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Acerra, Italy

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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A town and episcopal see of Campania, Italy, in the province of Caserta, 9 m. N.E. from Naples by rail. Pop. (1901) 16,443. The town lies on the right bank of the Agno, which divides the province of Naples from that of Caserta, 90 ft. above the sea, in a fertile but somewhat marshy district, which in the middle ages was very malarious. The ancient name (Acerrae) was also borne by a town in Umbria and another in Gallia Transpadana (the latter now Pizzighettone on the Adda, 13 m. W.N.W. of Cremona). It became a city with Latin rights in 33 2 B.C. and later a municipium. It was destroyed by Hannibal in 216 B.C., but restored in 210; in 90 B.C. it served as the Roman headquarters in the Social war, and was successfully held against the insurgents. It received a colony under Augustus, but appears to have suffered much from floods of the river Clanis. Under the Empire we hear no more of it, and no traces of antiquity, beyond inscriptions, remain.