Herculea was a southern Italian colony of the classical Greek city Megara (or The Megarid) which was located in Magna Graecia on the isthmus across to the Peloponnese, adjacent to Corinth and Attica.

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Herculea, though not referred to often in the writings of historians at the time such as Herodotus and Thucydides, was a considerable step towards Mediterranean discovery and expansion for the more often than not isolationist Peloponnesian League related city/states. Phanias of Eresus, who was a student of Aristotle, mentioned it in his account of an ancient personality called Antileon, who stole a bell from the colony.^[1]

A settlement, which became a municipium during the Roman period, between Telese and San Salvatore Telesino was also referred to as Colonia Herculea Telesina and was settled in the 1st century B.C.^[2] It was founded by the Samnites and was particularly noted for its defensive concave walls, some of which are still preserved.^[3]