Campania
3 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Campania. All 3 are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
anciently a province on the W. coast of Italy, having Capua as its capital (now subdivided into the provinces of Benevento, Naples, Salerno, Avellino, and Caserta), lying between Latium, Samnium, and Lucania. Area, 6,277 square miles; pop . about 3,500,000. It was one of the most productive plains in the world, yielding in extraordinary abundance corn, wine, and oil; and by THE "MAURETANIA," CAMOUFLAGED IN THE WORLD WAR months of July, August, and September its inhabitants, chiefly herdsmen and peasants, seek refuge in Rome or the neighboring towns . In ancient times the Campagna, though never a salubrious district, was well cultivated and populated, the villas of the Roman aristocracy being numerous here . But inundations from the Tiber, and the discouragement of agricultural industry in the midst of CAMOUFLAGE ON U. S. DESTROYER both Greek and Roman writers is celebrated for its soft and genial climate, its landscapes, and its harbors. It was the regio felix of the Romans , who built here many of their most splendid villas, and made Baiæ, with its hot springs, the cen- U. S. CRUISER CAMOUFLAGED wars and devastations, left the stagnant waters to become a source of pestilence, and the district became little better than a desert, nothing of its former prosperity being visible but the ruins of great temples, circuses, and monuments, and long rows of crumbling aqueducts overgrown with ivy and other creeping plants. In recent years the government has done much to make it more healthful by improved drainage. ter of their fashionable world. The promontory Misenum, Mount Vesuvius, the river Volturnus, the towns Baiæ, Cumæ, Liternum, Puteoli, Naples , Herculaneum, Pompeii, Nola, Salernum , Capua, etc., belonged to Campania . In very early times the Greeks founded Cumæ, from which Puteoli, Naples , and other places were colonized. The district was next conquered by the Etruscans, by whom Capua, Nola, and other towns were ; founded, but who succumbed to the more warlike and hardy Samnites, who, in their turn, yielded to the irresistible valor of Rome. Through all these vicissitudes of conquest the substratum of the people remained as at the beginning. The mass of the Campanians were essentially of Oscan race, and Oscan they remained. Indeed it is mainly from them that our knowledge of the Oscan language is de- CAMPANILE OF VENICE rived, and one of their towns, Atella, introduced to the early Roman stage a species of popular drama or comedy.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a region of ancient Italy. It lay on the coast of the Mediterranean between Latium and Lucania. It included Mount Vesuvius. Capua, Pompeii, and Herculaneum were Campanian cities. Modern Naples is the port and metropolis of the region. Campania was noted for agriculture and flocks. The Italians apply the name with slight modification to any plain about a city, as the Campagna of Rome, a fertile plain corresponding to ancient Latium in extent.
1000 Classical Characters (1900)
A district of Italy, the name of which is probably derived from campus a plain," separated from Latium by the river Liris, and from Lucania at a later time by the river Silarus, though in the time of Augustus it did not extend farther south than the promontory of Minerva. In still earlier times the Ager Campanus included only the country round Capua.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's in 1921 described Campania as an ancient province "now subdivided into the provinces of Benevento, Naples, Salerno, Avellino, and Caserta"; those five provinces are today grouped as the modern Italian region of Campania, with Naples as its capital and a population of roughly 5.6 million. The most dramatic event since these accounts was the eruption of Vesuvius in March 1944, which buried the villages of San Sebastiano and Massa and destroyed Allied aircraft on nearby airfields; the volcano has been quiet ever since, though its slopes are now densely built up and closely monitored. Malaria, the "source of pestilence" that Collier's blamed for depopulating the plains, was eliminated from Italy by 1970. Excavation has also continued: work at Herculaneum from the 1980s uncovered hundreds of skeletons of victims sheltering in the boat chambers on the ancient shoreline, transforming what is known about how people died in AD 79.
Written for this edition, 2026.