Calatia

Calatia was an ancient town of Campania, Italy, 6 m. SE of Capua, on the Via Appia, near the point where the Via Popillia branches off from it. It is represented by the church of Giacomo alle Galazze. The Via Appia here, as at Capua, abandons its former SE direction for a length of 2,000 Oscan ft. (1,804 English ft.), for which it runs due east and then resumes its course SE. There are no ruins, but a considerable quantity of debris; and the pre-Roman necropolis was partially excavated in 1882. Ten shafts lined with slabs of tufa which were there found may have been the approaches to tombs or may have served as wells. The history of Calatia is practically 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 and recaptured by the "dictator" 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 we hear of its walls being repaired by the "censors". In 59 BC a colony was established here by Caesar.