SORA, a city of Italy, at the head of a circondario in the province of Caserta (Terra di Lavoro), is built in a plain on the banks of the Garigliano and on the highway from Rome via Tivoli and Avezzano to Naples. It is the seat of important manufactures,—wool-spinning, cloth-weaving, and paper-making,—this last industry dating from the time of Murat. The original cathedral, consecrated by Pope Adrian IV. in 1155, was destroyed by the earthquake of 1634. The population of the city was 8768 in 1861 and 5411 (commune 13,208) in 1881....
Sora, an ancient Volscian town, was thrice captured by the Romans, in 34δ, 314, and 305 b.c. , before they managed, in 303, by means of a colony 4000 strong, to confirm its annexation. In 209 it was one of the colonies which refused further contributions. By the lex Julia it became a municipium, but under Augustus it was colonized by soldiers of the 4th legion. The castle of Sorella, built on the rocky height above the town, was in the Middle Ages a stronghold of some note; on one occasion it held out successfully against a whole year’s vigorous siege by William II. of Sicily. Alfonso of Aragon made Sora a duchy for the Cantelmi; it was afterwards seized by Pius II., but, being restored to the Cantelmi by Sixtus IV., it ultimately passed to the Della Rovere of Urbino. Against Caesar Borgia the city was heroically defended by Giovanni di Montefeltro. Captured by the marquis of Pescara for Charles V., it was by him bestowed on Carlo Ceares, duke of Croy and Arescot, but, Ceares being afterwards bought out, the duchy was restored to the duke of Urbino. By Gregory XIII. it was purchased for 11,000 ducats and bestowed on his son Buoncompagni, the ancestor of the line of Buoncompagni-Ludovisi. In ancient times Sora was the birthplace of the Decii, Attilius Regulus, and Lucius Mummius; aud of its modern celebrities Cardinal Baronius is one. The now ruined abbey church of San Domenico, founded in 1104 on the left bank of the Liri above the town, is believed to occupy the site of Cicero’s family villa and birthplace. It consisted of a nave and two aisles, all ending in circular apses.
SORAU, an industrial town and railway junction in the south of Brandenburg, Prussia, is situated 54 miles to the south-east of Frankfort-on-the-Oder, and not far from the Silesian border. Said to be one of the oldest towns in Lower Lusatia, Sorau contains a number of ancient buildings, among which the most prominent are several of the churches (one dating from 1204), the town-house, built in 1260, and the old palace of 1207. The new palace was erected in 1711. The varied manufactures of the town comprise cloth, linen, wax candles, starch, bone-meal, &c. The population, 3764 in 1816, was 13,668 in 1885, upwards of 12,000 of them being Lutherans.
Sorau is said to have existed in 840 and to have belonged to the abbey of Fulda till the 12th century. It received town-rights in 1260. With the surrounding district, known as the barony of Sorau, it became the seat of successive noble families; and in 1400 it was united with the barony of Triebel. The last count of Promnitz, whose ancestor had purchased both baronies from Frederick of Bohemia in 1556, sold them to the elector of Saxony for an annuity of 12,000 thalers (£1800). In 1815 Saxony had to cede them to Prussia, after holding them for fifty years.
