Listed 100 (total found 104) sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "CAMPANIA Region ITALY" .
ABELLINON (Ancient city) CAMPANIA
AUSONIA (Ancient country) CAMPANIA
Ausona a city of Latium, in the more extended sense of that term,
but which, at an earlier period, was one of the three cities possessed by the
tribe of the Ausones. Its name would seem to imply that it was once their chief
city or metropolis; but it is only once mentioned in history--during the second
Samnite war, when the Ausonians having revolted from the Romans, all their three
cities were betrayed into the hands of the Roman consuls, and their inhabitants
put to the sword without mercy. (Liv. ix. 25.) No subsequent notice is found of
Ausona; but it is supposed to have been situated on the banks of the little river
still called Ausente, which flows into the Liris, near its mouth. The plain below
the modern village of Le Fratte, near the sources of this little stream, is still
known as the Piano dell' Ausente; and some remains of a Roman town have been discovered
here. (Romanelli, vol. iii. p. 438.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
AVELLA (Ancient city) CAMPANIA
Abella (Abella, Strab., Ptol.: Eth. Abellanus, Insert. ap. Orell.
3316, Avellanus, Plin.: Avella Vecchia), a city in the interior of Campania, about
5 miles NE. of Nola. According to Justin (xx. 1), it was a Greek city of Chalcidic
origin, which would lead us to suppose that it was a colony of Cumae: but at a
later period it had certainly become an Oscan town, as well as the neighboring
city of Nola. No mention of it is found in history, though it must have been at
one time a place of importance. Strabo and Pliny both notice it among the inland
towns of Campania; and though we learn from the Liber de Coloniis, that Vespasian
settled a number of his freedmen and dependants there, yet it appears, both from
that treatise and from Pliny, that it had not then attained the rank of a colony,
a dignity which we find it enjoying in the time of Trajan. It probably became
such in the reign of that emperor. (Strab. p. 249; Plin. iii. 5.9; Ptol. iii.
1.68; Lib. Colon. p. 230; Gruter. Inscr. p. 1096, 1; Zumpt, de Coloniis, p.
400.) We learn from Virgil and Silius Italicus that its territory was not fertile
in corn, but rich in fruit-trees (maliferae Abellae): the neighbourhood also abounded
in filberts or hazelnuts of a very choice quality, which were called from thence
nuces Avellanae (Virg. Aen. vii. 740; Sil. Ital. viii. 545; Plin. xv. 22; Serv.
ad Georg. ii. 65). The modern town of Avella is situated in the plain near the
foot of the Apennines; but the remains of the ancient city, still called Avella
Vecchia, occupy a hill of considerable height, forming one of the underfalls of
the mountains, and command an extensive view of the plain beneath; hence Virgil's
expression despectant moenia Abellae. The ruins are described as extensive, including
the vestiges of an amphitheatre, a temple, and other edifices, as well as a portion
of the ancient walls. (Pratilli, Via Appia, p. 445; Lupuli, Iter Venusin. p. 19;
Romanelli, vol. iii. p. 597; Swinburne, Travels, vol. i. p. 105.) Of the numerous
relics of antiquity discovered here, the most interesting is a long inscription
in the Oscan language, which records a treaty of alliance between the citizens
of Abella and those of Nola. It dates (according to Mommsen) from a period shortly
after the Second Punic War, and is not only curious on account of details concerning
the municipal magistrates, but is one of the most important auxiliaries we possess
for a study of the Oscan language. This curious monument still remains in the
museum of the Seminary at Nola: it has been repeatedly published, among others
by Passeri (Linguae Oscae Specimen Singulare, fol. Romae, 1774), but in the most
complete and satisfactory manner by Lepsius (Inscr. Umbr. et Osc. tab. xxi.) and
Mommsen (Die Unter-Italischen Dialekte, p. 119).
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
CALES (Ancient city) CAMPANIA
Cales (Kales: Eth. Kalenos, Calenus: Calvi), one of the most considerable
cities of Campania, situated in the northern part of that province, on the road
from Teanum to Casilinum. (Strab. v. p. 237.) When it first appears in history
it is called an Ausonian city (Liv. viii. 16): and was not included in Campania
in the earlier and more restricted sense of that term. Its antiquity is attested
by Virgil, who associates the people of Cales with their neighbours the Aurunci
and the Sidicini. (Aen. vii. 728.) Silius Italicus ascribes its foundation to
Calais the son of Boreas. (viii. 514.) In B.C. 332, the inhabitants of Cales are
first mentioned as taking up arms against the Romans in conjunction with their
neighbours the Sidicini, but with little success; they were easily defeated, and
their city taken and occupied with a Roman garrison. The conquest was, however,
deemed worthy of a triumph, and the next year was further secured by the establishment
of a colony of 2,500 citizens with Latin rights. (Liv. viii. 16; Vell. Pat. i.
14; Fast. Triumph.) From this time Cales became one of the strongholds of the
Roman power in this part of Italy, and though its territory was repeatedly ravaged
both by the Samnites, and at a later period by Hannibal, no attempt seems to have
been made upon the city itself. (Liv. x. 20, xxii. 13, 15, xxiii. 31, &c.) It,
however, suffered so severely from the ravages of the war that in B.C. 209 it
was one of the twelve colonies which declared their inability to furnish any further
supplies of men or money (Liv. xxvii. 9), and was in consequence punished at a
later period by the imposition of heavier contributions. (Id. xxix. 15.) In the
days of Cicero it was evidently a flourishing and populous town, and for some
reason or other enjoyed the special favour and protection of the great orator.
(Cic. de Leg. Agr. ii. 3. 1, ad Farn. ix. 13, ad Att. vii. 14, &c.) He terms it
a Municipium, and it retained the same rank under the Roman Empire (Tac. Ann.
vi. 15; Plin. iii. 5. s. 9): its continued prosperity is attested by Strabo, who
calls it a considerable city, though inferior to Teanum (v. p. 237; Ptol. iii.
1. § 68), as well as by inscriptions and existing remains: but no further mention
of it occurs in history. It was the birthplace of M. Vinicius, the son-in-law
of Germnanicus, and patron of Velleius Paterculus. (Tac. l. c.) Cales was situated
on a branch of the Via Latina, which led from Teanum direct to Casilinum, and
there joined the Appian Way: it was rather more than five miles distant from Teanum,
and above seven from Casilinum. Its prosperity was owing, in great measure, to
the fertility of its territory, which immediately adjoined the celebrated Falernus
ager, and was scarcely inferior to that favoured district in the excellence of
its wines, the praises of which are repeatedly sung by Horace. (Hor. Carme. i.
20. 9, 31. 9, iv. 12. 14; Juv. i. 69; Strab. v. p. 243; Plin. xiv. 6. s. 8.) So
fertile a district could not but be an object of desire, and we find that besides
the original Roman colony, great part of the territory of Cales was repeatedly
portioned out to fresh settlers: first in the time of the Gracchi, afterwards
under Augustus. (Lib. Colon. p. 232.) Cales was also noted for its manufactures
of implements of husbandry, and of a particular kind of earthenware vessels, called
from their origin Calenae. (Cato, R. R. 135; Varr. ap. Nonium, xv. p. 545.)
After the fall of the Western Empire, Cales suffered severely from
the ravages of successive invaders, and in the 9th century had almost ceased to
exist: but was revived by the Normans.
The modern city of Calvi retains its episcopal rank, but is a very
poor and decayed place. It, however, preserves many vestiges of its former prosperity,
the remains of an amphitheatre, a theatre, and various other fragments of ancient
buildings, of reticulated masonry, and consequently belonging to the best period
of the Roman Empire, as well as marble capitals and other fragments of sculpture.
The course of the Via Latina, with its ancient pavement, may still be traced through
the town. A spring of acidulous water, noticed by Pliny, as existing in agro Caleno
(ii. 106) is still found near Francolisi, a village about four miles W. of Calvi.
(Romanelli, vol. iii. p. 437; Hoare's Classical Tour, vol. i. pp. 246-248; Craven's
Abruzzi, vol. i. p. 27-30; Zona, Memorie dell' Antichissima citta di Calvi, 4to.,
Napoli, 1820.)
The coins of Cales are numerous, both in silver and copper: but from
the circumstance of their all having Latin legends, it is evident they all belong
to the Roman colony.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
CAPRI (Island) CAMPANIA
Capreae (Kapreai; Capri), an island off the coast of Campania, lying
immediately opposite the Surrentine Promontory, from which it was separated by
a strait only 3 miles in width. (Tac. Ann. iv. 67.) Pliny tells us it was 11 miles
in circuit, which is very near the truth. (Pliny, iii. 6. s. 12.) Like the mountain
range, which forms the southern boundary of the Bay of Naples, and of which it
is, in fact, only a continuation, Capreae consists wholly of limestone, and is
girt almost all round with precipitous cliffs of rock, rising abruptly from the
sea, and in many places attaining to a great elevation. The western portion of
the island, now called Anna Capri (a name probably derived from the Greek hai
ano Kapreai), is much the most elevated, rising to a height of 1,600 feet above
the sea. The eastern end also forms an abrupt hill, with precipitous cliffs towards
the mainland; but between the two is a depression, or saddle, of moderate height,
where the modern town of Capri now stands. The only landing-places are two little
coves on either side of this.
Of the history of Capreae very little is known prior to the time of
Augustus. A tradition alluded to by several of the Latin poets, but of the origin
of which we have no explanation, represents it as occupied at a very early period
by a people called Teleboae, apparently the same whom we find mentioned as a piratical
race inhabiting the islands of the Echinades, off the coast of Acarnania. (Schol.
ad Apoll. Rhod. i. 747.) Virgil speaks of them as subject to a king, named Telon,
whence Silius Italicus calls Capreae antiqui saxosa Telonis insula. (Virg. Aen.
vii. 735 ; Sil. Ital. viii. 543; Stat. Silv. iii. 5; Tae. Ann. iv. 67.) In historical
times we find that the island passed into the hands of the Neapolitans, and its
inhabitants appear to have adopted and retained to a late period the Greek customs
of that people. But Augustus having taken a fancy to Capreae, in consequence of
a favourable omen which he met with on landing there, took possession of it as
part of the imperial domain, giving the Neapolitans in exchange the far more wealthy
island of Aenaria. (Suet. Aug. 92; Dion Cass. lii. 43.) He appears to have visited
it repeatedly, and spent four days there shortly before his death. (Suet. Aug.
98.) But it was his successor Tiberius who gave the chief celebrity to Capreae,
having, in A.D. 27, established his residence permanently on the island, where
he spent the last ten years of his life. According to Tacitus, it was not so much
the mildness of the climate and the beauty of the prospect that led him to take
up his abode here, as the secluded and inaccessible character of the spot, which
secured him alike from danger and from observation. It was here accordingly that
he gave himself up to the unrestrained practice of the grossest debaucheries,
which have rendered his name scarcely less infamous than his cruelties. (Tac.
Ann. iv. 67, vi. 1; Suet. Tib. 40, 43; Dion Cass. lviii. 5; Juv. Sat. x. 93.)
He erected not less than twelve villas in different parts of the island, the remains
of several of which are still visible. The most considerable appears to have been
situated on the summit of the cliff facing the Surrentine Promontory, which, from
its strong position, is evidently that designated by Pliny (iii. 6. s. 12) as
the Arx Tiberii. It is supposed also to be this one that was called, as we learn
from Suetonius (Tib. 65), the Villa Jovis. Near it are the remains of a pharos
or light-house, alluded to both by Suetonius and Statius, which must have served
to guide ships through the strait between this headland and the Surrentine Promontory.
