CALATIA, an ancient town of Campania, Italy, 6m. S.E. of Capua, on the Via Appia, near the point where the Via Popillia branches off from it. The history of Calatia is practically that of its more powerful neighbour Capua, but as it lay near the point where the Via Appia turns east and enters the mountains, it had some strategic importance. In 313 B.C. it was taken by the Samnites and recaptured by the dictator Q. Fabius ; the Samnites captured it again in 311, but it must have been retaken at an un known date. In the 3rd century we find it issuing coins with an Oscan legend, but in 211 B.C. it shared the fate of Capua. In 174 we hear of its walls being repaired by the censors. In 59 B.C. a colony was established here by Caesar.