Atella

Atella was an ancient city in the Italian Campania between Capua and Naples, near the present-day towns of Orta di Atella and Sant'Arpino.

Atella was a city of Osker and allied with the near Capua until about 313 BC came under the control of the Roman Republic. During the Second Punic War in 216 BC it joined temporarily to Hannibal; the leaders of the city were it executed after the reconquest by the Romans. Later Atella where the Romans had settled refugees from Nuceria Terna, Roman municipium; its inhabitants belonged to the tribe Falerna. On a late antique diocese the titular Atella the Roman Catholic Church is declining.

The name of the city is mainly known for its named after her popular comedies that Atellanae ( fabulae ).