Cales
- a town in Southern Campania, celebrated for its good wine, now Calvi, Cic. Agr. 2, 35, 95; id. Phil. 12, 11, 27; id. Att. 7, 14, 1; Hor. C. 4, 12, 14; Cato R. R. 135, 1; Verg. A. 7, 728; Sil. 8, 514.—
- II Deriv.: Călēnus, a, um, adj., of Cales, Calenian: municipium, Cic. Fam. 9, 13, 3.—Absol., Cic. Att. 8, 3, 7: ager, Plin. 2, 103, 106, § 230: vinum, id. 14, 6, 8, § 65: prelum, Hor. C. 1, 20, 9: falx, id. ib. 1, 31, 9; also subst.,
- 1 Călēnum, i, n. (sc. vinum), Calenian wine: molle Calenum, Juv. 1, 69.—
- 2 Plur.: Călēni, ōrum, m., the inhabitants of Cales: C. Gracchus ap. Gell. 10, 3, 3.—In sing., Cic. Fam. 9, 13, 2.
CALES(Κάλης: Eth. Καληνός, Calenus: Calvi), one of the most considerable cities of Campania, situated in the northern part of that province, on the road from Teanum to Casilinum. (Strab. 5. p. 237.) When it first appears in history it is called an Ausonian city (Liv. 8.16): and was not included in Campania in the earlier and more restricted sense of that term. [CAMPANIA] Its antiquity is attested by Virgil, who associates the people of Cales with their neighbours the Aurunci and the Sidicini. ( Aen. 7.728.) Silius Italicus ascribes its foundation to Calais the son of Boreas. (8.514.) In B.C. 332, the inhabitants of Cales are first mentioned as taking up arms against the Romans in conjunction with their neighbours the Sidicini, but with little success; they were easily defeated, and their city taken and occupied with a Roman garrison. The conquest was, however, deemed worthy of a triumph, and the next year was further secured by the establishment of a colony of 2,500 citizens with Latin rights. (Liv. 8.16; Vellei. 1.14; Fast. Triumph.) From this time Cales became one of the strongholds of the Roman power in this part of Italy, and though its territory was repeatedly ravaged both by the Samnites, and at a later period by Hannibal, no attempt seems to have been made upon the city itself. (Liv. 10.20, 22.13, 15, 23.31, &c.) It, however, suffered so severely from the ravages of the war that in B.C. 209 it was one of the twelve colonies which declared their inability to furnish any further supplies of men or money (Liv. 27.9), and was in consequence punished at a later period by the imposition of heavier contributions. (Id. 29.15.) In the days of Cicero it was evidently a flourishing and populous town, and for some reason or other enjoyed the special favour and protection of the great orator. (Cic. de Leg. Agr. 2.3. 1, ad Farn. 9.13, ad Att. 7.14, &c.) He terms it a Municipium, and it retained the same rank under the Roman Empire (Tac. Ann. 6.15; Plin. Nat. 3.5. s. 9): its continued prosperity is attested by Strabo, who calls it a considerable city, though inferior to Teanum (5. p. 237; Ptol. 3.1.68), as well as by inscriptions and existing remains: but no further mention of it occurs in history. It was the birthplace of M. Vinicius, the son-in-law of Germnanicus, and patron of Velleius Paterculus. (Tac. l. c.) Cales was situated on a branch of the Via Latina, which led from Teanum direct to Casilinum, and there joined the Appian Way: it was rather more than five miles distant from Teanum, and above seven from Casilinum. Its prosperity was owing, in great measure, to the fertility of its territory, which immediately adjoined the celebrated Falernus ager,and was scarcely inferior to that favoured district in the excellence of its wines, the praises of which are repeatedly sung by Horace. (Hor. Carme. 1.20. 9, 31. 9, 4.12. 14; Juven. 1.69; Strab. 5. p. 243; Plin. Nat. 14.6. s. 8.) So fertile a district could not but be an object of desire, and we find that besides the original Roman colony, great part of the territory of Cales was repeatedly portioned out to fresh settlers : first in the time of the Gracchi, afterwards under Augustus. (Lib. Colon. p. 232.) Cales was also noted for its manufactures of implements of husbandry, and of a particular kind of earthenware vessels, called from their origin Calenae. (Cato, Cat. Agr. 135; Varr. ap. Nonium, 15. p. 545.)
After the fall of the Western Empire, Cales suffered severely from the ravages of successive invaders, and in the 9th century had almost ceased to exist: but was revived by the Normans.
The modern city of Calviretains its episcopal rank, but is a very poor and decayed place. It, however, preserves many vestiges of its former prosperity, the remains of an amphitheatre, a theatre, and various other fragments of ancient buildings, of reticulated masonry, and consequently belonging to the best period of the Roman Empire, as well as marble capitals and other fragments of sculpture. The course of the Via Latina, with its ancient pavement, may still be traced through the town. A spring of acidulous water, noticed by Pliny, as existing in agro Caleno(2.106) is still found near Francolisi, a village about four miles W. of Calvi. (Romanelli, vol. 3. p. 437; Hoare's Classical Tour, vol. i. pp. 246--248; Craven's Abruzzi, vol. 1. p. 27--30; Zona, Memorie dell' Antichissima città di Calvi, 4to., Napoli, 1820.)
