Five hundred gather with copper entering capital (8)
I believe the answer is:
damascus
'capital' is the definition.
(capital of Syria)
'five hundred gather with copper entering' is the wordplay.
'five hundred' becomes 'd' (Roman numeral).
'gather' becomes 'amass' (amass can mean to collect or gather).
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'copper' becomes 'cu' (chemical symbol).
'entering' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'd'+'amass'='damass'
'damass' going around 'cu' is 'DAMASCUS'.
(Other definitions for damascus that I've seen before include "Pauline conversion on the road to here" , "Capital of Syria" , "St Paul was converted on the road to this Syrian city" , "Middle East capital" , "Couple" .)