CORFINIUM, in ancient Italy, the chief city of the Paeligni, 7m. N. of Sulmona in the valley of the Aternus, near the modern village of Pentima. It does not appear in Roman history before the Social War (90 B.c.), in which it was adopted by the allies as the capital and seat of government of their newly founded state under the name Italia. The Via Valeria (according to Strabo) had reached Corfinium before the time of Claudius : he extended it to the Adriatic, and at the same time constructed the Via Claudia Nova (q.v.). Another road ran south-south-east past Sulmo to Aesernia. It was thus an important road centre, and in the imperial period, a town of some size. The origin of the imposing church of S. Pelino may be traced to the end of the 5th century when it was the cathedral of the see of Valva, the immediate successor of Corfinium. See R. Gardner in Papers of the British School at Rome ix. 89.