Naples is one of the oldest continuously-inhabited cities in the world, Greek settlements being established there in the second millennium BC. Subsequent the city named Neápolis played a key role in the merging of Greek culture into Roman society. Following the decline of the Western Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire recaptured the city from the Ostrogoths, keeping them, with little interruption, until the early 9th century, when it gained the independence. In 1137 the Duchy of Naples came under Norman control, joining with the Kingdom of Sicily, which in 1197 went to the German House of Hohenstaufens. Becoming King of Sicily in 1266, the Angevin duke Charles I moved the capital from Palermo to Naples. In 1282 the Kingdom of Sicily was split in half and Naples served as the capital city of the Kingdom of Naples until 1816. Thereafter, in union with Sicily, it became the capital of the Two Sicilies until the unification of Italy in 1861.
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