SORA  , a

city of Campania, Italy, in the province of Caserta, 77 M . N. by W. of that town on the railway between Roccasecca and Avezzano, 920 ft. above sea-level . Pop . (19o1), 6,o5o (town); 16,022 (commune) . It is built in a plain on the banks of the Liris . This part of the valley is the seat of some important manufactures, especially of paper-mills . The original cathedral, consecrated by Pope Adrian IV. in 1155, was destroyed by the earthquake of 1634 . On the precipitous rock above the town (1768 ft.) which guards the Liris valley and the entrance to the Abruzzi are remains of polygonal walls; here, possibly, was the citadel of the original Volscian town . There are also remains of medieval fortifications . In the town itself there are no remains of antiquity nor buildings of interest . The district around Sora is famous for the costumes of its peasants . Sora, an ancient Volscian town, was thrice captured by the Romans, in 345, 314 and 305 B.C., before they managed, in 303, by means of a colony 4000 strong, to confirm its annexation .

In 209 it was one of the colonies which refused further contributions to the

war against Hannibal . By the lex Julia it became a municipium, but under Augustus it was colonized by soldiers of the legio IV . Sorana, which had been mainly enrolled there . It belonged technically to Latium Adjectum . The castle of Sorella, built on the rocky height above the town, was in the middle ages a stronghold of some note . Charles I. of Anjou made Sora a duchy for the Cantelmi; it was afterwards seized by Pius II., but, being restored to the Cantelmi by Sixtus IV., it ultimately passed to the Della Rovere of Urbino . Against Caesar Borgia the city was heroically defended by Giovanni di Montefeltro . It was purchased by Gregory XIII. for 11,000 ducats and bestowed on the Buoncompagni, the ancestors of the line of Buoncompagni-Ludovisi . In ancient times Sora was the birthplace of the Decii, Attilius Regulus, and Lucius Mummius; and among its later celebrities is Cardinal Baronius . (T .