(Suet. Tib. 74; Stat. Silv. iii. 5. 100.)
Strabo tells us that there were formerly two small towns in the island,
but in his time only one remained. It in all probability occupied the same site
as the modern town of Capri. (Strab. v. p. 248.)
The name of Taurubulae, mentioned by Statius (iii. 1. 129),appears
to have been given to some of the lofty crags and rocks that crown the island
of Capri: it is said that two of these still bear the names of Toro grande and
Toro piccolo. From its rocky character and calcareous soil Capri is far inferior
in fertility to the opposite island of Ischia: the epithet of dites Capreae, given
it in the same passage by Statius, could be deserved only on account of the imperial
splendour lavished on the villas of Tiberius. Excavations in modern times have
brought to light mosaic pavements, bas-reliefs, cameos, gems, and other relics
of antiquity. These, as well as the present state of the island, are fully described
by Hadrava. (Lettere sull' Isola di Capri. Dresden, 1794.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ELEA (Ancient city) ITALY
Velia (Huele or Elea: Eth. Hueletes or Eleates, Veliensis: Castell‘
a Mare della Brucca), one of the principal of the Greek colonies in Southern Italy,
situated on the shores of the Tyrrhenian sea, about midway between Posidonia and
Pyxus. There is some uncertainty respecting the correct form of the name. Strabo
tells us that it was originally called Hyele (Uele), but was in his day called
Elea (Elea), and Diogenes Laertius also says that it was at first called Hyele
and afterwards Elea. (Strab. vi. p. 252; Diog. Laert. ix. 5. § 28; Steph. B. s.
v.) But it is certain from the evidence of its coins, which uniformly bear the
legends HuELE and HuELETON, that the name of Hyele continued in use among the
people themselves as long as the city continued; while,on the other hand, the
name of Elea is already found in Scylax (p. 4. § 12), and seems to have been certainly
that in use among Attic writers from an early period, where the Eleatic school
of philosophy rendered the name familiar. Strabo also tells us that some authors
wrote the name Ele (Ele), from a fountain of that name; and this form, compared
with Huele and the Latin form Velia, seems to show clearly that the diversity
of names arose from the Aeolic Digamma, which was probably originally prefixed
to the name, and was retained in the native usage and in that of the Romans, while
it was altogether dropped by the Attics. (Munter, Velia, p. 21.) It is not improbable
that the name was derived from that of the neighbouring river, the Hales of Cicero
(Alento), of which the name is written Elees by Strabo and Belea by Stephanus
of Byzantium. (Cic. ad Fam. vii. 2. 0; Strab. vi. p. 254.) Others, however, derived
it from the marshes (hele) at the mouth of the same river.
There is no trace of the existence of any town on the site of Velia
before the establishment of the Greek colony there, and it is probable that this,
like most of the Greek colonies in Southern Italy, was founded on a wholly new
site. It was a colony from Phocaea in Ionia, and derived its origin from the voluntary
expatriation of the inhabitants of that city in order to avoid falling under the
Persian yoke, at the time of the conquest of Ionia by Harpagus, B.C. 544. The
Phocaean emigrants proceeded in a body to Corsica, where they had already founded
the colony of Alalia about 20 years before; and in the first instance established
themselves in that island, but, having provoked the enmity of the Tyrrhenians
and Carthaginians by their piracies, they sustained such severe loss in a naval
action with the combined fleets of these two powers, that they found themselves
compelled to abandon the colony. A part of the emigrants then repaired to Massilia
(which was also a Phocaean colony), while the remainder, after a temporary halt
at Rhegium, proceeded to found the new colony of Hyele or Velia on the coast of
Lucania. This is the account given by Herodotus (i. 164-167), with which that
cited by Strabo from Antiochus of Syracuse substantially agrees. (Strab. vi. p.
254.) Later writers have somewhat confused the narrative, and have represented
the foundation of Massilia and Velia as contemporaneous (Hygin. ap. A. Gell. x.
16; Ammian. Marc. xv. 9. § 7); but there is no doubt that the account above given
is the correct one. Scylax alone represents Velia as a colony of Thurii. (Scyl.
p. 4. § 12.) If this be not altogether a mistake it must refer to the admission
at a later period of a body of fresh colonists from that city; but of this we
find no trace in any other author. The exact date of the foundation of Velia cannot
be determined, as we do not know how long the Phocaeans remained in Corsica, but
it may be placed approximately at about 540 B.C.
There is no doubt that the settlers at Velia, like those of the sister
colony of Massilia, followed the example of their parent city, and devoted themselves
assiduously to the cultivation of commerce; nor that the city itself quickly became
a prosperous and flourishing place. The great abundance of the silver coins of
Velia still in existence, and which are found throughout the S. of Italy, is in
itself sufficient evidence of this fact; while the circumstance that it became
the seat of a celebrated school of philosophy, the leaders of which continued
through successive generations to reside at Velia, proves that it must have been
a place of much intellectual refinement and cultivation. But of its history we
may be said to know absolutely nothing. Strabo tells us that it was remarkable
for its good government, an advantage for which it was partly indebted to Parmenides,
who gave his fellow-citizens a code of laws which the magistrates from year to
year took an oath to obey. (Strab. vi. p. 254; Diog. Laert. ix. 3. § 23.) But
the obscure story concerning the death of Zeno, the disciple of Parmenides, who
was put to death by a tyrant named Nearchus or Diomedon, would seem to show that
it was not free from the same kind of violent interruptions by the rise of despotisms
as were common to most of the Greek cities. (Diog. Laert. ix. 5; Cic. Tusc. ii.
2. 2) Strabo also tells us that the Eleans came off victorious in a contest with
the Posidonians, but of the time and circumstances of this we are wholly ignorant;
and he adds that they maintained their ground against the Lucanians also. (Strab.
l. c.) If this is correct they would have been one of the few Greek cities which
preserved their national existence against those barbarians, but their name is
not found in the scanty historical notices that we possess of the wars between
the Lucanians and the cities of Magna Graecia. But the statement of Strabo is
in some degree confirmed by the fact that Velia was certainly admitted at an early
period (though on what occasion we know not) to the alliance of Rome, and appears
to have maintained very friendly relations with that city. It was from thence,
in common with Neapolis, that the Romans habitually derived the priestesses of
Ceres, whose worship was of Greek origin. (Cic. pro Balb. 24; Val. Max. i. 1.
§ 1.) Cicero speaks of Velia as a well-known instance of a foederata civitas,
and we find it mentioned in the Second Punic War as one of those which were bound
by treaty to contribute their quota of ships to the Roman fleet. (Cic. l. c.;
Liv. xxvi. 39.) It eventually received the Roman franchise, apparently in virtue
of the Lex Julia, B.C. 90. (Cic. l. c.) Under the Roman government Velia continued
to be a tolerably flourishing town, and seems to have been from an early period
noted for its mild and salubrious climate. Thus we are told that P. Aemilius was
ordered to go there by his physicians for the benefit of his health, and we find
Horace making inquiries about it as a substitute for Baiae. (Plut. Aemil. 39;
Hor. Ep. i. 15. 1.) Cicero's friend Trebatius had a villa there, and the great
orator himself repeatedly touched there on his voyages along the coast of Italy.
(Cic. Verr. ii. 4. 0, v. 17, ad Fam. vii. 19, 20, ad Att. xvi. 6, 7.) It appears
to have been at this period still a place of some trade, and Strabo tells us that
the poverty of the soil compelled the inhabitants to turn their attention to maritime
affairs and fisheries. (Strab. vi. p. 254.) It is probable that the same cause
had in early times co-operated with the national disposition of the Phocaean settlers
to direct their attention especially to maritime commerce. We hear nothing more
of Velia under the Roman Empire. Its name is found in Pliny and Ptolemy, but not
in the Itineraries, which may, however, probably proceed from its secluded position.
It is mentioned in the Liber Coloniarum (p. 209) among the Praefecturae of Lucania;
and its continued existence as a municipal town is proved by inscriptions. (Mommsen,
Inscrip. R. N. 190, App. p. 2.) It became an episcopal see in the early ages of
Christianity, and still retained that dignity as late as the time of Gregory the
Great (A.D. 599). It is probable that the final decay of Velia, like that of Paestum,
was owing to the ravages of the Saracens in the 8th and 9th centuries. The bishopric
was united with that of Capaccio, which had succeeded to that of Paestum. (Munter,
Velia, pp. 69-73.) During the middle ages there grew up on the spot a fortress
which was called Castell‘ a Mare della Brucca, and which still serves to mark
the site of the ancient city.
The ruins of Velia are situated on a low ridge of hill, which rises
about a mile and a half from the mouth of the river Alento (the ancient Hales),
and half a mile from the coast, which here forms a shallow but spacious bay, between
the headland formed by the Monte della Stella and the rocky point of Porticello
near Ascea. The mediaeval castle and village of Castell‘ a Mare della Brucca occupy
the point of this hill nearest the sea. The outline of the ancient walls may be
traced at intervals round the hill for their whole extent. Their circuit is not
above two miles, and it is most likely that this was the old city or acropolis,
and that in the days of its prosperity it had considerable suburbs, especially
in the direction of its port. It is probable that this was an artificial basin,
like that of Metapontum, and its site is in all probability marked by a marshy
pool which still exists between the ruins of the ancient city and the mouth of
the Alento. This river itself, however, was sufficient to afford a shelter and
place of anchorage for shipping in ancient times (Cic. ad Att. xvi. 7), and is
still resorted to for the same purpose by the light vessels of the country. No
other ruins exist on the site of the ancient city except some masses of buildings,
which, being in the reticulated style, are unquestionably of Roman date: portions
of aqueducts, reservoirs for water, &c. are also visible. (The site and existing
remains of Velia are described by Munter, Velia in Lucanien, 8vo. Altona, 1818,
pp. 15-20, and by the Duc de Luynes, in the Annali dell' Instituto, 1829, pp.
381-386.)
It is certain that as a Greek colony Velia never rose to a par with
the more opulent and flourishing cities of Magna Graecia. Its chief celebrity
in ancient times was derived from its celebrated school of philosophy, which was
universally known as the Eleatic school. Its founder Xenophanes was indeed a native
of Colophon, but had established himself at Velia, and wrote a long poem, in which
he celebrated the foundation of that city. (Diog. Laert. ix. 2. § 20.) His distinguished
successors Parmenides and Zeno were both of them born at Velia, and the same thing
is asserted by some writers of Leucippus, the founder of the atomic theory, though
others represent him as a native of Abdera or Melos. Hence Diogenes Laertius terms
Velia an inconsiderable city, but capable of producing great men (ix. 5. § 28).
