It is first mentioned during the Second Samnite War, 321 BCE, when the Samnite army under Gaius Pontius encamped there, previous to the great disaster of the Romans in the neighbouring pass known as the Caudine Forks (Livy ix. 2); and again, a few years later, as the head-quarters occupied by the Samnites, with a view of being at hand to watch the movements of the Campanians.
The new king sent a trusted Capuchin monk, Friar Girolamo of Montesarchio, to make peace with the Portuguese in to Luanda, Angola, in Christmas 1665.