Abella
Abella was an ancient city in Campania . She was close to Nola on the road from Capua to Abellinum . According to Servius (to Aeneid 7, 740) the city was founded as Moera by a king Muranus , but both the founder and the name of the city are mythological. Abella traces another tradition back to Greek colonists from Chalkis . During the alliance war it stood loyally on the side of Rome and was therefore 87 BC. Burned down by Nola. Already before 73 BC Abella was a Roman colony. At the time of Vespasian the city was also a municipium , the land of the city was distributed to veterans.
The city was famous for its fruit growing, especially for its hazelnuts ( nux abellana ). A special testimony is the Cippo Abellano , a contract written in Oskisch between Nola and Abella about a Hercules sanctuary. From literary and epigraphic sources we know of larger structures such as a theater, an amphitheater (from the time immediately after the establishment as a Roman colony; ruins of the amphitheater are still preserved today), an aqueduct and a basilica. To the east and west of the city there are graves from the Iron Age to the Roman period.
literature
- Christian Hülsen : Abella . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume I, 1, Stuttgart 1893, Col. 27 f.
Coordinates: 40 ° 58 ' N , 14 ° 36' E