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ERCOLANO (Town) CAMPANIA
Herculaneum (the form Herculanum appears to be erroneous: in the passage
of Cicero (ad Att. vii. 3. § 1) generally cited in support of it, the true reading
seems to be Aeculanum: see Orell. ad loc. Heraixleion, Strab.; Herkoulaneon, Dion
Cass.: Eth. Herculanensis: Ercolano), a town of Campania, situated on the gulf
called the Crater (the Bay of Naples), and at the foot of Mt. Vesuvius. The circumstances
attending its discovery have rendered its name far more celebrated in modern times
than it ever was in antiquity, when it certainly never rose above the condition
of a second-class town. It was, however, a place of great antiquity: its origin
was ascribed by Greek tradition to Hercules, who was supposed to have founded
a small city on the spot, to which he gave his own name. (Dionys. i. 44.) Hence
it is called by Ovid Herculea urbs (Met. xv. 711). But this was doubtless a mere
inference from the name itself, and we have no account of any Greek colony there
in historical times, though it is probable that it must have received a considerable
mixture at least of a Greek population, from the neighbouring cities of Neapolis
or Cumae: and there is no doubt of the extent to which Greek influences had pervaded
the manners and institutions of its inhabitants, in common with those of all this
part of Campania. Strabo's account of its early history is confused; he tells
us it was at first occupied (as well as its neighbour Pompeii) by Oscans, afterwards
by Tyrrhenians and Pelasgians, and after this by the Samnites. (v. p. 247.) It
is doubtful whether he here means by Tyrrhenians the Etruscans, or rather uses
the two names of Tyrrhenians and Pelasgians as nearly synonymous: but there seems
no reason to doubt the fact that Herculaneum may have been at one time a Pelasgic
settlement, and that its population, previous to its conquest by the Samnites,
was partly of Pelasgic and partly of Oscan extraction. Its name, and the legends
which connected it with Hercules, may in this case have been originally Pelasgic,
and subsequently adopted by the Greeks. It fell into the hands of the Samnites
in common with the rest of Campania (Strab. l. c.): and this is all that we know
of its history previous to its passing under the Roman dominion. Nor have we any
particular account of the time at which this took place; for the; Herculaneum
mentioned by Livy (x. 45) as having been taken by the consul Carvilius from the
Samnites in B.C. 293, must certainly be another town of the name situated in the
interior of Samnium, though we have no further clue to its position. The only
occasion on which it plays any part in history is during the Social War, when
it took up arms against the Romans, but was besieged and taken by F. Didius, supported
by a Hirpinian legion under Minatius Magius. (Vell. Pat. ii. 16.) It has been
supposed that a body of Roman colonists was afterwards established there by Sulla
(Zumpt, de Cot. p. 259), but there is no proof of this. It seems, however, to
have been certainly a place of some importance at this time: it enjoyed the rights
of a municipium and appears to have been well fortified, whence Strabo calls it
a fortress (phrourion): he describes it as enjoying a peculiarly healthy situation,
an advantage which it owed to its slightly elevated position, on a projecting
headland. (Strab. v. p. 246.) The historian Sisenna also, in a fragment preserved
by Nonius (iii. p. 207. s. v. Fluvius), describes it as situated on elevated ground
between two rivers. Its ports also were among the best on this line of coast.
(Dionys. i. 44.) It is probable that, when the shores of the beautiful bay of
Naples became so much frequented by the Romans, many of them would have settled
at Herculaneum, or in its immediate neighbourhood, and its municipal opulence
is sufficiently proved by the results of recent discoveries; but though its name
is mentioned by Mela and Florus, as well as by Pliny, among the cities of the
coast of Campania, it is evident that it never rose to a par with the more flourishing
and splendid cities of that wealthy region. (Mela, ii. 4. § 9; Flor. i. 16. §
6; Plin. iii. 5. s. 9.) It is important to bear this in mind in estimating the
value of the discoveries which have been made upon the site.
In the reign of Nero (A.D. 63) Herculaneum suffered severely from
an earthquake, which laid great part of the city in ruins, and seriously damaged
the buildings that remained standing. (Senec. N. Qu. vi. 1.) This was the same
earthquake which nearly destroyed Pompeii, though it is referred by Tacitus to
the preceding year. (Ann. xv. 22.) Sixteen years later, in the reign of Titus
(A.D. 79), a still more serious calamity befell both cities at once, the memorable
eruption of Vesuvius in that year having buried them both under the vast accumulations
of ashes, cinders, and volcanic sand poured forth by that mountain. (Dion Cass.
lxvi. 24.) Herculaneum, from its position at the very foot of the mountain, would
naturally be the first to suffer; and this is evident from the celebrated letter
of the younger Pliny describing the catastrophe, which does not however mention
either Herculaneum or Pompeii by name. (Plin. Ep. vi. 16, 20.) But Retina, where
the elder Pliny first attempted to land, but was prevented by the violence of
the eruption, was in the immediate neighbourhood of the former city. Its close
proximity to Vesuvius was also the cause that the bed of ejected materials under
which Herculaneum was buried assumed a more compact and solid form than that which
covered Pompeii, though it is a mistake to suppose, as has been stated by many
writers, that the former city was overwhelmed by a stream of lava. The substance
with which it is covered is only a kind of volcanic tuff, formed of accumulated
sand and ashes, but partially consolidated by the agency of water, which is often
poured out in large quantities during volcanic eruptions. (Daubeny on Volcanoes,
p. 222, 2nd edit.) The destruction of the unfortunate city was so complete that
no attempt could be made to restore or rebuild it: but it appears that a small
population gradually settled once more upon the site where it was buried, and
hence we again meet with the name of Herculaneum in the Itineraries of the 4th
century. (Tab. Pent.) This later settlement is supposed to have been again destroyed
by the eruption of Vesuvius in A.D. 472; and no trace is subsequently found of
the name.
Though the position of Herculaneum was clearly fixed by the ancient
authorities on the coast between Neapolis and Pompeii, and at the foot of Vesuvius,
its exact site remained long unknown; it was placed by Cluverius at Torre del
Greco, nearly two miles too far to the E. (Cluver. Ital. p. 1154.) But in 1738
the remains of the theatre were accidentally discovered in sinking a well, in
the village of Resina; and excavations, being from this time systematically carried
on, have brought to light a considerable portion of the ancient city, including
the Forum, with two adjacent temples and a Basilica. Unfortunately, the circumstance
that the ground above the site of the buried city is almost wholly occupied by
the large and populous villages of Resina and Portici has thrown great difficulties
in the way of these excavations, which have been carried on wholly by subterranean
galleries; and even the portions thus explored have been for the most part filled
up again with earth and rubbish, after they had been examined, and the portable
objects found carried off. The con sequence is that, while the works of art discovered
here far exceed in value and interest those found at Pompeii, and the bronze statues
especially form some of the choicest ornaments of the Museum at Naples, the remains
of the city itself possess comparatively little interest. The only portion that
remains accessible is the theatre, a noble edifice, built of solid stone, in a
very massive style; it has 18 cunei, or rows of seats, and is calculated to have
been capable of containing 8000 persons. Fragments discovered in it prove that
it was adorned with equestrian statues of bronze, as well as with two chariots
or bigae in gilt bronze; and several statues both in bronze and marble have been
extracted from it. For this splendid edifice, as we learn from an inscription
over the entrance, the citizens of Herculaneum were indebted to the munificence
of a private individual, L. Annius Mammianus Rufus: the date of its erection is
unknown; but it could not have been earlier than the period of the Roman empire,
and the building had consequently existed but a short time previous to its destruction.
From the theatre a handsome street, 36 feet in breadth, and bordered on both sides
by porticoes, led to a large open space or forum, on the N. side of which stood
a Basilica of a noble style of architecture. An inscription informs us that this
was erected at his own cost by M. Nonius Balbus, praetor and proconsul, who at
the same time rebuilt the gates and walls of the city. No part of these has as
yet been discovered, and the plan and extent of the ancient city therefore remain
almost unknown. Not far from the Basilica were discovered two temples, one of
which, as we learn from an inscription, was dedicated to the Mother of the Gods
(Mater Deum), and had been restored by Vespasian after the earthquake of A.D.
63. Another small temple, at a short distance from the theatre, apparently dedicated
to Hercules, was remarkable for the number and beauty of the paintings with which
the walls were adorned, and which have been from thence transported to the Museum
at Naples. At some distance from these buildings, towards the W., and on the opposite
side of a small ravine or watercourse, was found a villa or private house of a
most sumptuous description; and it was from hence that many of the most beautiful
statues which now adorn the Neapolitan Museum were extracted. Still more interest
was at first excited by the discovery in one of the rooms of this villa of a small
library or cabinet of MSS. on rolls of papyrus, which, though charred and blackened
so as to be converted into a substance resembling charcoal, were found to be still
legible. But the hopes at first entertained that we should here recover some of
the lost literary treasures of antiquity have been signally disappointed, the
works discovered being principally treatises on the Epicurean philosophy of very
little interest.
A full account of the early excavations and discoveries at Herculaneum
will be found in Venuti (Prime Scoverte di Ercolano, 4to. Roma, 1748), and in
the more recent work of Iorio (Notizie sugli Scavi di Ercolano, 8vo. Naples, 1827).
The works of art and other monuments discovered on the site, are figured and described
in the magnificent work of Le Antichita di Ercolano, in 8 vols. folio, published
at Naples, from 1757 to 1792. The inscriptions are given by Mommsen (Inscr. Regn.
Neap. pp. 122-127); and an account of the papyri will be found prefixed to the
work entitled Herculanensium Voluminum quae supersunt, of which only two volumes
have been published, in 1793 and 1809. A summary account of the general results
will be found in Romanelli (Viaggio ad Ercolano, 8vo. Naples, 1811), and in Murray's
Handbook for Southern Italy. It is much to be regretted that the superior facilities
afforded by Pompeii have for many years caused Herculaneum to be almost wholly
neglected: even the excavations previously carried on were conducted without system,
and no regular plans were ever taken of the edifices and portions of the city
then explored.
The modern village of Resina, which now covers a large part of the
ruins of Herculaneum, has evidently retained the name of Retina, a place mentioned
only in the letter of Pliny describing the great eruption of Vesuvius in A.D.
79. (Plin. Ep. vi. 16.) It appears to have been a naval station, where a body
of troops belonging to the fleet at Misenum (Classiarii) were at that time posted,
who applied in great terror to Pliny to extricate them from their perilous position.
Hence, it is clear that it must have been close to the sea-coast, and probably
served, as the port of Herculaneum. The exact position of this cannot now be traced,
for the whole of this line of coast has undergone considerable alterations from
volcanic action. The point of the promontory on which the ancient city was situated
is said to be 95 feet within the present line of coast; and the difference at
other points is much more considerable. We learn from Columella (R. R. x. 135)
that Herculaneum possessed salt-works, which he calls Salinae Herculeae, on the
coast to the E., immediately adjoining the territory of Pompeii. The Tabula marks
a station, which it calls Oplontis, between Herculaneum and Pompeii, 6 miles from
the former town; but the name, which is otherwise unknown, is probably corrupt.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ISCHIA (Island) CAMPANIA
Aenaria (Ainarhia, App.), called by the Greeks Pithecusa (pithekoussa),
or Pithecusae (pithekoussai), and by the Latin poets Inarime, now Ischia, is an
island of considerable size, which lies off the coast of Campania, nearly opposite
to Cape Misenum, and forms, in conjunction with that headland, the northern boundary
of the Bay of Naples. It is about 15 miles in circumference, and is distant between
five and six miles from the nearest point of the mainland, and 16 from Capri,
which forms the southern boundary of the bay. The small island of Prochyta (Procida)
lies between it and Cape Misernum. The whole island is of volcanic origin, and
though it contains no regular crater, or other vent of igneous action, was subject
in ancient, as it has continued in later, times, to violent earthquakes and paroxysmal
outbursts of volcanic agency. It was first colonized by Greek settlers from Chalcis
and Eretria, either simultaneously with, or even previous to, the foundation of
Cumae on the neighbouring mainland; and the colony attained to great prosperity,
but afterwards suffered severely from internal dissensions, and was ultimately
compelled to abandon the island in consequence of violent earthquakes and volcanic
outbreaks. (Liv. viii. 22; Strab. v. p. 248.) These are evidently the same described
by Timaeus, who related that Mt. Epomeus, a hill in the centre of the island,
vomited forth flames and a vast mass of ashes, and that a part of the island,
between this mountain and the coast, was driven forcibly into the sea. (Timaeus
ap. Strab. v. p. 248.) The same phenomena are related with some variation by Pliny
(ii. 88). At a later period, a fresh colony was established there by Hieron, the
tyrant of Syracuse (probably after his great naval victory over the Tyrrhenians
in B.C. 474), but these were also compelled to quit the island for similar reasons.
