Nola

, an ancient town of Camp an i a, which became a Roman colony before the first Punic war. It was founded by a Tuscan, or, according to others, by an Eubœan colony. It is said that Virgil had introduced the name of Nola in his Georgics, but that, when he was refused a gla of water by the inhabitants as he pa ed through the city, he totally blotted it out of his poem, and substituted the word ora , in the 225th line of the second book of his Georgics. Nola was besieged by Annibal, and bravely defended by Mar cell us. August us died there on his return from Neapolis to Rome. Bells were first invented there in the beginning of the fifth century, from which reason they have been called Nolæ , or Campanæ , in Latin. The inventor was St.  Paul in us, the bishop of the place, who died A.D. 431, though many imagine that bells were known long before, and only introduced into churches by that prelate. Before his time, congregations were called to the church by the noise of wooden rattles ( sacra ligna ). Paterculus , bk. 1 , ch. 7 .— Suet on i us , August us .— Silius Italic us , bk. 8 , li. 517 ; bk. 12 , li. 161 .— Aulus Gellius , bk. 7 , ch. 20 .— Livy , bk. 23 , chs. 14 & 39; bk. 24 , ch. 13 .