Pagani, Campania Under Romans it was named Barbatianus. It obtained favourable terms, and remained faithful to Rome even after Cannae. Hannibal reduced it in 216 BC by starvation, and destroyed the town. The inhabitants returned when peace was restored. Even during the Social War it remained true to Rome. In 73 BC it was plundered by Spartacus. In the Middle Ages (around the 9th century) a small colony of Saracens was actually introduced in the town by permission of the Dukes of Naples, but it lasted only a few decades. It was united to Nocera Inferiore, and it took the name of
Hercules in ancient Rome Hercules in ancient Rome In ancient Roman religion and myth, Hercules was venerated as a divinized hero and incorporated into the legends of Rome's founding. The Romans adapted Greek myths and the iconography of Heracles into their own literature and art, but the hero developed distinctly Roman characteristics. Some Greek sources as early as the 6th and 5th century BC gave Heracles Roman connections during his famous labors. Dionysius of Halicarnassus places Hercules among divine figures honored at Rome "whose souls after they had left their mortal bodies are said to have ascended to Heaven and to have obtained the