A region
located in Southern Italy on the Tyrrhenian Sea, with the City
of Naples as its center, Campania was originally inhabited by
the Italic tribes. The 9th to the 5th centuries BC saw the addition
of Greek, Etruscan and Samnite invaders. The Greeks settled the
cities of Naples and Paestrum. Further north, the Etruscans founded
Capua. Between the 5th and 3rd centuries BC, Romans took control
and Campania became the center of the Roman Empire.
The Longobards moved into the area
after the Roman Empire faded from its foothold in the 6th century
AD. Later Belisarius, the Byzantine general, after that
"After the demise of
the Roman Empire in the west, the region was first taken by the
Longobards in the 6th century CE, and later by the Byzantine
general Belisarius. In the 11th century the Normans invaded the
region and formed a kingdom that would unite Southern Italy until
the Italian unification in 1860. This kingdom was lead by various
European royal families, such as the Spanish House of Aragona,
and the French Houses of Anjou and Bourbon, except for a short
period under the Napoleonic Wars, when first a republic and later
a puppet kingdom were formed under a brother of Napoleon.
With the unification of
Italy, Naples lost its status as the capital and seat of the
royal court, a role it had held for almost 800 years."
<http://sights.seindal.dk/sight/615_Campania.html>
