Description : Nola is a town and a municipality in the Metropolitan City of Naples, Campania, southern Italy. It lies on the plain between Mount Vesuvius and the Apennines. It is traditionally credited as the diocese that introduced bells to Christian worship. Nola was one of the oldest cities of Campania, with its most ancient coins bearing the name Nuvlana. It was later said to have been founded by the Ausones, who were certainly occupying the city by c. 560 BC. It once vied in luxury with Capua. During the Roman invasion of Naples in 328 BC, Nola was probably occupied by the Oscans in alliance with the Samnites. Amid the Samnite War, the Romans took the town in 311 BC. Under Roman rule, the city was the site of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Battles of Nola during Hannibal's invasion of Italy amid the Second Punic War. On two occasions (215 and 214 BC), it was defended by Marcellus. It fell by treason to the Samnites during the Social War. It was stormed by Spartacus during his failed slave revolt. The emperor Augustus died there on 19 August AD 14, in allegedly the same room his father died in 72 years earlier. Augustus and Vespasian settled colonies in the area. In the Roman road network, Nola lay between Capua and Lower Nocera on the Via Popilia. A branch road ran from it to Abella and Avellino. Though a relative backwater, Nola retained its status as a municipium, its own institutions, and the use of the Oscan language. It was divided into pagi, the names of some of which are preserved: Pagus Agrifanus, Capriculanus, Lanitanus. The discoveries of the pavement of the ancient city have not been noted with sufficient care to recover most of the plan, but a large number of Grecian vases were made at Nola, using its fine yellow clay and a shining black glaze. They are decorated with red figures. Following the rise of Christianity, it became a bishopric. One bishop, the Christian senator Paulinus, is traditionally credited with the introduction of the use of bells to Christian worship. His small handbells were subsequently known as nolas for his seat and the larger tower bells as campanas from the surrounding area. Revered as a saint, Paulinus's relics turned the town into a site of Christian pilgrimage.
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