ATELLA
Italy.
A city of the Campanian
plain, S of Clanis, in the vicinity of modern Sant'Arpino
and Frattaminore. The city plan was trapezoidal with a
grid that contained three major streets and some cross-streets. The settlement appears to date to the first half
of the 4th c. B.C., but the area was already inhabited
during the Iron Age.
During the war with Hannibal, Atella formed part
of the state of the Campani although it was formally independent and struck its own coins. It made common
cause with Capua in the defection from Rome and for
that act was punished after the surrender of 211 by
the confiscation of a large portion of its territory, put
under the praefecti Capuam Cumas along with neighboring Campanian territory. In the Imperial period,
Atella was a flourishing municipium with tributaries in
Spain. In the Late Empire it was destroyed, and abandoned in the 11th c. The Oscan farce known as the
fabulae Atellanae derives its name from Atella.
A few remains of the walls, protected by a wide
trench and constructed of tufa blocks, are visible and
in the urban area are remains of a large bath building
dating to the first half of the 2d c. A.D. Recently, remains
of private dwellings and a bath of the late Republican
period have been discovered. All were restored in the
Late Empire. The existence of an amphitheater in the
reign of Tiberius is attested by Tacitus. Square tombs
from the 4th c. have been excavated in the necropolis as
well as partially chambered tombs of the Hellenistic
and Roman periods, some of which had sumptuous furnishings. Numerous other tombs of the 4th and 3d c.
B.C. have been discovered in the area, particularly near
Afragola and at Caivano, which is also the place of
origin of the paintings of a funerary hypogeum of the
2d c. A.D.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Th. Mommsen in
CIL X, 359; J. Beloch,
Campanien (2d ed., 1890) 379f; Hülsen in
RE II 2
(1896) 1913f; G. Castaldi in
Memorie Accademia Napoli
(1908) 62f. For the necropoleis here and there in the
area, see
NSc, 1879, 1889, 1931, 1944-45, and in
MonAnt
34 (1931).
W. JOHANNOWSKY
