Cales
CALES (mod. Calvi), an ancient city of Campania, belonging Originally to the Aurunci, on the Via Latina, 8 m. N.N.W. of Casilinum. It was taken by the Romans in 335 B.C. , and, a colony with Latin rights of 2500 citizens having been established there, it was for a long time the centre of the Roman dominion in Campania, and the seat of the quaestor for southern Italy even down to the days of Tacitus.[1] It was an important base in the war against Hannibal, and at last refused further contributions for the war. Before 184 more settlers were sent there. After the Social War it became a municipium. The fertility of its territory and its manufacture of black glazed pottery, which was even exported to Etruria, made it prosperous. At the end of the 3rd century it appears as a colony, and in the 5th century it became an episcopal see, which (jointly with Teano since 1818) it still is, though it is now a mere village. The cathedral, of the 12th century, has a carved portal and three apses decorated with small arches and pilasters, and contains a fine pulpit and episcopal throne in marble mosaic. Near it are two grottos which have been used for Christian worship and contain frescoes of the 10th and 11th centuries (E. Bertaux, L'Art dans l'Italie méridionale (Paris, 1904), i. 244, etc.). Inscriptions name six gates of the town: and there are considerable remains of antiquity, especially of an amphitheatre and theatre, of a supposed temple, and other edifices. A number of tombs belonging to the Roman necropolis were discovered in 1883.
See C. Hülsen in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopädie, iii. 1351 (Stuttgart, 1899).
(T. As.)
[1] To the period after 335 belong numerous silver and bronze coins with the legend Caleno.
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
