Atella
- An ancient town of the Osci, in Campania, on the Clanius,near the present Aversa, Cic. Agr. 2, 31; Suet. Tib. 75; Sil. 11, 14; cf. Mann. Ital. I. p. 779.—
- II Derivv. Ātellānus, a, um, adj., of or belonging to Atella, Atellan: municipium, Cic. ad Q. Fr. 2, 14 fin.: Ātel-lāni, ōrum, m., the inhabitants of Atella, Plin. 3, 5, 9, § 63.—But esp. freq. Atellana fabula, fabella, or simply Ātellāna, ae, f., a comic but not wanton kind of popular farce that originated in Atella, which, with the comedy borrowed from Greece, was highly relished at Rome, especially by the youth, and continued to be represented even to the time of the emperors; the class. passage for it is Liv. 7, 2, 12; Juv. 6, 71; Suet. Tib. 45; id. Calig. 27; id. Ner. 39; Gell. 12, 10, 7; 17, 2, 8; Fest. s. v. personata, p. 217 Müll.; Diom. pp. 487 and 488 P.; Varr. L. L. 7, §§ 29, 84; 95 Müll.; Cic. Fam. 9, 16, 7 al.; cf. Munk de Fabulis Atellanis, Lips. 1840, and Teuffel, Röm. Lit. §§ 6, 4 and 9 sq.—Hence,
- III Derivv.
- 1 Ātellā-nus, i, m., an actor in an Atellan farce, Suet. Galb. 13; Quint. 6, 3, 47; also as adj.: gesticulator, Tert. Spect. 17.—
- 2 Ātellā-nĭus, a, um, adj., pertaining to the Atellan farce: versus, Cic. Div. 2, 10, 25: ars, Macr. S. 1, 10.—
- 3 Ātellānĭcus, a, um, adj., the same: exodium, Suet. Tib. 45: versus, Petr. 68, 5.—
- 4 Ātellānĭŏla, ae, f. dim., a small Atellan piece, M. Aur. ap. Fronto, Ep. ad M. Caes. 2, 3.
ATELLA(Ἀτελλα: Eth. Ἀτελλανός, Atellanus), a city of Campania, situated on the road from Capua to Neapolis, at the distance of 9 miles from each of those two cities. (Steph. B. s.v.; Tab. Peut. ) Its name is not found in history during the wars of the Romans with the Campanians, nor on occasion of the settlement of Campania in B.C. 336: it probably followed the fortunes of its powerful neighbour Capua, though its independence is attested by its coins. In the second Punic war the Atellani were among the first to declare for the Carthaginians after the battle of Cannae (Liv. 22.61; Sil. Ital.). hence, when they fell into the power of the Romans, after mouth the reduction of Capua, B.C. 211, they were very severely treated: the chief citizens and authors of the revolt were executed on the spot, while of the rest of the inhabitants the greater part were sold as slaves, and others removed to distant settlements. The next year (210) the few remaining inhabitants were compelled to migrate to Calatia, and the citizens of Nuceria, whose own city had been destroyed by Hannibal, were settled at Atella in their stead. (Liv. 26.16, 33, 34, 27.3.) After this it appears to have quickly revived, and Cicero speaks of it as, in his time, a flourishing and important municipal town. It was under the especial patronage and protection of the great orator himself, but we do not know what was the origin of this peculiar connection between them. (Cic. de Leg. Agr. 2.3. 1, ad Fam. 13.7, ad Q. Fr. 2.14.) Under Augustus it received a colony of military settlers; but continued to be a place only of municipal rank, and is classed by Strabo among the smaller towns of Campania. Plin. Nat. 3.5. s. 9; Strab. 5. p. 249; Ptol. 3.1.68; Orell. Inscr. 130.) It continued to exist as an episcopal see till the ninth century, but was then much decayed; and in A.D. 1030 the inhabitants were removed to the neighbouring town of Aversa, then lately founded by the Norman Count Rainulphus. Some remains of its walls and other ruins are still visible at a spot; about 2 miles E. of Aversanear the villages of S. Aspinoand S. Elpidio;and an old church on the site is still called Sta Maria di Atella.Numerous inscriptions, terracottas, and other minor antiquities, have been found there. (Holsten. Not in Cluv. p.260; Romanelli, vol. iii. . 592.)
The name of Atella is best known in connection with the peculiar class of dramatic representations which derived from thence the appellation of Fabulae Atellanae,and which were borrowed from them by the Romans, among whom they enjoyed for a time especial favour, so as to be exempt from the penalties and disqualifications which attached to the actors of other dramatic performances. At a later period, however, they degenerated into so licentious a character, that in the reign of Tiberius they were altogether prohibited, and the actors banished from Italy. These plays were originally written in the Oscan dialect, which they appear to have mainly contributed to preserve in its purity. (Liv. 7.2; Strab. 5. p. 233; Tac. Ann. 4.14.For further particulars concerning the Fabulae Atellanae see Bernhardy, Römische Literatur. p. 379, &c.) The early importance of Atella is further attested by its coins, which resemble in their types those of Capua, but bear the legend, in Oscan characters, Aderl,--evidently the native form of the name. (Millingen, Numism. de l'Italie, p. 190; Friedländer, Oskische Münzen, p. 15.)
[E.H.B]The modern Aversa; a town in Campania between Capua and Neapolis, originally inhabited by the Oscans, afterwards a Roman municipium and a colony.
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.
BIBLIOGRAPHYTh. 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