12-14 Dec 2003. In December 1503, the Spanish won a decisive victory in their battle against the French for the Kingdom of Naples. Captain Gonzalo Fernndez Crdoba, champion of the spear-like pike and harquebus handgun and known as the Great Captain for his martial skill, made his triumphant entry into the city the following month. The Spanish conquest of southern Italy was complete, and for the next 200 years the Spanish Empire was to be the dominant force in Italy.

To mark the 500th anniversary of Crdobas victory, the American Academy in Rome is holding a conference 12-14 Dec entitled Politics and Society in Spanish Italy. Scholars from several countries will discuss the era of Spanish domination in Italy during the 16th and 17th

centuries, before Austria replaced Spain as

the dominant power in Italy after the war

of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714).