City
Capuae
S. Maria Capua Vetere
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Capua took its name, as the Roman writer Pliny explains, from the campus, the broad and fertile plain around it. The ancient city lies beneath Santa Maria Capua Vetere in Italy, while the modern town of Capua grew up at nearby Casilinum after Saracens destroyed the old city in the ninth century. The map marks it with the usual pair of towers. Its amphitheatre was second in size only to the Colosseum, and ancient writers claimed that Hannibal's army, wintering here, was softened by the city's luxury.