Greek and Roman Naples
The recorded history of the Naples (Italian Napoli) begins in
the 7th century BC when the nearby Greek colony of Cumae founded a new city called
Parthenope. Cumae itself had been founded by people from Euboea. Precisely
why the inhabitants of Cumae decided to expand is not known for certain, but the Cumaeans built Neapolis
(the "New City") adjacent to the old Parthenope.
At about the same time, they had warded off an invasion attempt by the Etruscans. The new city grew thanks to the influence of
the powerful Greek city-state
of Syracuse in Sicily and at some point the new and old cities on the Gulf of Naples merged
to become a single inhabited nucleus.
Naples became an ally of the Roman Republic against Carthage. The strong walls
of Naples held off Hannibal. During the Samnite Wars, the city, now a bustling centre of trade, was captured by the Samnites.
However, the Romans soon took it from them and made Neapolis a Roman
colony. Neapolis was greatly respected by the Romans as a place of Hellenistic
culture. The people maintained their Greek language and customs, and
elegant villas, aqueducts, public baths, a theatre and the Temple of Dioscures were
built. A number of Roman emperors, including Claudius and Tiberius,
maintained villas in or near Naples. It was during this period that Christianity came to
Naples, and the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul are said to have preached
here. St. Januarius, who would become Naples' patron saint, was martyred
here.
The Duchy of Naples
Following the decline of the Western Roman Empire, Naples was captured by the Ostrogoths
and incorporated into the Ostrogothic Kingdom. However, the Byzantine
general Belisarius recaptured Naples in 536, after famously entering the city via the
aqueduct. The Gothic Wars raged on, and Totila briefly took the city for the Ostrogoths in 543, before, finally, the Battle of Mons Lactarius on the slopes of Vesuvius
confirmed Byzantine
rule. Naples remained in contact with the Exarchate of Ravenna, which was the centre of Byzantine power on the Italian
peninsula. After the exarchate fell, a Duchy of Naples was created. Although Naples continued with its Greco-Roman culture, it eventually switched allegiance under Duke Stephen II to Rome rather than Constantinople, putting it under papal suzerainty by
763.
The years between 818 and 832 were a particularly confusing period in regard to Naples' relation with the Byzantine Emperor, with feuding between local pretenders to the ducal
throne. Theoctistus was appointed without imperial approval. This was later revoked and Theodore II took his place. However,
he was driven from the city by a popular uprising and replaced by Stephen III, a man who minted coins with his own initials, not
those of the Byzantine Emperor. Naples gained complete independence by
840.
The duchy was under direct control of Lombards for a brief period, after the capture by Pandulf IV of the Principality of Capua, long term rival of
Naples. However this only lasted three years before the culturally Greco-Roman influenced dukes were
reinstated. By the 11 C, like many territories in the area, Naples hired Norman
mercenaries, the Christian descendants of the Vikings, to battle their
rivals. Duke Sergius IV hired Rainulf Drengot to fight Capua for him. By 1137, the Normans had grown hugely in influence, controlling previous independent principalities and duchies such as Capua, Benevento, Salerno, Amalfi, Sorrento and
Gaeta. It was in this year that Naples, the last independent duchy in the southern part of the peninsula, came under Norman control. The last ruling duke of the duchy, Sergius VII, was forced to surrender to Roger II, who had proclaimed himself King of Sicily seven years
earlier. This saw Naples joining the Kingdom of Sicily, where Palermo was the
capital.
The Kingdom of Naples
After a period as a Norman kingdom, the Kingdom of Sicily passed
under the Hohenstaufens, the powerful Germanic royal house of Swabian origin. The University of Naples was founded by Frederick II in the city,
making it the oldest state university in the world and Naples the intellectual centre of the
kingdom. Conflict between the Hohenstaufen house and the Papacy led, in 1266, to Pope Innocent IV crowning
the Angevin Duke Charles I as King. Charles officially moved the capital from Palermo to Naples where he resided at the Castel Nuovo. During this period much Gothic architecture sprang up around Naples, including the Naples Cathedral, which is the main church of the
city.
In 1282, after the Sicilian Vespers, the kingdom split in half. The Angevin Kingdom of Naples included the southern part of the Italian peninsula, while the island of Sicily became the Aragonese Kingdom of
Sicily. The wars continued until the peace of Caltabellotta in 1302, which saw Frederick III recognised as
King of the Isle of Sicily, while Charles II was recognised as the King of Naples by Pope Boniface
VIII. Despite the split, Naples grew in importance, attracting Pisan and Genoese
merchants, Tuscan bankers, and with them some of the most renowned Renaissance
scholars and artists of the time, including
Boccaccio,
Petrarch and Giotto. In the middle of the 14 C, the Hungarian Angevin King Louis the Great captured the city. Alfonso I conquered Naples after his victory against the last Angevin king, René,
and Naples was unified with Sicily again for a brief period.