(Strab. l. c.; Mommsen, Unter-Italischen Dialekte, p. 198.) After their departure
it was occupied by the Neapolitans, and Scylax ( § 10. p. 3) speaks of it as containing,
in his time, a Greek city. It probably continued from henceforth a dependency
of Neapolis, and the period at which it fell into the hands of the Romans is unknown;
but we find it in later times forming a part of the public property of the Roman
state, until Augustus ceded it once more to the Neapolitans, in exchange for the
island of Capreae. (Suet. Aug. 92.) We have scarcely any further information concerning
its condition; but it seems to have effectually recovered from its previous disasters,
though still subject to earthquakes and occasional phenomena of a volcanic character.
It was indebted to the same causes for its warm springs, which were frequented
for their medical properties. (Strab. v. pp. 248. 258; Plin. xxxi. 5; Stat. Silv.
iii. 5. 104; Lucil. Aetna, 430; Jul. Obseq. 114.) Strabo notices the fertility
of the soil, and speaks of gold mines having been worked by the first settlers;
but it would seem never to have enjoyed any considerable degree of prosperity
or importance under the Romans, as its name is rarely mentioned. At the present
day it is a fertile and flourishing island, with a population of 25,000 inhabitants,
and contains two considerable towns, Ischia and Foria. The position of the ancient
town is uncertain, no antiquities having been discovered, except a few inscriptions.
The Monte di San Nicola, which rises in the centre of the island to an elevation
of 2500 feet, and bears unquestionable traces of volcanic action, is clearly the
same with the Epomeus of Timaeus (l. c.) which is called by Pliny Mons Epopus.
(Concerning the present state of the island, and its volcanic phenomena, see Description
Topogr. et Histor. des Iles d'Ischia, de Ponza, &c., Naples, 1822; Scrope, On
the Volcanic District of Naples, in the Trans. of the Geol. Soc. 2nd series, vol.
ii.; Daubeny on Volcanoes, p. 240, 2nd edit.) The name of Pithycusae appears to
have been sometimes applied by the Greeks to the two islands of Aenaria and Prochyta
collectively, but the plural form as well as the singular is often used to designate
the larger island alone. Strabo, indeed, uses both indifferently. (See also Appian,
B.C. v. 69.) Livy, in one passage (viii. 22), speaks of Aenaria et Pithecusas,
and Mela (ii. 7) also enumerates separately Pithecusa, Aenaria, and Prochyta.
But this is clearly a mere confusion arising from the double appellation. Pliny
tells us (iii. 6. 12) that the Greek name was derived from the pottery (phithoi)
manufactured there, not as commonly supposed from its abounding in apes (phithekoi).
But the latter derivation was the popular one, and was connected, by some writers,
with the mythological tale of the Cercopes. (Xenagoras ap. Harpocr. s. v. Kherkops;
Ovid. Met. xiv. 90.)
The name of Inarime is peculiar to the Latin poets, and seems to have
arisen from a confusion with the Arimoi of Homer and Hesiod, after the fable of
Typhoeus had been transferred from Asia to the volcanic regions of Italy and Sicily.
(Strab. v. p. 248, xiii. p. 626; Pherecyd. ap. School. ad Apoll. Rhod. ii. 1210.)
The earthquakes and volcanic outbursts of this island were already ascribed by
Pindar (Pyth. i. 18) to the struggles of the imprisoned giant, but the name of
Inarime is first found in Virgil, from whom it is repeated by many later poets.
Ovid erroneously distinguishes Inarime from Pithecusae. (Virg. Aen. ix. 716; Ovid.
Met. xiv. 90; Sil. Ital. viii. 542, xii. 147; Lucan v.100; Stat. Silv. ii. 2.
76; and see Heyne, Exc. ii. ad Virg. Aen. ix.; Wernsdorf, Exc. iii. ad Lucil.
Aetnam.) The idea, that both this and the neighbouring island of Prochyta had
been at one time united to the mainland, and broken off from it by the violence
of the same volcanic causes which were still in operation, is found both in Strabo
and Pliny, and was a natural inference from the phenomena actually observed, but
cannot be regarded as resting upon any historical tradition. (Strab. ii. p. 60,
v. p. 258; Plin. ii. 88.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
LAOS (Ancient city) ITALY
Laus (Laos: Eth. La+inos: near Scalea). A city on the W. coast of
Lucania, at the mouth of the river of the same name, which formed the boundary
between Lucania and Bruttium. (Strab. vi. pp. 253, 254.) It was a Greek city,
and a colony of Sybaris; but the date of its foundation is unknown, and we have
very little information as to its history. Herodotus tells us that, after the
destruction of Sybaris in B.C. 510, the inhabitants who survived the catastrophe
took refuge in Laus and Scidrus (Herod. vi. 20); but he does not say, as has been
supposed, that these cities were then founded by the Sybarites: it is far more
probable that they had been settled long before, during the greatness of Sybaris,
when Posidonia also was planted by that city on the coast of the Tyrrhenian sea.
The only other mention of Laus in history is on occasion of a great defeat sustained
there by the allied forces of the Greek cities in southern Italy, who had apparently
united their arms in order to check the progress of the Lucanians, who were at
this period rapidly extending their power towards the south,,. The Greeks were
defeated with great slaughter, and it is probable that Laus itself fell into the
hands of the barbarians. (Strab. vi. p. 253.) From this time we hear no more of
the city; and though Strabo speaks of it as still in existence in his times it
seems to have disappeared before the days of Pliny. The latter author, however
(as well as Ptolemy), notices the river Laus, which Pliny concurs with Strabo
in fixing as the boundary between Lucania and Bruttium. (Strab. l.c.; Plin. iii.
5. s. 10; Ptol. iii. 1. § 9 ; Steph. B. s. v.)
The river Laus still retains its ancient name as, the Lao, or Laino:
it is a considerable stream, falling into the Gulf of Policastro. Near its sources
about 10 miles from the sea, is the town of Laino, supposed by Cluverius to represent
the ancient Laus; but the latter would appear, from Strabo's description, to have
been nearer the sea. Romanelli would place it at Scalea, a small town with a good
port, about three miles N. of the mouth of the river; but it is more probable
that the ancient city is to be looked for between this and the river Lao. (Cluver.
Ital. p. 1262; Romanelli, vol. i. p. 383.) According to Strabo there was, near
the river and city, a temple or Heroum of a hero named Dracon, close to which
was the actual scene of the great battle between the Greeks and Lucanians. (Strab.
l. c.)
Strabo speaks of a gulf of Laus, by which he can hardly mean any other
than the extensive bay now called the Gulf of Policastro, which may be considered
as extending from the promontory of Pynus (Capo degli Infreschi) to near Cirella.
There exist coins of Laus, of ancient style, with the inscription LAINON: they
were struck after the destruction of Sybaris, which was probably the most flourishing
time in the history of Laus.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
MEGARIS (Ancient city) CAMPANIA
A small island on the coast of Campania, mentioned by Pliny (iii. 6. s. 12), who
places it between Pausilypus and Neapolis; it can therefore be no other than the
islet or rock now occupied by the Castel dell' Ovo. It is evidently the same which
is called by Statius Megalia. (Stat. Silv. ii. 2. 80.)
POSSIDONIA (Ancient city) CAMPANIA
Paiston, Ptol.; Paistos, Strab.: Eth. Paistanos, Paestanus: Ruins
at Pesto), a city of Lucania, on the Tyrrhenian sea, about 5 miles S. of the mouth
of the Silarus. It was originally a Greek colony, named Posidonia (Poseidonia:
Eth. Poseidoniates), and was founded by a colony from Sybaris, on the opposite
coast of Lucania. (Strab. v. p. 251; Scymn. Ch. 245; Scyl. p. 3. § 12.) The date
of its foundation is uncertain, but it may probably be referred to the period
of the chief prosperity of Sybaris, when that city ruled over the whole of Lucania,
from one sea to the other, or from 650 to 510 B.C. It may be observed, also, that
Solinus calls Posidonia a Dorio colony; and though his authority is worth little
in itself, it is confirmed by the occurrence of Doric forms on coins of the city:
hence it seems probable that the Doric settlers from Troezen, who formed part
of the original colony of Sybaris, but were subsequently expelled by the Achaeans
(Arist. Pol. v. 3), may have mainly contributed to the establishment of the new
colony. According to Strabo it was originally founded close to the sea, but was
subsequently removed further inland (Strab. l.c.); the change, however, was not
considerable, as the still existing ruins of the ancient city are little more
than half a mile from the coast.
We know scarcely anything of the early history of Posidonia. It is
incidentally mentioned by Herodotus (i. 167) in a manner that proves it to have
been already in existence, and apparently as a considerable town, at the period
of the foundation of the neighbouring Velia, about B.C. 540. But this is the only
notice of Posidonia until after the fall of its parent city of Sybaris, B.C. 510.
It has been supposed by some modern writers that it received a great accession
to its population at that period; but Herodotus, who notices the Sybarites as
settling on that occasion at Laiis and Scidrus, does not allude to Posidonia.
(Herod. vi. 21.) There are, indeed, few among the cities of Magna Graecia of which
we hear less in history; and the only evidence of the flourishing condition and
prosperity of Posidonia, is to be found in the numbers of its coins and in the
splendid architectural remains, so well known as the temples of Paestum. From
its northerly position, it must have been one of the first cities that suffered
from the advancing power of the Lucanians, as it was certainly one of the first
Greek colonies that fell into the hands of that people. (Strab. v. p. 251.) The
date of this event is very uncertain; buit it is probable that it must have taken
place before B.C. 390, when the city of Laus was besieged by the Lucanians, and
had apparently become the bulwark of Magna Graecia on that side. We learn from
a curious passage of Aristoxenus (ap. Athen. xiv. p. 632) that the Greek inhabitants
were not expelled, but compelled to submit to the authority of the Lucanians,
and receive a barbarian colony within their walls. They still retained many of
their customs, and for ages afterwards continued to assemble at a certain festival
every year with the express purpose of bewailing their captivity, and reviving
the traditions of their prosperity. It would appear [p. 513] from Livy (viii.
17), though the passage is not quite distinct, that it was recovered by Alexander,
king of Epirus, as late as B.C. 330; but if so, it certainly soon fell again into
the hands of the barbarians.
Posidonia passed with the rest of Lucania into the hands of the Romans.
