NAPLES - Almost 2,500 years of history, those that Naples regularly celebrates on December 21st. The ancient Greek Νεάπολις was founded on December 21, 475 BC , and has since become one of the most important centers of the Mediterranean. A story full of anecdotes and legends, which still today represent the most folkloristic side, but also picturesque, of the city of Naples.
The Greek Neapolis (Νεάπολις) was born on December 21, 475 BC, on the day of the winter solstice. A date chosen on purpose by the Greek colonists, who chose precisely the astral events to bring well to their settlements. His birth took place at the hands of some inhabitants of Parthenope, the Greek colony that lived on what is now Mount Echia and the area of Pizzofalcone , driven out of the city after the establishment of the dictatorship. Thus they moved to the area that today is that of the Historic Center, thus establishing a "nea polis", a new city. But in a short time, the strategic position of the new settlement meant that it grew so much that it also "reabsorbed" its city of origin.
It was a quick success: when the Romans, who shortly afterwards unified the peninsula, arrived in Neapolis, they were upset by its beauty, as already celebrated by illustrious intellectuals such as Tacitus and Strabo. Neapolis, from the initial suburb of Parthenope, became the center of Campania Felix, even more than Capua (which paid its alliance with Hannibal), and became the reference pole of the entire south and one of the most powerful metropolis of the whole Italy. The rich Romans, like senators, patricians and even emperors, built wonderful villas and made sure that even the suburbs of Naples (one of these was Herculaneum, today's Herculaneum) prospered.
Only after the fall of the Empire, Naples began a first phase of decline: conquered by the first barbarians and by the Byzantines later (with General Belisario who, failing to assault the walls, he passed his army through an aqueduct, and thus emerging inside the city passing underground), Naples then became a city perennially governed by foreign families, who regularly chose it as their capital. Normans, Swabians, French Angevins, Aragonese, Spanish, Austrians and French, all headed by the respective dynasties that reigned over Naples (and all over southern Italy, of which it had become de facto the capital already in Roman times). Only after the French revolution were the sovereigns "Italian", although of clear foreign origin: the Bourbons of Naples, whose branch had been founded a few decades earlier by the son of Philip V of Spain, united in marriage to the Duchess of Parma Elisabetta Farnese.
The rest is recent history: the Bourbons of Naples did not last long, then the history of Naples became that of the rest of Italy when Garibaldi and his Thousand entered it triumphantly on September 7, 1860 (King Francis II was meanwhile escaped to Gaeta). The development mainly port, two world wars (with the second that left a deep sign), the Four Days of Naples that led to the expulsion of the Nazis, until today. After almost 2,500 years of history that will be celebrated, solemnly hopefully, on December 21st 2025, Naples is still today that meeting point between the Greek and Roman world that made it famous already millennia ago. Even in the very special character of those who live there.
