GERMANO, SAN, or CASSINO, Italy, town situated at the base of Monte Cassino, in the province of Caserta, about 50 miles north zprthwest of Naples, It contains handsome public edifices, and is surrounded by the re mains of monuments and buildings of high anti quarian interest; it is built on the site and from the ruins,of the ancient Volscian town, Casinum or Casca. The principal ruins of the ancient Volscian period are a monument, supposed to have been a tomb, an amphitheatre and a tem ple. The monument building is• now used as a church; it is square, in the form of a Greek cross, constructed with enormous squared blocks of stone, on the Cyclopean principle. From its form, it is called the Church of the Crucifix, or Crocefisso. The amphitheatre must have been a magnificent building, and it is still in a state of preservation sufficient to give an idea of its original vast proportions. The tem ple, 'adjoining the amphitheatre, was built probably in conjunction with it, at the cost of the Volscian matron, Umidia Quadratilla, men tioned by Pliny. The Benedictine monastery of Monte Cassino, two miles from San Ger mano, is one of the most renowned religious communities of Europe. Its foundation by Saint Benedict dates from 529. It contains one of the most beautiful churches of Italy, and an extensive library, and in its archives a collec tion of the inost precious documents of the Middle Ages. The district surrounding San
Germano is highly cultivated and beautiful. The town was adfnitted to Roman citizenship about 188 ti.c. We find occasional mention of it (as Casinum) in the narratives of the Hanni balm War. Varro built a villa in the neighbor hood, in which at a later period were held orgies by Mark Antony. The town become a prafectura toward the close of the republican period and tinder the empire it is named a colony, although two inscriptions refer to it as a municipium. It is mentioned both by Strabo and Varro. The hill near the monastery has an elevation of 1,715 feet above sea-level, and there still exist traces of the ancient fortifica tions in Cyclopean masonry. Numerous Roman inscriptions from the ancient Casinum are pre served in the monastery. On the opposite bank of the rapids lies a group of •ruins called Monti celli, and by many considered the remains of Varro's villa. Much of the stone was drawn away by architects and builders in the 16th cen tury.
On 16 March 1815 the town was the scene Of an Austrian victory over Murat. Pop. 14,220. Consult Ashby, T., (Papers of. the British School at Rome' (Vol. II, p. 19).