We find no mention of it on this occasion; but in B.C. 273, immediately after
the departure of Pyrrhus from Italy, the Romans established a colony there for
the security of their newly acquired territory on this side. (Liv. Epit. xiv.;
Veil. Pat. i. 14; Strab. v. p. 251.) It was probably at, this period that the
name was changed, or corrupted, into Paestum though the change may have already
taken place at the time when the city fell into the hands of the Lucanians. But,
from the time that it became a Roman colony, the name of Paestum seems to have
exclusively prevailed; and even its coins, which are inscribed with Greek characters,
have the legend Pais and Paistano. (Eckhel, vol. i. p. 158.) We hear but little
of Paestum as a Roman colony: it was one of the Coloniae Latinae, and distinguished
itself by its unshaken fidelity throughout the Second Punic War. Thus the Paestani
are mentioned as sending golden paterae as a present to the Roman senate just
before the battle of Cannae (Liv. xxii. 36). Again in B.C. 210 they furnished
ships to the squadron with which D. Quintius repaired to the siege of Tarentum;
and the following year they were among the eighteen colonies which still professed
their readiness to furnish supplies and recruits to the Roman armies, notwithstanding
the long-continued pressure of the war (Liv. xxvi. 39, xxvii. 10.) Paestum was
therefore at this period still a flourishing and considerable town, but we hear
little more of it during the Roman Republic. It is incidentally mentioned by Cicero
in one of his letters (Ep. ad Att. xi. 17); and is noticed by all the geographers
as a still subsisting municipal town. Strabo, however, observes that it was rendered
unhealthy by the stagnation of a small river which flowed beneath its walls (v.
p. 251); and it was probably, therefore, already a declining place. But it was
still one of the eight Praefecturae of Lucania at a considerably later period
; and inscriptions attest its continued existence throughout the Roman Empire.
(Strab. l. c.; Plin. iii, 5. s. 10; Ptol. iii. 1. § 8; Lib. Colon. p. 209; Orell.
Inscr. 135, 2492, 3078: Bull. d. Inst. Arch. 1836, p. 152.) In some of these it
bears the title of a Colonia; but it is uncertain at what period it attained that
rank: it certainly cannot refer to the original Latin colony, as that must have
become merged in the municipal condition by the effect of the Lex Julia. We learn
from ecclesiastical authorities that it became a bishopric at least as early as
the fifth century; and it is probable that its final decay and desolation was
owing to the ravages of the Saracens in the tenth century. At that time the episcopal
see was removed to the neighbouring town of Capaccio, in an elevated situation
a few miles inland.
Paestum was chiefly celebrated in ancient times for its roses, which
possessed the peculiarity of flowering twice a year, and were considered as surpassing
all others in fragrance. (Virg. Georg. iv. 118; Ovid, Met. xv. 708; Propert. iv.
5. 59; Martial, iv. 41. 10, vi. 80. 6; Auson. Idyll. 14. 11.) The roses that still
grow wild among the ruins are said to retain their ancient property, and flower
regularly both in May and November.
The site of Paestum appears to have continued wholly uninhabited from
the time when the episcopal see was removed till within a very recent period.
It was not till the middle of the last century that attention was drawn to the
ruins which are now so celebrated. Though they can hardly be said to have been
then first discovered, as they must always have been a conspicuous object from
the Bay of Salerno, and could not but have been known in their immediate neighbourhood,
they were certainly unknown to the rest of Europe. Even the diligent Cluverius,
writing in 1624, notices the fact that there were ruins which bore the name of
Pesto, without any allusion to their character and importance. (Cluver. Ital.
p. 1255.) They seem to have been first visited by a certain Count Gazola, in the
service of Charles VII., King of Naples, before the middle of the last century,
and were described by Antonini, in his work on the topography of Lucania (Naples,
1745), and noticed by Mazzocchi, who has inserted a dissertation on the history
of Paestum in his work on the Heraclean Tables (pp. 499-515) published in 1754.
Before the end of the century they became the subject of the special works of
Magnoni and Paoli, and were visited by travellers from all parts of Europe. Among
these, Swinburne in 1779, has left a very accurate description of the ruins; and
their architectural details are given by Wilkins in his Magna Graecia (fol. Cambr.
1807).
The principal ruins consist of the walls, and three temples standing
within the space enclosed by them. The whole circuit of the walls can be clearly
made out, and they are in many places standing to a considerable height; several
of the towers also remain at the angles, and vestiges of the ancient gates, which
were four in number; one of these, on the E. side of the town, is nearly perfect,
and surmounted by a regularly constructed arch. The whole circuit of the walls
forms an irregular polygon, about 3 miles in circumference. The two principal
temples stand not far from the southern gate of the city. The finest and most
ancient of these is commonly known as the temple of Neptune; but there is no authority
for the name, beyond the fact that Neptune, or Poseidon, was unquestionably the
tutelary deity of the city which derived from him its ancient name of Posidonia.
The temple was hypaethral, or had its cella open to the sky, and is 195 feet long
by 79 wide: it is remarkably perfect; not a single column is wanting, and the
entablature and pediments are almost entire. The style of architecture is Doric,
but its proportions are heavier, and the style altogether more massive and solid
than any other extant edifice of the kind. On this account some of the earlier
antiquarians disputed the fact of its Greek origin, and ascribed it to the Phoenicians
or Etruscans: but there is not a shadow of foundation for this; we have no trace
of any settlement on the spot before the Greek colony; and the architecture is
of pure Greek style, though probably one of the most ancient specimens of the
Doric order now remaining. About 100 yards from the temple of Neptune, and nearer
to the south gate, is the second edifice, which on account of some peculiarities
in its plan has been called a Basilica, but is unquestionably also a temple. It
is of the kind called pseudo-dipteral; but differs from every other ancient building
known in having nine columns at each end, while the interior is divided into two
parts by a single range of columns running along the centre of the building. It
was probably a temple consecrated to two different divinities, or rather, in fact,
two temples united in one. It has 18 columns in each side, and is 180 feet long
by 80 in width. The third temple, which is at some distance from the other two,
nearer to the N. gate of the town, and is commonly known as the Temple of Ceres
or Vesta (though there is no reason for either name), is much smaller than the
other two, being only 108 feet in length by 48 in breadth: it presents no remarkable
architectural peculiarities, but is, as well as the so-called Basilica, of much
later date than the great temple. Mr. Wilkins, indeed, would assign them both
to the Roman period: but it is difficult to reconcile this with the history of
the city, which never appears to have been a place of much importance under the
Roman rule. (Swinburne's Travels, vol. ii. pp. 131-138; Wilkins's Magna Graecia,
pp. 55-67.)
The other remains are of little importance. The vestiges of an amphitheatre
exist near the centre; of the city; and not far from them are the fallen ruins
of a fourth temple, of small size and clearly of Roman date. Excavations have
also laid bare the foundations of many houses and other buildings, and the traces
of a portico, which appear to indicate the site of the ancient forum. The remains
,of an aqueduct are. also visible outside the walls; and numerous tombs (some
of which are said to be. of much interest) have been recently brought to light.
The small river which (as already noticed by Strabo), by stagnating
under the walls of Paestum, rendered its situation so unhealthy, is now called
the Salso: its ancient name is not mentioned. It forms extensive deposits of a
calcareous stone, resembling the Roman travertin, which forms an excellent building
material, with which both the walls and edifices of the city have been constructed.
The malaria, which caused the site to be wholly abandoned during the middle ages,
has already sensibly diminished, since the resort of travellers has again attracted
a small population to the spot, and given rise to some cultivation. About five
miles from Paestum, at the mouth of the Silarus or Sele, stood, in ancient times,
a celebrated temple of Juno, which, according to the tradition adopted both by
Strabo and Pliny, was founded by the Argonauts under Jason (Strab, vi, p. 252.;
Plin. iii. 5. s. 10). It is probable that the worship of the Argive Hera, or Juno,
was brought hither by the Troezenian colonists of Posidonia. Pliny places the
temple on the N. bank of the. Silarus.; Strabo, probably more correctly, on the
S. The extensive gulf which extends from the promontory of Minerva (the Punta
della Campanella) to the headland called Posidium (the Punta di Licosa), and is
now known as the Gulf of Salerno. derived its ancient name from the city of Paestum,
being called by the Romans Paestanus Sinus and by the Greeks the gulf of Posidonia
(Poseidoniates kolpos). (Strab. v. p, 251; Sinus Paestanus, Plin. iii. 5. s. 10;
Mel. ii. 4. § 9; Cic. ad Att. xvi. 6)
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SALERNO (Town) CAMPANIA
Salernum (Salernon. Eth. Salernitanus: Salerno), a city of Campania,
but situated in the territory of the Picentini, on the N. shore of the gulf of
Posidonia, which now derives from it the name of the Gulf of Salerno. We have
no account of its origin or early history; it has been supposed that it was like
the neighbouring Marcina a Tyrrhenian or Pelasgic settlement; but there is no
authority for this, and its name is never mentioned in history previous to the
settlement of a Roman colony there. But when this was first decreed (in B.C. 197,
it was not actually founded till B.C. 194), Livy speaks of the place as Castrum
Salerni, whence we may infer that there was at least a fortress previously existing
there (Liv. xxxii. 29, xxxiv. 45; Vell. Pat. i. 14: Strab. v. p. 251.) The Roman
colony was established, as we are expressly told by Strabo, for the purpose of
holding the Picentines in check, that people having actively espoused the cause
of Hannibal during the Second Punic War (Strab. l. c.) Their town of Picentia
being destroyed, Salernum became the chief town of the district; but it does not
appear to have risen to any great importance. In the Social War it was taken by
the Samnite general C. Papius (Appian, B.C. i. 42): but this is the only occasion
on which its name is mentioned in history. Horace alludes to it as having a mild
climate, on which account it had apparently been recommended to him for his health
(Hor. Ep. i. 15. 1.) It continued to be a municipal town of some consideration
under the Roman Empire, and as we learn from inscriptions retained the title of
a Colonia (Plin. iii. 5. s. 9; Ptol. iii. 1. § 7; Itin. Ant.; Tab. Pent.; Mommsen,
Inscr. R. N. pp. 9-12) But it was not till after the Lombard conquest that it
became one of the most flourishing cities in this part of Italy; so that it is
associated by Paulus Diaconus with Caprea and Neapolis among the opulentissimae
urbes of Campania (P. Diac. Hist. Lang. ii. 17). It retained this consideration
down to a late period of the middle ages, and was especially renowned for its
school of medicine, which, under the name of Schola Salernitana, was long the
most celebrated in Europe. But it seems certain that this was derived from the
Arabs in the 10th or 11th century, and was not transmitted from more ancient times.
Salerno is still the see of an archbishop, with a population of about 12,000 inhabitants,
though greatly fallen from its mediaeval grandeur.
The ancient city, as we learn from Strabo (v. p. 251), stood on a hill
at some distance from the sea, and this is confirmed by local writers, who state
that many ancient remains have been found on the hill which rises at the back
of the modern city, but no ruins are now extant. (Romanelli, vol. iii. p. 612.)
From the foot of this hill a level and marshy plain extends without interruption
to the mouth of the Silarus, the whole of which seems to have been included in
the municipal territory of Salernum, as Lucan speaks of the Silarus as skirting
the cultivated lands of that city (Lucan ii.425.) The distance from Salernum itself
to the mouth of the Silarus is not less than 18 miles, though erroneously given
in the Tabula at only 9. (Tab.Peut.)
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AVELLA (Ancient city) CAMPANIA
Abella or Avella. A town of Campania, not far from Nola, founded by the Chalcidians in Euboea. It was celebrated for its apples, whence Vergil calls it malifera.