The coins of Cales are numerous, both in silver and copper: but from the circumstance of their all having Latin legends, it is evident they all belong to the Roman colony. COIN OF CALES.
[E.H.B]CALES(Καλης, Καλλης), a river of Bithynia, 120 stadia east of Elaeus. (Arrian, p. 14; and Marc. p. 70.) This seems to be the river which Thucydides (Thuc. 4.75) calls Calex (Κάληξ), at the mouth of which Lamachus lost his ships, which were anchored there, owing to a sudden rise of the river. Thucydides places the Calex in the Heracleotis, which agrees very well with the position of the Cales. Lamachus and his troops were compelled to walk along the coast to Chalcedon. Pliny (Plin. Nat. 5.32) mentions a river Alces in Bithynia, which it has been conjectured, may be a corruption of Calex. There was on the river Cales also an emporium or trading place called Cales.
[G.L]The modern Calvi; the chief town of the Caleni, an Ausonian people in Campania, on the Via Latina, said to have been founded by Calaïs, son of Boreas, and therefore called Threïcia by the poets. It was celebrated for its excellent wine. See Vinum.
A city on the Via Latina. While older settlements are attested in the area on the basis of archaeological data, the city and its present site seem to date to the late 7th c. B.C., i.e., to the period of Etruscan hegemony which would coincide with what we already know from the necropolis. It remained the city of the Ausones until the siege by the Romans in 334 B.C. Following this it was reduced to a Latin colony, the first in Campania. During the Late Republican period, when it reappeared as a municipium, the city was the seat of the quaestor of Campania. In the Late Empire, it was practically destroyed by the Vandals under Genseric, and in the Longobard period a fortress was built on the site.
The city occupied a long, narrow plain, nearly surrounded by streams that cut deep into the tufa. At its highest point, to the N, there was a citadel. In the center of the settlement, crossed by the Via Latina, was the forum and some of the major public buildings. From the forum, the two sections of the major street, intersected by cross-streets, ran N-S, according to a plan well-attested elsewhere in Etruscan-Italic environs. The fortifications, built over some of the structures preserved from the 4th c. B.C. or even earlier, underwent important restorations in the age of Sulla. This is particularly true in the vicinity of the gates, to some of which access is gained over steep, narrow slopes in the tufa bank. Among the most notable buildings recognizable today are: the theater, in the area of the forum, of Late Hellenistic date and enlarged in the age of Sulla; the central baths and a terraced sanctuary of the Sullan period; a temple dating from the beginning of the Imperial period, not far from which were discovered votive offerings and some terracotta facings belonging to a sanctuary of the archaic period. North of the settlement are the Late Republican amphitheater (rebuilt 2d c. A.D.), and a monumental bath building of the first half of the 2d c. of the Empire. On the outskirts, in the S section, an important votive dumping area of the Hellenistic period has been partially explored.
In the W suburb, adjacent to the Via Latina, are remains of a palaestra partially incorporated into a basilica of the 5th c., as well as sure evidence of pottery shops of the Hellenistic period. Along the streets in the same area, the Hellenistic and Roman necropoleis extended, their sepulchral monuments in part dating to the 3d c. B.C. In a more N direction, there have been discovered archaic tombs, among which a sumptuous one dates to the late 7th c. with many grave gifts imported from Etruria.
Molded and decorated pottery with the potter's seal (called caleni) is attributed with certainty to Cales. The discovery of quite a number of molds has increased that certainty, and the pottery is dated between the last ten years of the 4th c. B.C. when the technique was introduced by Attic artisans, and the late 3d c. B.C. During the latter period, black glaze pottery of the commonest type began to be produced up until the first ten years of the 1st c. B.C. when gradually a high quality praesigillata was substituted.
The division of land in the territory evidently dates back to the city's reduction to colonial status in 334. Many country villas, in the plain as well as on the hillside, date to the Republican era.
BIBLIOGRAPHYTh. Mommsen in CIL x, p. 451f; Hülsen in RE III 1 col. 1351f; W. Johannowsky in BdA 46 (1961) 258f; see also M. Ruggiero Scavi di antichità nelle provincie di Terraferma (1888) 267f and in NSc 1883, 1895, 1929. On the ceramics see R. Pagenstecher, Die Calenische Reliefkeramik (1919). On centuriation, see F. Castagnoli in BullComm 75 (1953-54) Suppl. pp. 34f. On the villas in the area see P. v. Blanckenhagen et al., BSR 33 (1965) pp. 55f.
W. JOHANNOWSKY