efore, be accepted.[1] The origin of the name is
probably _Campus_, a plain,[2] as the adjective _Campanus_ shows,
_Capuanus_ being a later form stigmatized as incorrect by Varro (_De
L.L._ x. 16). The derivation from [Greek: kapys] (a vulture, Latinized
into _Volturnum_ by some authorities who tell us that this was the
original name), and that from _caput_ (as though the name had been given
it as the "head" of the twelve Etruscan cities of Campania), must be
rejected. The Etruscan supremacy in Campania came to an end with the
Samnite invasion in the latter half of the 5th century B.C. (see
CAMPANIA); these conquerors, however, entered into alliance with Rome
for protection against the Samnite mountain tribes, and with Capua came
the dependent communities Casilinum, Calatia, Atella, so that the
greater part of Campania now fell under Roman supremacy. The citizens
received the _civitas sine suffragio_. In the second Samnite War they
proved untrustworthy, so that the Ager Falernus on the right bank of the
Volturnus was taken from them and distributed among citizens of Rome,
the _tribus Falerna_ being thus formed; and in 318 the powers of the
native officials (_meddices_) were limited by the appointment of
officials with the title _praefecti Capuam Cumas_ (taking their name
from the most important towns of Campania); these were at first mere
deputies of the _praetor urbanus_, but after 123 B.C. were elected Roman
magistrates, four in number; they governed the whole of Campania until
the time of Augustus, when they were abolished. In 312 B.C. Capua was
connected with Rome by the construction of the Via Appia, the most
important of the military highways of Italy. The gate by which it left
the Servian walls of Rome bore the name Porta Capena--perhaps the only
case in which a gate in this enceinte bears the name of the place to
which it led. At what time the Via Latina was prolonged to Casilinum is
doubtful (it is quite possible that it was done when Capua fell under
Roman supremacy, i.e. before the construction of the Via Appia); it
afforded a route only 6 m. longer, and the difficulties in connexion
with its construction were much less; it also avoided the troublesome
journey through the Pomptine Marshes (see T. Ashby in _Papers of the
British School at Rome_, i. 217, London, 1902). The importance of Capua
increased steadily during the 3rd century, and at the beginning of the
second Punic War it was considered to be only sligh