Compsa

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Compsa (modern Conza della Campania) is an ancient city of the Hirpini, near the sources of the Aufidus, on the boundary of Lucania and not far from that of Apulia, on a ridge 1,998 ft. above sea level. It was betrayed to Hannibal in 216 BC after the defeat of Cannae, but recaptured two years later. It was probably occupied by Sulla in 89 BC, and was the scene of the death of Titus Annius Milo in 48 BC. Most authorities (Caesar, Bell. civ.iii.22, and Pliny, Hist. Nat. ii.147), to this place, supposing the manuscripts to be corrupt. The usual identification of the site of Milo's death with Cassano on the Gulf of Taranto must therefore be rejected. In imperial times, as inscriptions show, it was a municipium, but it lay far from any of the main high-roads. There are no important ancient remains.

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.