Listed 4 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "NOLA Town CAMPANIA" .
AVELLA (Ancient city) CAMPANIA
Abella (Abella, Strab., Ptol.: Eth. Abellanus, Insert. ap. Orell.
3316, Avellanus, Plin.: Avella Vecchia), a city in the interior of Campania, about
5 miles NE. of Nola. According to Justin (xx. 1), it was a Greek city of Chalcidic
origin, which would lead us to suppose that it was a colony of Cumae: but at a
later period it had certainly become an Oscan town, as well as the neighboring
city of Nola. No mention of it is found in history, though it must have been at
one time a place of importance. Strabo and Pliny both notice it among the inland
towns of Campania; and though we learn from the Liber de Coloniis, that Vespasian
settled a number of his freedmen and dependants there, yet it appears, both from
that treatise and from Pliny, that it had not then attained the rank of a colony,
a dignity which we find it enjoying in the time of Trajan. It probably became
such in the reign of that emperor. (Strab. p. 249; Plin. iii. 5.9; Ptol. iii.
1.68; Lib. Colon. p. 230; Gruter. Inscr. p. 1096, 1; Zumpt, de Coloniis, p.
400.) We learn from Virgil and Silius Italicus that its territory was not fertile
in corn, but rich in fruit-trees (maliferae Abellae): the neighbourhood also abounded
in filberts or hazelnuts of a very choice quality, which were called from thence
nuces Avellanae (Virg. Aen. vii. 740; Sil. Ital. viii. 545; Plin. xv. 22; Serv.
ad Georg. ii. 65). The modern town of Avella is situated in the plain near the
foot of the Apennines; but the remains of the ancient city, still called Avella
Vecchia, occupy a hill of considerable height, forming one of the underfalls of
the mountains, and command an extensive view of the plain beneath; hence Virgil's
expression despectant moenia Abellae. The ruins are described as extensive, including
the vestiges of an amphitheatre, a temple, and other edifices, as well as a portion
of the ancient walls. (Pratilli, Via Appia, p. 445; Lupuli, Iter Venusin. p. 19;
Romanelli, vol. iii. p. 597; Swinburne, Travels, vol. i. p. 105.) Of the numerous
relics of antiquity discovered here, the most interesting is a long inscription
in the Oscan language, which records a treaty of alliance between the citizens
of Abella and those of Nola. It dates (according to Mommsen) from a period shortly
after the Second Punic War, and is not only curious on account of details concerning
the municipal magistrates, but is one of the most important auxiliaries we possess
for a study of the Oscan language. This curious monument still remains in the
museum of the Seminary at Nola: it has been repeatedly published, among others
by Passeri (Linguae Oscae Specimen Singulare, fol. Romae, 1774), but in the most
complete and satisfactory manner by Lepsius (Inscr. Umbr. et Osc. tab. xxi.) and
Mommsen (Die Unter-Italischen Dialekte, p. 119).
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Abella or Avella. A town of Campania, not far from Nola, founded by the Chalcidians in Euboea. It was celebrated for its apples, whence Vergil calls it malifera.
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