To the colonists of Parthenope there came afterwards a consid erable addition from Athens and Chalcis, and they built them selves a town which they called Neapolis, or the "new city," in contradistinction to the old settlement, which in consequence was styled Palaeopolis or the "old city." In 328 B.C. the Palaeopolitans having provoked the hostility of Rome by their incursions upon her Campanian allies, the consul Publilius Philo marched against them, and laid regular siege to Palaeopolis; at length the city was betrayed into the hands of the Romans. Neapolis, perhaps, surrendered without resistance, as it was received on favourable terms, had its liberties secured by a treaty, and obtained the chief authority. From that time Palaeopolis totally disappeared from history, and Neapolis be came an allied city (foederata civitas)—a dependency of Rome, to which it remained faithful. In 28o B.C. Pyrrhus unsuccessfully attacked its walls; and in the Second Punic War Hannibal was deterred by their strength from attempting to make himself mas ter of the town. During the civil wars of Marius and Sulla a body of partisans of the latter, having entered it by treachery (82 B.c.), massacred the inhabitants; but Neapolis soon recov ered, as it was again a flourishing city in the time of Cicero.
Neapolis long retained its Greek culture and institutions; and even at the time of Strabo it had gymnasia and quinquennial games, and was divided into phratriae after the Greek fashion.
Many of the Romans of the upper classes, from a love of Greek manners and literature, resorted to Neapolis, either for education and the cultivation of gymnastic exercises or for the enjoyment of music and of a soft and luxurious climate. It was the favourite residence of many of the emperors; Nero made his first appear ance on the stage in one of its theatres ; Titus assumed the office of its archon; and Hadrian became its demarch. It was chiefly at Neapolis that Virgil composed his Georgics; and he desired to be buried on the hill of Pausilypon, the modern Posilipo, in its neighbourhood, though his traditional tomb is really a colum barium of some family unknown. It was also the favourite resi dence of the poets Statius (A.D. 61) and Silus Italicus (A.D. 25), the former of whom was a Neapolitan by birth.
After the fall of the Roman empire, Neapolis suffered severely during the Gothic wars. Having espoused the Gothic cause in the year 536, it was taken, after a protracted siege, by Belisarius, who diverted the water of a subterranean aqueduct, marched into the city through it, and put many of the inhabitants to the sword. In 542 Totila besieged it and compelled it to surrender, but after being recovered by Narses, it long remained a dependency of the exarchate of Ravenna, under the immediate government of a duke, appointed by the East Roman emperors. When the Lombards pushed their conquests in the south, the limits of the Neapolitan duchy were considerably narrowed. In the beginning of the 8th century, at the time of the iconoclastic controversy, the Neapoli tans, encouraged by Pope Gregory III., threw off their allegiance' to the Eastern emperors, and established a republican form of government under a duke of their own appointment. Under this regime Neapolis retained independence for nearly 400 years, though constantly struggling against the powerful Lombard dukes of Benevento. The Normans, in their turn, gradually superseded all powers in the south of Italy, and checked the Saracens in their advances through Apulia.
From that date the history of Naples becomes that of a king dom, sometimes separate, sometimes merged with the kingdom of Sicily in that of the Two Sicilies. The city of Naples hence forth formed the metropolis of the kingdom to which it gave its name. (See NAPLES, KINGDOM OF.)