ATELLA, an ancient Oscan town of Campania, 9 m. N. of Naples and 9 m. S. of Capua, on the road between the two. It was a member of the Campanian confederation, and shared the fortunes of Capua, but remained faithful to Hannibal for a longer time; the great part of the inhabitants, when they could no longer resist the Romans, were transferred by him to Thurii, and the town was reoccupied in 211 by the Romans, who settled the exiled inhabitants of Nuceria there. The fate of Atella at the end of the war, when the latter were able to return to their own city, is unknown. Cicero was in friendly relations with it, and exerted influence that it might retain its property in Gaul, so that it is obvious that it had then recovered municipal rights. The town is mainly famous as the cradle of early Roman comedy, the Fabulae Atellanae (see below). Some remains of the town still exist, including a tower of the city wall in brick.
See J. Beloch, Campanien (2nd ed., Breslau, 1890), p. 379.
ATELLANAE FABULAE (“Atellan fables”), the name of a sort of popular comedy amongst the ancient Romans. The name is derived from Atella, an Oscan town in Campania; for this reason, and from their being also called Osci Ludi, it has been supposed that they were of Oscan origin and introduced at Rome after Campania had been deprived of its independence. It seems highly improbable that they were performed in the Oscan language. Mommsen, however, rejects their Oscan origin altogether; he regards them as purely Latin, the scene merely being laid at Atella to avoid causing offence by placing it at Rome or one of the Latin cities. These plays, or rather sketches, contained humorous descriptions of country as contrasted with town life, and found their subjects amongst the lower classes of the people. The subjects alone were decided upon before the performance began; the dialogue was improvised as it proceeded. The Atellanae contained certain stock characters, like the Italian harlequinades: Maccus (the fool), Bucco (fat-chaps), Pappus (daddy), Dossennus (sharper); monsters and bogeys like Manducus, Pytho, Lamia also made their appearance. The performers were the sons of Roman citizens, who did not lose their rights as citizens, and were allowed to serve in the army: professional actors were excluded. The simple prose dialogues were probably varied by songs in the rude Saturnian metre: the language was that of the common people, accompanied by lively gesticulation and movements. They were characterized by coarseness and obscenity. In the time of Sulla a literary form was given to the Atellanae by Pomponius of Bononia and Novius, who made them regular written comedies. Living persons seem to have been attacked, and even the doings of the gods and heroes of mythology burlesqued. From this time the Atellanae were used as after-pieces and performed by professional actors. In 46 B.C. they were ousted by the mimes, but regained popularity during the reign of Tiberius (chiefly owing to a certain Mummius), until they were definitely superseded by and merged in the mimes. They held their ground in the small towns and villages of Italy during the last days of the empire; they probably lingered on into the middle ages, and were the origin of the Italian Commedie dell’ arte.
The scanty fragments of Pomponius and Novius are collected in Ribbeck’s Comicorum Romanorum Reliquiae; see also Munk, De Fabulis Atellanis (1840); and art. [Latin Literature].
ATESTE (mod. Este, q.v.), an ancient town of Venetia, at the southern foot of the Euganean hills, 43 ft. above sea-level; 22 m. S.W. of Patavium (Padua). The site was occupied in very early times, as the discoveries since 1882 show. Large cemeteries have been excavated, which show three different periods from the 8th century B.C. down to the Roman domination. In the first period (Italic) cremation burials closely approximating to the Villanova type are found; in the second[1] (Venetian) the tombs are constructed of blocks of stone, and situlae (bronze buckets), sometimes decorated with elaborate designs, are frequently used to contain the cinerary urns; in the third (Gallic), which begins during the 4th century B.C., though cremation continues, the tombs are much poorer, the ossuaries being of badly baked rough clay, and show traces of Gallic influence, and characteristics of the La-Tène civilization. The many important objects found in these excavations are preserved in the local museum. See G. Ghirardini in Notizie degli Scavi; Monumenti dei Lincei, ii. (1893) 161 seq., vii. (1897) 5 seq., x. (1901) 5 seq.; Atti del Congresso Internazionale di Scienze Storiche (Rome, 1904), v. 279 seq. Inscriptions show that the national language asserted its existence even after Ateste came into the hands of the Romans. When this occurred is not known; boundary stones of 135 B.C. exist, which divide the territory of Ateste from that of Patavium and of Vicetia, showing that the former extended from the middle of the Euganean hills to the Atesis (mod. Adige, from which Ateste no doubt took its name, and on which it once stood). After the battle of Actium, Augustus settled veterans from various of his legions in this territory, Ateste being thenceforth spoken of as a colony. It appears to have furnished many recruits, especially for the cohortes urbanae. It appears but little in history, though its importance is vouched for by numerous inscriptions, the majority of which belong to the early Empire.
(T. As.)
[1] This is by some authorities divided into two.