Five hundred gather with copper in capital (8)
I believe the answer is:
damascus
'capital' is the definition.
(capital of Syria)
'five hundred gather with copper' is the wordplay.
'five hundred' becomes 'd' (Roman numeral for 500).
'gather' becomes 'amass' (amass can mean to collect or gather).
'with' is an insertion indicator.
'copper' becomes 'cu' (Cu is the chemical symbol for copper).
'amass' going around 'cu' is 'amascus'.
'd'+'amascus'='DAMASCUS'
'in' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for damascus that I've seen before include "Couple" , "capital city" , "Pauline conversion on the road to here" , "Capital of Syria" , "ancient city" .)