Masaniello the Revolutionary
Sicily and Naples were separated in 1458 but remained as dependencies of Aragon under Ferrante. The new dynasty enhanced Naples' commerce by establishing relations with the Iberian peninsula. Naples also became a centre of the Renaissance, with artists such as Laurana, da Messina, Sannazzaro and Poliziano arriving in the
city. During 1501, Naples became under direct rule from France at the time of Louis XII,
and the Neapolitan King Frederick was taken as a prisoner to France. This lasted only four
years. Spain won Naples at the Battle of Garigliano and, as a result, Naples
fell under the direct rule of the Spanish Empire throughout the entire
Spanish Habsburg period. The Spanish sent viceroys to Naples to deal directly
with local issues. The most important of these was Pedro Álvarez de Toledo, who was responsible for considerable social, economic and urban progress in the
city. He also supported the Inquisition.
During this period, Naples was second only to Paris in size among European
cities. It was a cultural powerhouse during the Baroque era as home to artists including Caravaggio, Rosa and Bernini, philosophers such as Telesio, Bruno, Campanella and Vico, and writers such as Battista Marino.
A revolution led by local fisherman, Tommaso Aniello, known as Masaniello, saw the creation of a brief independent Neapolitan Republic, though this lasted only a few months before Spanish rule was
reinstated. In 1656, the plague killed about half of Naples' 300,000
inhabitants. Finally, by 1714, the Spanish ceased to rule Naples as a result of the War of the Spanish
Succession. It was the Austrian Charles VI who ruled from Vienna, similarly
through the medium of viceroys. However, the War of the Polish Succession saw the Spanish regain Sicily and Naples, which
under the Treaty of Vienna, were recognised as independent in 1738 under a cadet branch of the Spanish Bourbons
in the person of Charles VII.
Ferdinand, the Bourbon King
During the time of Ferdinand IV, the French Revolution made
itself felt in Naples. Nelson, an ally of the Bourbons, even arrived in the city in 1798 to warn against it. However, Ferdinand was forced to retreat and fled to Palermo, where he was protected by a British
fleet. Naples' lower classes, the Lazzaroni, were strongly pious and Royalist, favouring the
Bourbons. In the mêlée that followed, they fought the Neapolitan pro-Republican aristocracy,
fermenting a civil war. The Republicans conquered Castel Sant'Elmo and proclaimed a Parthenopaean Republic, secured by the French
Army. A counter-revolutionary religious army of Lazzaroni known as the Sanfedisti was
raised and led by Fabrizio Ruffo. They had great success and the French surrendered the Neapolitan castles and were allowed to sail back to
Toulon.
Ferdinand IV was restored as king. However, after only seven years Napoleon conquered the kingdom and
installed Bonapartist kings, including his brother Joseph Bonaparte. With the help of the Austrian Empire and
its allies, the Bonapartists were defeated in the Neapolitan War and the Bourbon Ferdinand IV once again regained the throne and the
kingdom. The Congress of Vienna in 1815 saw the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily combined to form the
Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, with Naples as the capital city. In 1839, Naples became the first city on the Italian peninsula to have a railway
and there were many factories throughout the kingdom making it a highly important trade
and industry centre.
Naples since Unification
Following Garibaldi's Expedition of the Thousand, culminating in the Siege of Gaeta, Naples
joined the Kingdom of Italy as part of the Italian unification in 1861, ending Bourbon rule. The kingdom of the Two Sicilies had been wealthy and 80 million ducats were taken from the banks as a contribution to the new Italian treasury, while other former states in the Italian unification were forced to pay far
less. The economy of the area formerly known as Two Sicilies collapsed, leading to an unprecedented wave of
emigration, with estimates claiming that at least four million of those who left
for the north and abroad between 1876–1913 were from Naples or near
Naples.
During World War II, Naples was more heavily bombed than any other Italian
city. Although the Neapolitans did not rebel against Italian fascism, Naples was the first Italian city to rise up against German military
occupation, liberation being achieved by 1 October, 1943. The symbol of the rebirth of Naples was the rebuilding of Santa Chiara which had been destroyed
during an Allied air raid.
Special funding from the Italian government's Fund for the South from 1950 to 1984 helped the economy to improve somewhat, including the rejuvenation of the Piazza del Plebiscito and other city
landmarks, but there was huge waste. Naples still has high unemployment,
high crime, and grossly inefficient local government manifested most
visibly in decades of unregulated trash disposal and the untrammeled
expansion of the Camorra organised crime network. Recently, the Italian Government
of Silvio Berlusconi has held ministerial meetings in Naples to demonstrate that they intend to tackle these problems once and for
all, but little has come of it to date.
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