Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/528

 610 CAPSA- 2. A tributary of the Maeandcr, rising in Phiy- gia. [Maeanork.] CAPSA (Kdif^a: Cafta or Ghafsah, Ra.), an important city in the extreme S. of Nomidia (aft. in Byzacium), standing in a fertile and well-watered oasis, in the midst of an arid desert abounding in serpents, SW. of Thelepte, and NW. of Tacape. Its foundation was ascribed to the Libyan Hercules, and it seems to be the Hecatompjloe of Poljbius (i. 73) and Diodorus (iv. 18; comp. Fraf^. Lib. xxiv). In the Jugurthine War it was the treasury of Jugurtha, and was taken and destroyed by Marius; but it was afterwards rebuilt, and made a colony. Its names are found on inscrii^tions at Caftct. (Sallust. Jug. 89, et seq.; Flor. iii. 1; Strab. xvii. p. 831; Plin. v. 4 ; It. Ant. l.c. ; Tab. PeuL; Ptol. iv. 3. § 39 ; NotU. Afr.; Shaw, p. 124, 2nd ed). [P. S.] CATUA (Kairi^ : Eth. Karvai^hf, or Kairviifftos: in Latin Capucnsis and Capuanus ; but originally, Campanus, which is the only form found in Livy or Cicero: Sta Maria di CapotM)^ the capital of Campania, and one of the most important and cele- brated cities of Italy. It was situated about 2 miles from the river VuUumus, and little more than one from the foot of Monnt Tifata. The origin and etymology of tlie name are much disputed. The most probable derivation is that adopted by Livy, from '* Campus," on account of its situation in a fertile plain; it is certain that the name of Capua is found inseparably connected with that of Campania; the citizens of Capua are constantly called Cam- pani, and the territory " Campanus ager." Thus also Virgil uses " Campana urbs " for Capua. (A en. X. 145.) Strabo, on the other hand, derives it from " caput," as the chief city or head of the surrounding region; while others, according to cus- tom, derived it from a founder of the name of Capys, whom some represented as the leader of the Samnite conquerors in b. c. 423, while others made him a contemporary of Aeneas, or connected him with the kings of Alba Longa. (Liv. iv. 37 ; Strab. v. p. 242 ; Fcstus, 8.V. Capua; Virg. ilen. x. 145; and Senrius ad loc. ; Stat. Silv. iii. 5. 77.) There is much uncertainty also as to the time when the city first received this name: Livy ex- pres.sly tells us that its Etruscan name was Vul- tunmm, and that it first received that of Capua from the Samnites : other writers represent Capua itself as a word of Tuscan origin. (Intpp. ap. Serv. I. c.) The name must certainly be of greater anti- quity than the date assigned to it by Livy, if we may trust to the accuracy of Stephanus of Byzan- tium, who cites it as used by Hecataeus, and it is not improbable that it was the Oscan name of the city long before the period of the Samnite conquest, and was only revived at that period. Ancient writers are generally agreed in ascribing the foundation of Capua to the Etruscans : this was the statement of Cato, as well as of those authors who diftered from him widely as to its date (Veil. Pat. i. 7); and is confirmed by Strabo (v. p. 242); at the same time it is not improbable that there was already an Oilcan town upon the site which was selected by the Tuscans for that of their new capital of Vulturnum. The period of this foundation was a subject of great uncertainty among the ancients themselves. Cato, as we leana from Velleius, re- ferred it to so late a period as B. c 47 1 ; while other authors (whose names are not mentioned) assigned to it a greater antiquity tlian Rome, and placed the foundation about 800 b. c. The latter may yeiy CAPUA. probably have been adopted with a view to make it agree with the supposed date of its heroic founder CapjTs ; but, on the other hand, it is almost im- possible to reconcile the date given by Cato with what we know firom other sources of tiie Etruscan history, or to believe,as Velleius himself observes, that Capua had risen within so short a period to so high a pitch of {Mxisperity and power. The earlier date is adopted by Miiller (Etruiker, vol. i. p. 172), while Niebuhr follows Cato (voL i. p. 75). It seems certain that under the Etruscan rule Capua was not only the chief city of the twelve which are said to have been founded by that people in this part of Italy, and as such exercised a kind of supremacy over the rest (Strab. /. c); but that it had attained to a degree of wealth and prosperity surpassing that of most cities in Italy. But the luxurious and efiemi- nate habits which resulted from their opulent con- dition, unfitted the inhabitants for war, and they were unable to oope with their more haivly ndgh- bours the Samnites, who harassed them with con- tinnal hostilities. The Etruscans were at length reduced to purchase peace by admitting the Sam- nites to all the ]vivilege8 of citizens, and sliaring with them their lands as well as their city. But the new comers were not long contented with a part only of these advantages; and they took the oppor- tunity of a solemn festival to surprise and massacre their Tuscan associates, and thus became sole masters of the city, b. c. 423. (Liv. iv. 37, vii. 38.) The circumstances of this revdution, as related to us, would in themselves prove that the Etruscan occupants of Capua were little more than a domi- nant aristocracy: the original Oscan population were so far from being expelled or destroyed by the Sam* nites, that they were probably restored to greater liberty, and were blended together with their new rulers into the Campanian people. Thus it is clearly to this event that Diodorus refers when he uses the phrase that the Campanian nation now firsit rose into being (o-vWott;, Died. xii. 31). He placeis it, however, seventeen years earUer than Idyjj or in B. G. 440. Capua from henceforth became an essentially Oscan city ; but it is probable that the difference of origin between the Samnite rulers and the purely Oxan populace continued to influence its political condition, and that the strongly marked opposition which we find existing on many occasions between the knights or aristocracy and the po{mlar party, in thb as well as other cities of Campania, proceeded originally from this cause. The dumge of rulers did not afiect the prosperity of the dty, which appears to have continued to exerdse a kind of supremacy over those in its naghbourhood, and increased so much in wealth and population that it is called by Livy, in b. c. 343, ** urbs maxima opulentissimaque Italiae." (Liv. vii. 31.) But this wealth was not without its disadvantages : eighty years' possession of Capua and its fertile territory reduced the Samnite conquerors to a state of luxury and effeminacy similar to that of their Etruscan predecessors, and rendered them equally unfit to contend with their more hardy brethren who had continued to inhabit their native mountains. (Liv. vii. 29 — 32.) Hence, when in B. c. 343 their assistance was invdced by the nrigh- bouring petty tribe of the Sidicini, to protect them against the aggressions of the Samnites, though they readily undertook the task, they were totally defeated by the Samnites in the plain between Mt. Tifata and thor city ; and campelled to shut them^