AVELLA (anc. Abella)  , a city of Campania, Italy, in the province of Avellino, 23 M . N.E. of Naples by rail . Pop . (1901) 4107 . It is finely situated in fertile territory and its nuts (nuces Abellanae) and fruit were renowned in Roman days . About 2 M. to the north-east lies Avella Vecchia, the ancient Abella, regarded by the ancients as a Chalcidian colony . An important Oscan inscription relates to a treaty with Nola, regarding a joint temple of Hercules, attributable to the 2nd century B.C . Under the early empire it had already become a colony and had perhaps beenone since the time of Sulla . It has remains of the walls of the citadel and of an amphitheatre, and lay on the road from Nola to Abellinum, which was here perhaps joined by a branch from Suessula . See J . Beloch, Campanien (2nd ed., Breslau, 1890), 411 seq . (T .