NAPLES: FROM POLIS TO METROPOLIS

The origin of the first urban agglomeration, Partenope, belongs by now to the legend.
According to the ancient sources, the city was founded by the Rodhes in the tenth century before Christ and built on the rise of Pizzofalcone.
Between the VII and VI BC, the Cumani built Neapolis further east.
The new city kept the Greek language and traditions even under Roman rule, it was an important trade and residential center, contested by the Goths and Byzantines at the fall of the Empire and later attacked by the Longobards.
Between 763 and 1139 Naples was a duchy dependent on Bysanthium and it witnessed a long period of civil and cultural reinaissance.