi, in southeast Italy. Its importance is indicated by its common name, recor ...

, near the point where the Via Popillia branches off from it. It is represented by a locality known as ''Villa Galazia'' and by the church of ''San Giacomo alle Galazze'' (or ''San Giacomo delle Galazze'' or ''San Giacomo Le Galazze''), within the modern town of Maddaloni, very near the boundary with the neighboring town of San Nicola la Strada, and right on the Via Appia. The Via Appia here, as at Capua, abandons its former SE direction for a length of 2,000

Oscan Oscan is an extinct Indo-European language of southern Italy. The language is in the Osco-Umbrian or Sabellic branch of the Italic languages. Oscan is therefore a close relative of Umbrian and South Picene. Oscan was spoken by a number of t ...

feet (500 m), for which it runs due east and then resumes its course SE. Ruins include remains of the walls (with sector from the Samnite age, in

tuff Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock co ...

, and others from the

Sulla Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix (, ; 138–78 BC), commonly known as Sulla, was a Roman people, Roman general and statesman of the late Roman Republic. A great commander and ruthless politician, Sulla used violence to advance his career and his co ...

period) and the pre-Roman

necropolis A necropolis (: necropolises, necropoles, necropoleis, necropoli) is a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek ''nekropolis'' (). The term usually implies a separate burial site at a distan ...

was partially excavated in 1882. The ten shafts lined with slabs of tuff which may have been the approaches to tombs or may have served as wells. The history of Calatia is similar to that of its more powerful neighbor Capua, but as it lay near the point where the Via Appia turns east and enters the mountains, it had some strategic importance. In 313 BC it was taken by the

Samnites The Samnites () were an ancient Italic peoples, Italic people who lived in Samnium, which is located in modern inland Abruzzo, Molise, and Campania in south-central Italy. An Oscan language, Oscan-speaking Osci, people, who originated as an offsh ...

and recaptured by the ''

dictator A dictator is a political leader who possesses absolute Power (social and political), power. A dictatorship is a state ruled by one dictator or by a polity. The word originated as the title of a Roman dictator elected by the Roman Senate to r ...

'' Fabius Maximus Rullianus; the Samnites captured it again in 311 BC, but it must have been retaken at an unknown date. In the 3rd century BC we find it issuing coins with an Oscan legend, but in 211 BC it shared the fate of Capua. In 174 BC it is mentioned that its walls were being repaired by the '' censors''. In 59 BC a colony was established here by

Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war. He ...

References

Attribution: Roman sites of Campania Former populated places in Italy Samnite cities Archaeological sites in Campania {{AncientRome-stub