CALES (Ancient city) CAMPANIA
The modern Calvi; the chief town of the Caleni, an Ausonian people in Campania, on the Via Latina, said to have been founded by Calais, son of Boreas, and therefore called Threicia by the poets. It was celebrated for its excellent wine.
CAMPANIA (Region) ITALY
A district of Italy, the name of which is probably derived from
campus, "a plain." It was separated from Latium by the river Liris,
and from Lucania at a later time by the river Silarus, though in the time of Augustus
it did not extend farther south than the promontory of Minerva. In still earlier
times, the "Ager Campanus" included only the country around Capua. Campania
is a volcanic country, to which circumstance it mainly owed the extraordinary
fertility for which it was celebrated in antiquity above all other lands. The
fertility of the soil, allowing in parts three crops in a year, the beauty of
the scenery, and the softness of the climate, the heat of which was tempered by
the delicious breezes of the sea, procured for Campania the epithet Felix, a name
which it justly deserved. It was the favourite retreat in summer of the Roman
nobles, whose villas studded a considerable part of its coast, especially in the
neighbourhood of Baiae. The earliest inhabitants of the country were the Ausones
and the Osci or Opici. These were subsequently conquered by the Etruscans, who
became the masters of almost all the country. In the time of the Romans we find
three distinct peoples, besides the Greek population of Cumae: (1) The Campani,
properly so called, a mixed race, consisting of Etruscans and the original inhabitants
of the country, dwelling along the coast from Sinuessa to Paestum. They were the
ruling race at Capua. (2) The Sidicini, an Ausonian people, in the northwest of
the country on the borders of Samnium. (3) The Picentini, in the southeastern
part of the country.
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CAPRI (Island) CAMPANIA
The modern Capri; a small island, nine miles in circumference,
off Campania, at the southern entrance of the Gulf of Puteoli. The scenery is
beautiful, and the climate soft and genial. Here the emperor Tiberius lived the
last ten years of his reign, indulging in secret debauchery, and accessible only
to his favourites.
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CHONES (Ancient tribe) ITALY
The name in early times of a district in the south of Italy, inhabited by the Chones, an Oenotrian people. Chonia appears to have included the southeast of Lucania and the whole of the east of Bruttium as far as the promontory of Zephyrium.
DIKEARCHIA (Ancient city) ITALY
Puteoli, now Pozzuoli; originally named Dicaearchia. A celebrated seaport town of Campania, situated on a promontory on the eastern side of the Puteolanus Sinus, and a little to the east of Cumae, was founded by the Greeks of Cumae, B.C. 521, under the name of Dicaearchia. It obtained the name of Puteoli either from its numerous wells or from the stench arising from the mineral springs in its neighbourhood. The town was indebted for its importance to its excellent harbour, which was protected by an extensive mole to which Caligula attached a floating bridge, which extended as far as Baiae, a distance of two miles. Puteoli was the chief emporium for the commerce with Alexandria and with the greater part of Spain. The town was colonized by the Romans in B.C. 194, and also anew by Augustus, Nero, and Vespasian. It was destroyed by Alaric in A.D. 410, by Genseric in 455, and also by Totila in 545, but was on each occasion speedily rebuilt. There are still many ruins of the ancient town at the modern Pozzuoli.
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ELEA (Ancient city) ITALY
or Elea (Elea), also called Hyele (Huele). Now Castellamare;
a Greek town of Lucania, on the western coast between Paestum and Buxentum, was
founded by the Phocaeans, who had abandoned their native city to escape from the
Persian sovereignty, about B.C. 543. It was situated about three miles east of
the river Hales, and possessed a good harbour. It is celebrated as the birthplace
of the philosophers Parmenides and Zeno, who founded a school of philosophy usually
known under the name of the Eleatic. The different forms of the name of the town
arise from the fact that the Romans preserve the original Aeolic digamma, representing
it by their semi-consonantal V.
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IRAKLIO (Ancient city) CAMPANIA
A city of Campania, on the coast, and not far from Neapolis
(Naples). The form Herculanum is modern. Nothing is known respecting the origin
of Herculaneum, except that fabulous accounts ascribed its foundation to Hercules
on his return from Spain. It may be inferred, however, from a passage in Strabo,
that the town was of great antiquity. It may be reasonably conjectured, too, that
Herculaneum was a Greek city, but that its name was altered to suit the Latin
or Oscan pronunciation. At first it was only a fortress, which was successively
occupied by the Osci, Tyrrheni, Pelasgi, Samnites, and lastly by the Romans. Being
situated close to the sea, on elevated ground, it was exposed to the southwest
wind, and from that circumstance was reckoned particularly healthful. We learn
from Velleius Paterculus that Herculaneum suffered considerably during the civil
wars. This place is mentioned also by Mela. Ovid likewise notices it under the
name of Urbs Herculea. Herculaneum, according to the common account, was overwhelmed
by an eruption of Vesuvius in the first year of the reign of Titus, A.D. 79. Pompeii
and Stabiae, which stood near, shared the same fate. It is possible, however,
that the subversion of Herculaneum was not sudden, but progressive, since Seneca
mentions a partial demolition which it sustained from an earthquake. After being
buried for more than sixteen hundred years, these cities were accidentally discovered--Herculaneum
in 1719, by labourers in deepening a well; and Pompeii some years after. It appears
that Herculaneum is in no part less than forty feet, and in some parts one hundred
and twelve feet below the surface of the ground. Little was done to exhume the
city until 1738, when some regular excavations were made. Above the city stand
the two modern villages of Portici and Resina in the suburbs of Naples; and to
the fear of undermining their buildings is due the fact that so much of the ancient
city is still beneath the earth. The chief edifice of Herculaneum that has been
disinterred is a fine theatre, built only a short time before the eruption and
capable of accommodating 8000 persons. Part of the Forum, a colonnade, two small
temples, and a villa have also been recovered, besides ruins of baths. Many other
valuable remains of antiquity, such as busts, manuscripts, etc., have been found
in the ruins of this ancient city, and are deposited in the Museo Nazionale at
Naples.
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ISCHIA (Island) CAMPANIA
(also called Pithecusa and Inarime). A volcanic island at the entrance to the Bay of Naples; under it the Roman poets represent Typhoeus as lying. It is the modern Ischia.
KYMI (Ancient city) CAMPANIA
Kume. A town of Campania, the most ancient of the Greek colonies
in Italy and Sicily. It was founded from Cyme in Aeolis, in conjunction with Chalcis
and Eretria in Euboea. Its foundation is placed in B.C. 1050, but the date must
be regarded as uncertain. It was situated on a steep hill of Mount Gaurus, a little
north of the promontory Misenum. It became in early times a great and flourishing
city; its commerce was extensive; its territory included a great part of the rich
Campanian plain; its population was at least 60,000; and its power is attested
by its colonies in Italy and Sicily--Puteoli, Palaeopolis (afterwards Neapolis),
Zancle (afterwards Messana). But it had powerful enemies to encounter in the Etruscans
and the Italian nations. It was also weakened by internal dissensions, and one
of its citizens, Aristodemus, made himself tyrant of the place. Its power became
so much reduced that it was only saved from the attacks of the Etruscans by the
assistance of Hiero, who annihilated the Etruscan fleet, 474. It maintained its
independence till 417, when it was taken by the Campanians and most of its inhabitants
sold as slaves. From this time Capua became the chief city of Campania; and although
Cumae was subsequently a Roman municipium and a colony, it continued to decline
in importance. At last the Acropolis was the only part of the town that remained,
and this was eventually destroyed by Narses in his wars with the Goths. Cumae
was celebrated as the residence of the earliest Sibyl, and as the place where
Tarquinius Superbus died.
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LAOS (Ancient city) ITALY
(Laos). A Greek city in Lucania, near the mouth of the river Laus, which formed the boundary between Lucania and Bruttium.
LEUCANIA (Ancient country) ITALY
A district in Lower Italy, bounded on the north by Campania
and Samnium, on the east by Apulia and the Gulf of Tarentum, on the south by Bruttium,
and on the west by the Tyrrhene Sea. It was separated from Campania by the river
Silarus, and from Bruttium by the river Laus. Lucania was celebrated for its excellent
pastures; and its oxen were the finest and largest in Italy. Hence the elephant
was at first called by the Romans a Lucanian ox (Lucas bos). The coast of Lucania
was inhabited chiefly by Greeks, whose cities were numerous and flourishing. The
interior of the country was originally inhabited by the Chones and Oenotrians.
The Lucanians proper were Samnites, a brave and warlike race, who left their mother
country and settled both in Lucania and Bruttium. They not only expelled or subdued
the Oenotrians, but they gradually acquired possession of most of the Greek cities
on the coast. They were subdued by the Romans after Pyrrhus had left Italy. The
chief cities of Lucania were Heraclea, Metapontum, Thurii, Elea or Velia, Paestum
(Posidonia), and Buxentum.
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MISENO (Cape) CAMPANIA
Misenum, now Punta di Miseno. A promontory in Campania, south of Cumae, said to have derived its name from Misenus, the companion and trumpeter of Aeneas, who was drowned and buried here. The bay formed by this promontory was converted by Augustus into an excellent harbour, and was made the principal station of the Roman fleet on the Tyrrhenian Sea. A town sprang up around the harbour. Here was the villa of C. Marius, which afterwards passed into the hands of the emperor Tiberius, who died at this place ( Suet. Tib.72).
NEAPOLIS (Ancient city) CAMPANIA
Now Napoli (Naples); a city of Campania in Italy on the western
slope of Mount Vesuvius and the river Sebethus (Maddalena). It was founded about
B.C. 1056 by Aeolian Chalcidians of Cumae, on the site of an ancient place called
Parthenope (Parthenope), after the Siren of that name. Hence we find the town
called Parthenope by Vergil and Ovid. The year of the foundation of Neapolis is
not recorded. It was perhaps called the "New City," because regarded
simply as a new quarter of the neighbouring city of Cumae. When the town is first
mentioned in Roman history it consisted of two parts, divided from each other
by a wall, and called respectively Palaeopolis and Neapolis. This division probably
arose after the capture of Cumae by the Samnites, (about B.C. 300.) when a large
number of the Cumaeans took refuge in the city they had founded, whereupon the
old quarter was called Palaeopolis, and the new quarter, built to accommodate
the new inhabitants, was named Neapolis. There has been a dispute respecting the
site of these two quarters; but it is probable that Palaeopolis was situated on
the west side near the harbour, and Neapolis on the east side near the river Sebethus.
In B.C. 327 the town was taken by the Samnites, and in 290 it passed into the
hands of the Romans, who allowed it, however, to retain its Greek constitution.
At a later period it became a municipium, and finally a Roman colony. Under the
Romans the two quarters of the city were united, and the name of Palaeopolis disappeared.
It continued to be a prosperous and flourishing place till the time of the Empire;
and its beautiful scenery and the luxurious life of its Greek population made
it a favourite residence with many of the Romans. In the reign of Titus the city
was destroyed by an earthquake, but was rebuilt by this emperor in the Roman style.
