an ancient town of Italy, on the shore of the Mediterranean, near the confines of Latium and Campania. There does not seem to have been any town here before the time when the Romans established a colony. This took place in the year 296 B.C., the object of the settlement being to prevent the Samnites from making hostile incursions from their mountain fastnesses in the interior down to the rich plains along the coast. Standing as it did on the Appian road, the great means of communication between Rome and the south, Sinuessa rapidly rose to considerable importance; but it suffered much during the invasion of Hannibal, who, in 217, carried his devastations up to the very gates. The country about Sinuessa was very fertile; and the Massic Hill, so celebrated for its wines, rose in the immediate vicinity. Sinuessa had thermal springs, which were much resorted to; but it never attained such a fame as Baiae and the other fashionable watering-places in the Bay of Naples. Some ancient ruins still mark the site of the town.