Tito.
It used to be situated on a hill overlooking the present
industrial area of ‘Tito Scalo’. This
site, called ‘Tito Vecchio’ (Old Tito)
was lived in at the time of the Second Punic War (III-II
centuries B.C.), when the Roman Consul Tito Sempronio
Gracco (from whom the name probably comes) was often
in this area. Later he was betrayed by Flavio Lucano,
who had become an ally of the Carthaginians: according
to Tito Livio, he joined Hannibal and his Lieutenant
Magone in the Battle of the Campi Veteres, nearby.
When the old village was destroyed, its inhabitants
moved to a rock overlooking the valley, which has
the shape of an amphitheatre closing around the stream
of Tito. The new settlement grew considerably after
the destruction of the old Satriano (1420-1430), sheltering
some of its refugees.
The inhabitants of Tito took part to the Risings
in 1799, with a heavy toll in human lives. The heroine
of these Rising was Francesca Cafarelli de Carolis,
who paid with the lives of her whole family her devotion
to the ideals of freedom from the Neapolitan Republic.
On 27th May 1799 she was executed with the other rebellious
on the ‘Piazza del Seggio’ (Seat Square)
by a group of Sanfedisti following the Cardinal Ruffo.
The writer Carlo Alianello brings out in his novel
‘The Standard-bearer’ the roles and the
characters of these Risings. In ‘Piazza del
Seggio’ there is a monumental stone fountain
of the XVIII century.
The Town Hall towers above the Square with a beautiful
arch of the XV century. In the high part of the village
there is the Franciscan Convent (1514), where several
masterpieces are kept.
In the Church of S. Antonio, attached to the Convent,
there is a set of paintings by Girolamo Stabile and
a high altar made of carved panels (I half of the
XVI century), some canvases by G. Di Gregorio (Pietrafesa)
and Antonio Stabile (XVII century). The cloister of
this Convent was frescoed by Pietrafesa (1606) with
the stories of S. Antonio. Out of the village (Acqua
Bianca locality) there are some springs of sulphureous
waters.
Tito is one of the places, with Potenza, Picerno,
Pignola and Trecchina, where Gaul-Italian is spoken;
probably because of migrations (XIII century) of populations
coming from the North of Italy (Monferrato), that
merged together with the local community (G. Rohlfs).