The modern city of Naples does not stand on exactly the same
site as Neapolis. The ancient city extended farther east than the modern city,
since the former was situated on the Sebethus, whereas the latter does not reach
so far as the Fiume della Maddalena; but the modern city, on the other hand, extends
farther north and west than the ancient one, since the island of Megaris, on which
the Castel del Ovo now stands, was situated in ancient times between Pausilypum
and Neapolis. In the neighbourhood of Neapolis there were warm baths, the celebrated
villa of Lucullus, and the Villa Pausilypi or Pausilypum, bequeathed by Vedius
Pollio to Augustus, and which has given its name to the celebrated grotto of Posilippo
between Naples and Pozzuoli, at the entrance of which what is called the tomb
of Vergil is still shown. Augustus frequently visited the city, and Tiberius,
Claudius, Nero, Titus, and Hadrian favoured it in many ways. In 536 it was taken
by Belisarius, and in 543 by the Goths under Totila. Naples is a city of much
interest to archaeologists, both because of its proximity to Pompeii and Herculaneum,
and because of its remarkable collection of ancient works of art and industry
preserved in the Museo Nazionale.
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Now Napoli (Naples); a city of Campania in Italy on the western slope of Mount Vesuvius and the river Sebethus (Maddalena). It was founded about B.C. 1056 by Aeolian Chalcidians of Cumae, on the site of an ancient place called Parthenope (Parthenope), after the Siren of that name. Hence we find the town called Parthenope by Vergil and Ovid. The year of the foundation of Neapolis is not recorded. It was perhaps called the "New City," because regarded simply as a new quarter of the neighbouring city of Cumae. When the town is first mentioned in Roman history it consisted of two parts, divided from each other by a wall, and called respectively Palaeopolis and Neapolis. This division probably arose after the capture of Cumae by the Samnites, when a large number of the Cumaeans took refuge in the city they had founded, whereupon the old quarter was called Palaeopolis, and the new quarter, built to accommodate the new inhabitants, was named Neapolis. There has been a dispute respecting the site of these two quarters; but it is probable that Palaeopolis was situated on the west side near the harbour, and Neapolis on the east side near the river Sebethus. In B.C. 327 the town was taken by the Samnites, and in 290 it passed into the hands of the Romans, who allowed it, however, to retain its Greek constitution. At a later period it became a municipium, and finally a Roman colony. Under the Romans the two quarters of the city were united, and the name of Palaeopolis disappeared. It continued to be a prosperous and flourishing place till the time of the Empire; and its beautiful scenery and the luxurious life of its Greek population made it a favourite residence with many of the Romans. In the reign of Titus the city was destroyed by an earthquake, but was rebuilt by this emperor in the Roman style. The modern city of Naples does not stand on exactly the same site as Neapolis. The ancient city extended farther east than the modern city, since the former was situated on the Sebethus, whereas the latter does not reach so far as the Fiume della Maddalena; but the modern city, on the other hand, extends farther north and west than the ancient one, since the island of Megaris, on which the Castel del Ovo now stands, was situated in ancient times between Pausilypum and Neapolis. In the neighbourhood of Neapolis there were warm baths, the celebrated villa of Lucullus, and the Villa Pausilypi or Pausilypum, bequeathed by Vedius Pollio to Augustus, and which has given its name to the celebrated grotto of Posilippo between Naples and Pozzuoli, at the entrance of which what is called the tomb of Vergil is still shown. Augustus frequently visited the city, and Tiberius, Claudius, Nero, Titus, and Hadrian favoured it in many ways. In 536 it was taken by Belisarius, and in 543 by the Goths under Totila. Naples is a city of much interest to archaeologists, both because of its proximity to Pompeii and Herculaneum, and because of its remarkable collection of ancient works of art and industry preserved in the Museo Nazionale.
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PALINURO (Town) CAMPANIA
Now Cape Palinuro; a promontory on the west coast of Lucania, said to have derived its name from Palinurus, pilot of the ship of Aeneas, who fell into the sea, and was murdered on the coast by the natives.
POSSIDONIA (Ancient city) CAMPANIA
called Posidonia (Poseidonia) by the Greeks. A city in Lucania,
situated four or five miles south of the Silarus, and near the bay, which derived
its name from the town (Paestanus Sinus: Gulf of Salerno). It was colonized by
the Sybarites about B.C. 524, and soon became a powerful and flourishing city.
It was captured by the Lucanians about B.C. 430 and gradually lost its Greek characteristics.
Under the Romans it gradually sank in importance, and in the time of Augustus
it is mentioned only on account of the beautiful roses grown in its neighbourhood.
The ruins of two Doric temples at Paestum are among the most remarkable remains
of antiquity.
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PYXOUS (Ancient city) ITALY
Originally Pyxus (Puxous); a town on the west coast of Lucania and on the river Buxentius, was founded by Micythus, tyrant of Messana, B.C. 471, and was afterwards a Roman colony.
SALERNO (Town) CAMPANIA
Now Salerno. An ancient town in Campania, at the innermost corner of the Sinus Paestanus, situated on a hill near the coast. It was made a Roman colony B.C. 194; but it attained its greatest prosperity in the Middle Ages, after it had been fortified by the Lombards.
TEANO (Town) CAMPANIA
Teanum Sidicinum (now Teano), an important town of Campania, and the capital of the Sidicini, situated on the northern slope of Mount Massicus and on the Via Praenestina, six miles west of Cales.
SANTA MARIA CAPUA VETERE (Town) CAMPANIA
POSSIDONIA (Ancient city) CAMPANIA
NEAPOLIS (Ancient city) CAMPANIA
CALES (Ancient city) CAMPANIA
A city on the Via Latina. While older settlements are attested in
the area on the basis of archaeological data, the city and its present site seem
to date to the late 7th c. B.C., i.e., to the period of Etruscan hegemony which
would coincide with what we already know from the necropolis. It remained the
city of the Ausones until the siege by the Romans in 334 B.C. Following this it
was reduced to a Latin colony, the first in Campania. During the Late Republican
period, when it reappeared as a municipium, the city was the seat of the quaestor
of Campania. In the Late Empire, it was practically destroyed by the Vandals under
Genseric, and in the Longobard period a fortress was built on the site.
The city occupied a long, narrow plain, nearly surrounded by streams
that cut deep into the tufa. At its highest point, to the N, there was a citadel.
In the center of the settlement, crossed by the Via Latina, was the forum and
some of the major public buildings. From the forum, the two sections of the major
street, intersected by cross-streets, ran N-S, according to a plan well-attested
elsewhere in Etruscan-Italic environs. The fortifications, built over some of
the structures preserved from the 4th c. B.C. or even earlier, underwent important
restorations in the age of Sulla. This is particularly true in the vicinity of
the gates, to some of which access is gained over steep, narrow slopes in the
tufa bank. Among the most notable buildings recognizable today are: the theater,
in the area of the forum, of Late Hellenistic date and enlarged in the age of
Sulla; the central baths and a terraced sanctuary of the Sullan period; a temple
dating from the beginning of the Imperial period, not far from which were discovered
votive offerings and some terracotta facings belonging to a sanctuary of the archaic
period. North of the settlement are the Late Republican amphitheater (rebuilt
2d c. A.D.), and a monumental bath building of the first half of the 2d c. of
the Empire. On the outskirts, in the S section, an important votive dumping area
of the Hellenistic period has been partially explored.
In the W suburb, adjacent to the Via Latina, are remains of a palaestra
partially incorporated into a basilica of the 5th c., as well as sure evidence
of pottery shops of the Hellenistic period. Along the streets in the same area,
the Hellenistic and Roman necropoleis extended, their sepulchral monuments in
part dating to the 3d c. B.C. In a more N direction, there have been discovered
archaic tombs, among which a sumptuous one dates to the late 7th c. with many
grave gifts imported from Etruria.
Molded and decorated pottery with the potter's seal (called caleni)
is attributed with certainty to Cales. The discovery of quite a number of molds
has increased that certainty, and the pottery is dated between the last ten years
of the 4th c. B.C. when the technique was introduced by Attic artisans, and the
late 3d c. B.C. During the latter period, black glaze pottery of the commonest
type began to be produced up until the first ten years of the 1st c. B.C. when
gradually a high quality praesigillata was substituted.
The division of land in the territory evidently dates back to the
city's reduction to colonial status in 334. Many country villas, in the plain
as well as on the hillside, date to the Republican era.
W. Johannowsky, ed.
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CAPRI (Island) CAMPANIA
This island in the Gulf of Naples was an important center in the prehistoric
period, of which there remain relatively abundant traces. According to Virgil
(Aen. 7.73) it was reached by the Teleboi coming from Acarnania at the time of
the Trojan war. The colonizers, settled both at the Marina and at Anacapri. The
two centers, joined by a path worn in the slope of Mt. Solaro, remained relatively
independent until the time of Augustus. Construction during the Roman Imperial
epoch destroyed nearly every trace of the preceding age.
Visited by Augustus in 29 B.C., the island became the residence of
Tiberius between A.D. 27 and 31. During the reign of Augustus began the construction
of the imperial villas that, according to Tacitus (Ann. 4.67), numbered twelve
under Tiberius. Excavations in the 19th c. and again in 1935 have brought to light
the remains of two large villas, the Villa Jovis on the E promontory and the Villa
di Damecuta, as well as remnants of minor dwellings. The Villa Jovis surrounds
a four-sided court where there are cisterns for collecting water. A ramp leading
from Viale dei Mirti to the entrance hall provided access to the palace. A corridor
paved in white mosaic led to a second vestibule, from which one could pass to
the E to the lodgings and to the bath on the floor above. To the W a flight of
steps and a ramp led to the imperial apartments, a large semicircular hall and
the private quarters at the N, opening on the W toward the sea. On the N flank
of the mountain is the loggia of an ambulatio, interrupted at midpoint by a residential
section, and ending to the E in a perpendicular drop to the sea. On the ridge
of the mountain was a lighthouse.
The Villa di Damecuta, on the promontory that juts out from the plateau
of Anacapri, includes a belvedere, a residential section and an even more scenic
lodging on the slope of the promontory. The building complex was buried in 79
by the cinders from Mt. Vesuvius. The remains of other villas are scarce.
The grotto of the Arsenale and the grotto of Matermania were transformed
into large nymphaea. After Tiberius the island continued at intervals to be an
imperial residence until the Flavian age.
F. Parise Badoni, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
DIKEARCHIA (Ancient city) ITALY
Twelve km from Naples about midway on the shore of a bay formed by the promontories
of Mons Posilypus and Misenum. To the rear it is ringed by a series of volcanic
hills, and as far as Cumae the whole area was known as the campi phlegraei from
its sulphurous atmosphere, hot springs, and other volcanic phenomena. Settled
by Samian refugees ca. 520 B.C. and politically dependent upon Cumae, it was an
outpost against Neapolis until conquered by the Samnites in 421. There is little
literary or archaeological evidence until ca. 334 B.C. when much of Campania came
under Rome. In 215 B.C. Puteoli successfully resisted Hannibal; in 199 it received
a Roman customs station and a maritime colony in 194. By this time its proximity
to the Via Appia at Capua had made it a port preferable to Naples. Sulla or Augustus
may have conferred further colonial status; Nero and Vespasian certainly did,
and the latter enlarged the city's territory from ca. 10 sq. km of coastline to
include a substantial part of the agricultural ager Campanus.
Puteoli's attraction for upper-class Romans and its location only
5 km from Baiae's amenities must have influenced the city's cultural life, but
its great fame and prosperity were based on its importance as a port of Rome,
especially from the East and especially after Delos became a free port in 166
B.C. Even after Claudius installed the port of Ostia, its prosperity continued
to such an extent that Nero undertook to link it with the Tiber by canal. Although
by comparison Puteoli declined from the 2d c. onward, it nevertheless remained
important until it was abandoned in the 6th c. The city's population, estimated
to be nearly 65,000, was commercial and highly cosmopolitan, as is reflected by
oriental cults such as Sarapis (105 B.C.), Kybele, Jupiter Dolichenos, Bellona,
Dusares, I.O.M. Heliopolitanus, Judaism and pre-Pauline Christianity (but not
Mithraism), as well as by the usual Graeco-Roman and the imperial worship. Puteoli
was likewise a gateway for Alexandrian artistry and artisanship, while its material
imports were as varied as the world's products, especially eastern grain bound
for the capital.
