Submitted for award of PhD September 2006. - King's College London

eflects the claim that Capua was the chief city of the area. 343 The modem theory that
the word Capua comes from the Etruscan word for falcon, capus in Latin, has some
linguistic foundations, but one may wonder whether this similarity is not just mere
coincidence. 344 Bonfante's idea that the name of the city proves that a group of
Illyrians lived in the region is not convincing 345 Livy claims that Capua was
renamed by the Samnites after their leader, Capys, but this is dubious in the light of
the reference in Hecataeus, which proves that the city was called Capua in the mid-
sixth century, long before the arrival of the Samnites.
The foundation stories of cities and populations were directed by ideological
or political reasons. Ancient sources, almost all dating from a later period, sought to
provide Capua with famous ancestors and a long, prestigious history, all paying
tribute to Capua's importance, which the city achieved by control of the most fertile
lands in Italy.
3.2.2. The Samnite takeover
The date and circumstances of the beginning of the domination of Capua by
Sainnite settlers are unclear. Under the year 438 BC, Diodorus Siculus notes: `In
Italy, during this year, the nation (E6voc) of the Campani was formed, deriving their
name from the fertility of the plain about them'. 346 Livy and Dionysius of
Halicarnassus present us with a different picture. Livy under the year 423 BC records
the occupation of Capua, an Etruscan town at the time, by military force by the
342 On the debate of when Capua was founded see Sacchi (2002) n. 85.
343 Diod. Sic. 12.31.1.
344 Alessio (1992) 149-54.
345 Bonfante (1992) 91-3.
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