The New Student's Reference Work/Naples (kingdom)

Naples, a former kingdom in southern Italy, owed its creation to Greek colonists, the two settlements, Palæopolis and Neapolis, long existing as one community, Parthenope. After the subjugation by Rome only Neapolis remained, and this became Rome's ally. After resisting Pyrrhus and Hannibal, it fell, by treachery, into the control of Sulla's friends, who murdered its people (82 B. C.). Under the empire it became a famous residence place on account of its poets and its climate. After the fall of Rome it sided with the Goths, but was taken by Belisarius (536) and, six years after, by Totila. Soon afterwards the Byzantine emperors acquired it through Narses, and it was made the head of a duchy. As such it revolted and remained independent until conquered by the Normans in the 11th century. In 1266 the popes gave the sovereignty of Naples to Charles of Anjou, but during the reign of Robert I the predominance of the papal party, the ravages of the Germans, the depravity of Juana, Robert's heiress, and the unsuccessful attempts to recover Sicily were the only important events that marked the Angevin rule, which ended with Juana II in 1435. Then succeeded the Aragon rule. Between 1494 and 1504 France and Spain fought for the possession of Naples, but it was united with Sicily, forming the Two Sicilies, and was governed by Spanish viceroys down to 1707. In that year Austria wrested Naples from Spain only to give it in 1735 to Don Carlos, who founded the Bourbon rule. In 1789 it was invaded by the French troops and in 1806, when Napoleon proclaimed his brother Joseph king. In 1808 the crown was given to Joachim Murat, but on his defeat and execution in 1815 the Bourbon monarch was restored. The revolutions of 1821 and 1848 led to the overthrow of the Bourbon government by Garibaldi and to the incorporation of Sardinia and Naples with the kingdom of Italy in 1861. Naples (Napoli) to-day is a province of Italy, with an area of 350 square miles, and a population of 1,354,896. See History of the Kingdom of Naples by Colletta, translated by S. Horner.