NAPLES 



387 



climate, being the sources of attraction. After 

 Rome fell, it sided with the Goths, but was seized 

 bv Belisarius (536), and six years later by Totila. 

 jJarses recovered it soon after for the Byzantine 

 emperors, who made it the head of a duchy. This 

 in the beginning of the 8th century asserted its 

 independence, and retained it until the whole 

 country was subdued by the Normans (q. v. ) in the 

 llth century. To the Norman dynasty succeeded 

 that of the Hohenstaufen. But their arch-enemies, 

 the popes, conferred the sovereignty of Naples 

 upon Charles of Anjou, who in the battle of Bene- 

 vento ( 1266) annihilated the power of the imperial 

 (Ghibelline ) party. The predominance of the papal 

 (Guelph) party during the reign of Robert I., who 

 was the patron of Dante and Boccaccio, the de- 

 praved libertinism of his heiress and granddaughter 

 Joanna, the ravages committed by German mer- 

 cenaries and by the plague, futile attempts to 

 recover Sicily, and the feuds of rival claimants to 

 the throne, are the leading features during the 

 rule of the Angevine dynasty, which expired with 

 the profligate Joanna II. in 1435. It was suc- 

 ceeded by that of Aragon, which had ruled Sicily 

 from the time of the Sicilian Vespers ( 1282). Dur- 

 ing the tenure of the Aragon line, various unsuc- 

 cessful attempts were made by the House of 

 Anjou to recover their lost sovereignty ; and the 

 country, especially near the 

 seacoast, was repeatedly 

 ravaged by the Turks. Be- 

 tween 1494 and 1504 the 

 French and Spanish dis- 

 puted between them the 

 possession of Naples, and 

 victory inclined to the 

 latter. Naples was united 

 with Sicily, forming the 

 kingdom of the Two Sicilies, 

 and was governed by vice- 

 roys of Spain down to 1707. 

 The nio-t striking episode 

 during this |>eriod was the 

 revolt of Masaniello (q.v. ). 

 Durin" the war of the 

 Spanish Succession (q.v.), 

 Naples was wrested from 

 Spain by Austria (1707); 

 but in 1735 was given to 

 Don Carlos, third son of 

 Philip V. of Spain, who 



founded the BourUm dynasty. In 1789 the troops 

 of the French Republic invaded Naples and con- 

 verted it into the Parthenopean Republic (1799). 

 For Nelson's share in Neapolitan politics at this 

 time, see NELSON. A second invasion by Na|x>leon 

 (1806) ended in the proclamation of his brother, 

 Joseph, an king of Naples ; and, when Joseph 

 assumed the Spanish crown in 1808, that of Naples 

 was awarded to Joachim Murat. On the defeat 

 and execution of Murat in 1815 the Bourbon mon- 

 arch, Ferdinand IV., was restored. The insurrec- 

 tionary movements of 1821 and 1848 were the fore- 

 runners of the overthrow of the Bourlxm rule by 

 Garibaldi (q.v.) and the Sardinians, and the incor- 

 poration of Naples in the kingdom of Italy ( 1861 ). 



See Hittory of the Kingdom of tfaplei ( 1734-1825), by 

 Colletta, Eng. trana. by 8. Homer (2 vols. Edin. 1858); 

 and see also ITALY, SICILY, and FERDINAND I. and II. 



Naples (Gr. anil Lat. Neapolis, Ital. Napoli), 

 till 1860 the capital of the kingdom of Naples, is 

 the largest of Italian cities, and, with the doubtful 

 exception of Constantinople, the most beautifully 

 situated in Kurope, 161 miles by rail SE. of Rome. 

 It is the seat of an archbishop. Pop. ( 1881 ) 

 463,172; (1895) 539,500. Naples is one of the 

 busiest ports of the kingdom, exporting wine 

 and olive-oil (504,150), chemicals and perfumery 



(285,800), live animals and animal products 

 (249,700), hemp and flax (293,450), cereals 

 (94,700), curriery (100,250), &c., to the annual 

 value of 1,672,000; and importing cereals 

 (1,363,500), metals (736,800), cottons (707,250), 

 woollens (386,300), live animals (354,900), 

 earthenware, glass, &c. (336,150), curriery 

 (256,250), silks (179,500), groceries (173,400), 

 specie, hemp and flax, dyes, chemicals, &c., to an 

 average total of 5,563,000. She trades principally 

 with Britain (annual total, 2,266,400) and France 

 (1,861,900). Naples has many employments but 

 few industries, and these insignificant, consisting 

 mainly of woollen, silk, and linen manufactures, 

 gloves, soap, perfumery, jewellery, earthenware, 

 hats, and carriages. Macaroni (q.v.) is almost in- 

 digenous to the Neapolitan seaboard. Fishing 

 supports many of the inhabitants. The neighbour- 

 hood is the market-garden of Italy. 



Its attractiveness, due not only to its site, but 

 to its tonic and bracing climate, specially delight- 

 ful in autumn and winter, and, thanks to the sea- 

 breeze, quite tolerable in the summer-heat, has 

 inspired the well-known proverb, ' See Naples and 

 then die." Its charms have remained proof against 

 innumerable sanitary drawbacks, defective drain- 

 age, impure water-supply, and the fever preserves 

 of its poorer quarters with their subterranean dens, 



in course of removal since June 1889. The impetus 

 to this work was given by the fearful cholera 

 explosion of September 1884, when in one night 

 nearly 2000 people were attacked, and almut 

 1000 of them died. The new drainage-works 

 carry the sewage to Cunue, thus relieving the 

 sea-margin, under the principal hotels, of the 

 liquid poison that used to stain the water black 

 hard-by the most frequented marine-baths, and 

 infect the oysters moored in baskets near the 

 shore. An aqueduct opened in 1885 furnishes pure 

 drinking-water to every part of the city. Along the 

 quay considerable improvements are in progress a 

 MW liiirbour, solid embankments, and commodious 

 promenades following up the handsome squares, 

 planted with trees and parterres, new streets cut 

 through the more populous quarters, a fine embank- 

 ment carried along the sea-front, and the Corso 

 Vittorio Emanuele, a road traversing all the 

 heights alwve the city these latter Improvement* 

 begun and partly finished under King Victor 

 Emmanuel. 



Naples occupies the base and flanks of a hill- 

 range rising, amphitheatre wise, from the sea, 

 and divided into two unequal parts by the Capo- 

 dimonte, S. Elmo, and Pizzpfalcone heights, the 

 latter ending in the small ridge crowned by the 



