Caudium (modern

Montesarchio Montesarchio ( nap, Muntesarchio; la, Caudium; grc, Καύδιον, Kaúdion) is a ''comune'' in the Province of Benevento, Campania, southern Italy. It is located south-west of Benevento in the Valle Caudina at the foot of Monte Taburno. The ...

) was the main city of the ancient Caudini tribe in

Samnium Samnium ( it, Sannio) is a Latin exonym for a region of Southern Italy anciently inhabited by the Samnites. Their own endonyms were ''Safinim'' for the country (attested in one inscription and one coin legend) and ''Safineis'' for the The lan ...

situated on the

Appian Way The Appian Way (Latin and Italian language, Italian: ''Via Appia'') is one of the earliest and strategically most important Roman roads of the ancient Roman Republic, republic. It connected Rome to Brindisi, in southeast Italy. Its importance is ...

between Beneventum (modern Benevento) and

Capua Capua ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in the province of Caserta, in the region of Campania, southern Italy, situated north of Naples, on the northeastern edge of the Campanian plain. History Ancient era The name of Capua comes from the Etrusc ...

, in what is now southern

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. It was 21

Roman mile The mile, sometimes the international mile or statute mile to distinguish it from other miles, is a British imperial unit and United States customary unit of distance; both are based on the older English unit of length equal to 5,280 Engli ...

s from Capua, and 11 from Beneventum. It, or nearby

Arpaia Arpaia is a town, ''comune'' (municipality) and former (now titular) episcopal see in the Province of Benevento in the southern Italian region Campania, located about 35 km northeast of Naples and about 25 km southwest of Benevento. Ar ...

, became the seat of an early bishopric, which is now a Latin Catholic

titular see A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbish ...

History

In early times it was an important site, either the capital or chief city of the

Caudini The Caudini were a Samnite tribe that lived among the mountains ringing Campania and in the valleys of the Isclero and Volturnus rivers. Their capital was at Caudium, but it seems certain that the appellation was not confined to the citizens of C ...

. Grave goods, found in the necropolis nearby, show that the site was inhabited from the 8th to the 3rd centuries. Caudium is first mentioned during the

Second Samnite War The First, Second, and Third Samnite Wars (343–341 BC, 326–304 BC, and 298–290 BC) were fought between the Roman Republic and the Samnites, who lived on a stretch of the Apennine Mountains south of Rome and north of the Lucanian tribe. ...

, when in 321 BC the Samnite army under

Pontius Telesinus Pontius Telesinus (died 2 November 82 BC) was the last independent leader of the Italic Samnites before their annexation by the Roman Republic. A fierce patriot, he was one of the rebel commanders in the Marsic War, Social War (91–87 BC) against ...

encamped there just before their great victory over the Romans in the nearby mountain pass called the

Caudine Forks The Battle of Caudine Forks, 321 BC, was a decisive event of the Second Samnite War. Its designation as a battle is a mere historical formality: there was no fighting and there were no casualties. The Romans were trapped in an enclosed valley by ...

(Livy 9.2), whose exact location is disputed. A few years later, the Samnites used Caudium as a place from which to watch the Campanians (Liv. 9.27). Caudium is not mentioned during the

Second Punic War The Second Punic War (218 to 201 BC) was the second of three wars fought between Carthage and Rome, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean in the 3rd century BC. For 17 years the two states struggled for supremacy, primarily in Ital ...

, but the Caudini are repeatedly mentioned. Niebuhr supposed that the city was destroyed by the Romans in revenge for their great defeat at the Caudine Forks, but there is no evidence for this, and in a later period it was known as a stopping place along the Appian Way, both in the time of Augustus (Hor. ''Sat''. 1.5.51; Strabo 5. p. 249) and in the late empire. In the triumviral period Caudium received a

colony In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the ''metropole, metropolit ...

of veterans; and it appears from Pliny, as well as from inscriptions, that it retained its municipal character, though deprived of a large portion of its territory in favor of the neighboring city of Beneventum. (Plin. iii. 11. s. 16; Lib. Colon. p. 232; Orelli, Inscr. 128, 131.) The period of its destruction is unknown: the name is still found in the 9th century, but it is uncertain whether the town still existed at that time.

Ecclesiastical history

The ancient

bishopric In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

of Caudium is considered to have had its seat at what is now the village of Arpaia rather than at present-day Montesarchio. Felicissimus, in 496, is the only ancient bishop of the see whose name is known. In the 10th century its territory became part of the diocese of

Sant'Agata de' Goti Sant'Agata de' Goti is a ''comune'' (municipality) and former Catholic bishopric in the Province of Benevento in the Italian region Campania, located about 35 km northeast of Naples and about 25 km west of Benevento near the Monte Taburn ...

. The diocese of Caudium was nominally restored in 1970 by the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

as Latin

titular bishopric A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbish ...

.''Annuario Pontificio 2013'' (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ), p. 839 of Caudium (Latin) / Arpaia (Curiate Italian) / Caudin(us) (Latin adjective).

References

Bibliography

* * * ; Ecclesiastical history * Gaetano Moroni, ''Dizionario di erudizione storico-ecclesiastica'', vol. 10, p. 283 * Francesco Lanzoni, ''Le diocesi d'Italia dalle origini al principio del secolo VII (an. 604)'', vol. I, Faenza 1927, p. 186 {{Archaeological sites in Campania Samnite cities Cities and towns in Campania Province of Benevento Former populated places in Italy Archaeological sites in Campania

History

Ecclesiastical history

See also

References

Bibliography