The Oscan towns around Capua probably stood to that city in the same relation as Latium did to Rome. Among them I will notice ATELLA, between Capua and Naples, because the well-known _Atellanae_ originated there. These Atellane farces are truly analogous to the modern farcical comedies, the principal personage of which also appeared in the ancient Atellanae. In a very useful glossary of the Neapolitan dialect, I found it stated, that the buffoon (_pulcinella_) was a real jester who lived 200 years ago; but the fact is, that he has been the same through the course of many centuries from the first introduction of the Atellanae. ACERRAE deserves to be mentioned on account of the cruelty of which Hannibal was guilty towards its senate—the only cruel act that can be really laid to his charge. The town was destroyed in the second Punic war, and the Romans did nothing to restore it, although it had been faithfully attached to their cause. NOLA was situated at a greater distance from Capua, and was not one of the Campanian towns properly so called; it was independent, and in no way subordinate to Capua. It might be doubted whether it was really an Oscan town; in Justin it is called a Chalcidian settlement, and I have no doubt that the whole chapter in which this occurs is taken from Timaeus. The coins of Nola have a perfectly Greek character and Greek inscriptions; this is indeed the case with those of Capua also, though not in the same degree as with those of Nola. My opinion is, that these places were originally Tuscan, and that during invasions of the Oscans and Sabellians, Capua lost this Tusco-Tyrrhenian character, while Nola retained it longer. If then the Greeks call the latter place Chalcidian, they do so because it received Greek, probably Chalcidian, epoeci from Naples, and not barbarians. All these towns were situated in the midst of barbarians, who, for the purpose of commercial transactions, even advanced to the Greek towns on the coast, and accordingly much more to a place which, like Nola, was situated in the midst of the country. Nola was built in that splendid plain of Campania, which extends between the Vulturnus and Naples: it is a perfect plain, with quite a volcanic soil; notwithstanding this, however, it is not dry, but very well watered, and almost marshy, whence the country abounds in draining canals lined with poplars. Nola, situated on the other side of mount Vesuvius, whose torrents of lava never reach so far, forms with Capua and Naples a triangle. In the second Samnite war it appears to have been an important town, for it sent 2000 men to Naples to defend that place against Rome; but in the course of the same war it was taken by the Romans. In the Hannibalian war, the fidelity of Nola was of infinite importance to Rome. At Nola the most beautiful Campanian vases have been found: they are made of an extremely fine clay; but they ceased to be manufactured as early