Caudium (modern

Montesarchio Montesarchio (; ; ) is a ''comune'' in the Province of Benevento, Campania, Southern Italy. It is located southwest of Benevento in the Valle Caudina at the foot of Monte Taburno. The commune was granted the official status of city (''città'') b ...

) was the main city of the ancient Caudini tribe in

Samnium Samnium () 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 language of t ...

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 in ...

between Beneventum (modern Benevento) and

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

, in what is now southern

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. 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 length; both are based on the older English unit of length equal to 5,280 English ...

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 archbi ...

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 ...

. 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 Lucanians, Lucania ...

, when in 321 BC the Samnite army under

Gaius Pontius Gaius Pontius (fl. 321 BC), sometimes called Gavius Pontius, was a Samnite commander during the Second Samnite War. He is most well known for his victory over the Roman legions at the Battle of the Caudine Forks in 321 BC. He was eventually capt ...

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

Caudine Forks Valle Caudina (Caudine Valley) is a densely settled Italian valley with about 69,000 inhabitants. It is located in Campania, between the Province of Benevento and the Province of Avellino. Comunes In the Valle Caudina there are 14 Italian ''comune ...

(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 Punic Wars, three wars fought between Ancient Carthage, Carthage and Roman Republic, Rome, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean Basin, Mediterranean in the 3rd century BC. For ...

, 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 A colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule, which rules the territory and its indigenous peoples separated from the foreign rulers, the colonizer, and their ''metropole'' (or "mother country"). This separated rule was often orga ...

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 northeast of Naples and about west of Benevento near the Monte Taburno. History Sant' ...

. 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 List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

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