…Nola a second.

The Etruscans, whose urban civilization reaches its height in the sixth century BCE, now control the whole of northern Italy.

The coastal region is still, however, in Greek hands.

Marcus Claudius Marcellus had gained the most prestigious award a Roman general could earn, the spolia opima, for killing the Gallic military leader and king Viridomarus in hand-to-hand combat in 222 BCE at the battle of Clastidium during the Gallic War of 225 BCE.

He is noted for having saved the life of his brother, Otacilius, when the two were surrounded by enemy soldiers in Italy.

Elected praetor in in 216 BCE, the third year of the Second Punic War, Marcellus is selected to commander the army in Sicily.

As Marcellus and his men prepare to ship to Sicily, his army is recalled to Rome owing to the devastating losses at Cannae, considered to be one of the worst disasters in the long history of Rome By the orders of the Senate, Marcellus is forced to dispatch fifteen hundred of his men to Rome to protect the city after the terrible defeat by Hannibal of Carthage.

With his remaining army, along with remnants of the army from Cannae, (who are considered to have been disgraced by the defeat and by surviving it), Marcellus camps near Suessula, a city in the region Campania of Southern Italy.

At this point, part of the Carthaginian army begins to make a move for the city of Nola.

Marcellus repels the attacks and manages to keep the city from Hannibal’s grasp.

Marcellus is summoned to Rome to counsel the dictator M. Junius Pera, on the future conduct of the war, and is made proconsul in 215 BCE.

Within months, when the consul L. Postumius Albinus is killed in battle, Marcellus is unanimously chosen by the Roman people to be his successor.

Unfortunately, because the other consul is also a plebeian, the Senate will not allow Marcellus to hold the position, apparently finding bad omens where two plebeian consuls are concerned.

Marcellus therefore returns to his job as proconsul, whereupon he once again defends the city of Nola, from the rear guard of Hannibal’s army.

Marcellus is elected consul yet again in 214 BCE, his colleague being Fabius Maximus.

Marcellus defends Nola from Hannibal for a third time, and even captures the small but significant town of Casilium.

Sulla has served not only with brilliance as a general during the Social War, but also with immense personal bravery.

At Nola he is awarded a Corona Obsidionalis (Obsidional or Blockade Crown), also known as a Corona Graminea (Grass Crown).

This is the highest Roman military honor, awarded for personal bravery to a commander who saves a Roman legion or army in the field.

Unlike all other Roman military honors, it is awarded by acclamation of the soldiers of the rescued army, and consequently very few are ever awarded.

The crown, by tradition, is woven from grasses and other plants taken from the actual battlefield.

By 88 BCE, the war is largely over except for the Samnites, Rome’s ancient rivals, who still hold out.

It is likely that the war would have continued a lot longer had Rome not made concessions to their allies.

As a result of his success in bringing the Social War to a successful conclusion, Sulla is elected consul for the first time in 88 BCE, with Quintus Pompeius Rufus (soon his daughter's father-in-law) as his colleague.

Pompeii, like Nola and the rest of the Samnite towns, is forced in 80 BCE to surrender its autonomy, culminating in many of Sulla's veterans being given land and property, while many of those who had gone against Rome are ousted from their homes.

It becomes a Roman colony with the name of Colonia Cornelia Veneria Pompeianorum.

Pompeii will grow into an important passage for goods that arrive by sea and have to be sent toward Rome or Southern Italy along the nearby Appian Way.

The city of Nola had been given by treason in the Social War into the hands of the Samnites, who kept it until Marius, with whom they had sided, was defeated by Sulla, who in 80 BCE subjects it together with the rest of Samnium.

Tiberius is due to leave for Illyricum in 14 but is recalled by the news that Augustus is gravely ill, and on August 19, Augustus dies while visiting the place of his birth father's death at Nola.

Both Tacitus and Cassius Dio wrote that Livia brought about Augustus' death by poisoning fresh figs, though this allegation remains unproven.

Tiberius, who is present alongside Livia at Augustus' deathbed, is named his heir.

Augustus' famous last words are, "Have I played the part well?

Then applaud as I exit"—referring to the play-acting and regal authority that he had put on as emperor.

Publicly, though, his last words were, "Behold, I found Rome of clay, and leave her to you of marble."

An enormous funerary procession of mourners travels with Augustus' body from Nola to Rome.

Saracens sack Nola, Italy, in 804.