Return cargoes from Puteoli included oil, wine, and probably Republican
black "Campanian" pottery; also the locally made and widely distributed
glass and early imperial terra sigillata.
The most conspicuous ancient monuments are reproduced and named on
Late Classical globular glass vases from Piombino (now in the Corning Museum of
Glass, NY), Odemira (Portugal), Ampurias, Populonia, and one now in Prague, and
in Bellori's engraving of a wall painting now destroyed; interpretation of these
illustrations and inscriptions is difficult and often conjectural. The city was
eventually plundered to provide building materials for the cathedrals of Salerno
and Pisa. Puteoli naturally divides into a lower town, an upper town, and the
environs. Since antiquity parts of the lower town have sunk ca. 8 m and risen
again through bradyseism; high water has been marked by marine borers attacking
the three columns standing since antiquity in the macellum. Since the 18th c.
a new cycle of subsidence has progressed at about 2 cm annually.
The great macellum, formerly called the Temple or Baths (?) of Sarapis
from a statue found there in 1750, consisted of a large rectangular courtyard
(ca. 38 x 36 m), now submerged, surrounded by a portico into which shops on E
and W opened, or onto the streets outside; the inner oriented shops were faced
and paved with marble while the others were merely stuccoed. Stairs led to an
upper story. The grand entrance, flanked by further shops or offices, was in the
center of the S side; opposite it on the N was a large apse with capacious latrines
in the courtyard's NE and NW corners. At some later time the courtyard was embellished
by a circular colonnade of 16 African marble columns on a podium (18.2 m diam.);
statues and putealia were in the intercolumniations, a fountain was at the center,
and the whole structure was either roofed or hypethral. The entire macellum was
surrounded by an even larger one-story enclosure of additional shops facing inward,
and the whole must have been a spectacular unit worthy of the importance of the
city it served.
Of the port little is now accessible. Ruins of the famous Augustan
opus pilarum, a breakwater (15-16 m x 372 m), carried on 15 enormous masonry piers,
with at least one triumphal arch, columns topped by statues, a lighthouse, and
an architectural ship's prow at the end, are embedded in the modern solid breakwater.
The colonnaded quay (ripa) and some docks are now below sea level.
The Temple of Augustus, contributed cum ornamentis by a local admirer,
was situated on a low (36 m) acropolis. It was largely destroyed by the renovations
of the present Cathedral, but some columns, an architrave, and inscriptions remain.
In 1964 it was discovered to have encased the remains of a structure reusing late
5th c. Greek blocks, and of a Samnite or Italic temple with handsome base moldings.
Other monuments of the lower town, conspicuous enough for identification on the
glass vases and engraving mentioned above, have disappeared.
The upper town was residential and recreational. An outstanding discovery
was the small Augustan amphitheater with axes of 130 and 95 m under the new Rome-Naples
express railway line; it apparently lacked the subterranean chambers necessary
for venationes. These and other improvements were supplied in the great Flavian
amphitheater (149 x 116 m) nearby, which the Puteolans built at their own expense
in the principate of their benefactor Vespasian. Accommodating 40-60,000 spectators,
it was the third largest in Italy after those at Rome and Capua. Beasts and machinery
went underground on ramps along the long axis reaching 6.7 m down to two subterranean
levels of passageways and 80 cages; as needed, animals were returned to the arena
on elevators through rectangular openings, in an ellipse paralleling the podium
of the cavea and through other shafts. Cisterns and fountains were for decoration,
not naumachiae. An elaborate sewer system concentrated all surface drainage under
the arena.
The upper town also included the Baths of Trajan or Janus, which may
be the same as the so-called Temple of Neptune or of Diana, a solarium portico,
a circus, and several great cisterns served by a Republican aqueduct from the
N and, from the E, by a longer one attributed to Agrippa.
In the environs, Puteolan opulence is evident in the magnificence
of the columbaria, hypogea, and mausolea along the Via Consularis Capuam Puteolis
(Via Campana) extending for ca. 2 km as far as S. Vito, especially that part closest
to the city gate (Via Celle). Some are decorated with stucco or mosaics, or are
otherwise impressively preserved, and in Christian times some were reused for
inhumations. Similar but less ostentatious funerary monuments also flanked the
ancient road to Naples.
The Via Campana was the only road connecting the coastal cities with
the hinterland and the Via Appia until construction of the Via Domitiana linking
Rome with Puteoli, a less expensive substitute for Nero's projected canal. Under
Augustus the pre-Sullan road to Naples was shortened by the crypta Neapolitana;
Nerva and Trajan improved this artery and made it a continuation of the Domitiana,
and the latter placed a triumphal arch over it.
There is a museum at Pozzuoli but the statues, coins, pottery, and
other antiquities from the city are mostly distributed among museums in various
countries and at Naples.
H. Comfort, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Dec 2005 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains 5 image(s), bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
ELEA (Ancient city) ITALY
A city of the Ionian Phokaians on the coast of Lucania, founded 540-535
B.C. Following their mass flight from submission to Persia, the Phokaians first
sought refuge in their colonies of Alalia (on Corsica) and Massalia (Marseilles),
but the sea battle of Alalia, in which they triumphed over a combined force of
Etruscans and Carthaginians, led them to abandon Alalia for a place in Magna Graecia.
After a stop and reinforcement at Rhegion they sailed N along the coast to Elea,
a site in the mountainous country between Cape Palinurus and Poseidonia (Hdt.
1.163-67). The foundation prospered and eventually counted among its ornaments
Parmenides, the 5th c. philosopher and statesman who gave the city its constitution,
and the Eleatic school of philosophy. Like Naples and Tarentum it never fell to
the assault of Italic tribes (Strab. 6.254). In 387 B.C. it was a member of the
Italian league against Dionysios I of Syracuse and subsequently became a faithful
ally of Rome, furnishing her with ships in the Punic wars and affording a stronghold
in S Italy against Hannibal. Cicero tells us that the cult of Ceres, Liber, and
Libera at Rome was Greek, and that Velia was one of two cities that furnished
priestesses for it (Balb. 55). In 88 B.C. it became a municipium and was inscribed
in the tribus Romilia. In the civil war of 44 B.C. Brutus, who had a villa there,
made it one of his bases. Thereafter we know of it only as the native city of
the father of Statius and the grammarian Palamedes and famous for its school of
medicine founded on Parmenides' principles. It was always fiercely independent
and determinedly Greek, as the archaeological record also attests, and persisted
in writing Greek well into the Imperial period. Its decline was due to isolation
from the main routes inland and the silting up of its ports. Its economy had probably
always been fragile, dependent on the sea traffic and fishing; there is little
good agriculture in the vicinity.
The city occupied the end of a spur of the Apennines between two rivers,
the Palistro and the Fiumarella S. Barbara, with an acropolis overlooking a considerable
bay. Landward from this the city spread to either side over the slopes descending
to the plain and the river ports, the S quarter much more important than the N.
The fortifications are extremely complicated and confusing, the walls with a base
in blocks of the local limestone and sandstone and upper parts in two- and three-ribbed
construction bricks that are a characteristic of the city. The walls made at least
two, and probably three, circuits that could be separated from one another in
emergency, the largest circuit embracing the S and E quarters of the city, another
around the N quarter, and probably a third enclosing the acropolis and the slope
SE of it, the heart of the old city. There are some scant remains of polygonal
masonry of "Lesbian" type, presumably of an early fortification, to
be seen at places along the crest of the spur, but most of what can be seen today
is work of the Hellenistic period, with towers protecting the gates and at fairly
regular intervals along vulnerable stretches of the curtain, and a fortress at
the high point inland that pains were taken to include. But the setting of certain
towers still wants explanation; and the function of Porta Rosa, Velia's most conspicuous
monument--both a gate between the N and S quarters and a viaduct connecting the
acropolis with the inland fortifications--needs further clarification.
Excavations have been carried out on the acropolis and its adjacencies,
in an area known as the agora, and in the neighborhood of Porta Marina Sud, as
well as around Porta Rosa and its approaches and at scattered points in the S
and E quarters. On the acropolis the most important remains are those of a large
Ionic temple, now reduced to its foundations (32.50 x 18.35 m) partially covered
by a mediaeval castle. This dominated the view, and around it were later constructed
the terraces and porticos of an extensive sanctuary. The earliest material is
of the 6th c., but the temple building is early 5th. Under it is a stretch of
fine archaic work.
On the S slope of the acropolis, in part buried by a terrace wall
of the early 5th c., are foundations of small buildings in "Lesbian"
polygonal masonry. These seem to be remains of the first settlement, or possibly
(on the evidence of pottery found here) a still more ancient station going back
to the early 6th c. It is interesting that these all seem to have faced E and
were aligned with a regular grid of streets.
Along the crest of the main spur a number of temples and sanctuaries
of a wide range of dates have been explored. The most important are a long, narrow
temenos on the minor acropolis where a stele to Poseidon Asphaleios was found
and a vast terrace (ca. 110 x 100 m) near the summit of the city with a long altar
(25.35 x 7 m) reminiscent of that of Hieron at Syracuse.
The agora area, on the slope S of Porta Rosa, consists of a small
public square surrounded by colonnades under which passes an elaborate channel,
best examined uphill from the square, that drained the surrounding slopes, taking
the water to the sea. To the E are remains of a series of buildings that may be
dependencies of the agora. The terrain here is steep and broken, and the area
was repeatedly rebuilt, but the original plan seems to have been of high antiquity,
though what can be seen today is for the most part Hellenistic and Roman. The
drain is dated to the beginning of the 3d c. B.C.
In the vicinity of Porta Marina Sud a considerable area has been cleared.
Here the most interesting remains are a building with cryptoporticus that fills
a whole insula, apparently headquarters of a medical association, where a number
of sculptures and inscriptions were recovered, and a bothros which was found full
of votive material, possibly dedicated to Eros. A number of small houses belonging
to the Roman period have been found in this area; these are all of peristyle plan,
no atrium house being known on the site.
The excavators believe that the city was devastated by catastrophes
toward the beginning of the 3d c. B.C., toward the middle of the 1st c. A.D.,
and toward the end of the 5th c. After the first two the city was rebuilt along
its original pattern, but after the last no rebuilding was undertaken.
L.Richardson, Jr., ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
HERAION (Ancient sanctuary) CAMPANIA
Near the mouth of the Sele, which flows through the plain N of Paestum,
a sanctuary of the archaic period dedicated to Argive Hera (Strab. 6.252; Plin.
HN 3.70; Solin. 2.12; Plut. Vit.Pomp. 24.3). Since the sources are unanimous in
attributing the foundation of the sanctuary to Jason, it has been conjectured
that the Heraion may have been founded by Thessalians, as was Posidonia. However,
this hypothesis fails to find confirmation in more recent archaeological evidence
(Treasury I) on the basis of which rapport with Sybaris is apparent as far back
as the archaic period. The Heraion was abandoned in late antiquity and became
a source of limestone for mediaeval buildings.
The numerous terracotta votive objects permit a reconstruction of
the type of Hera of the sanctuary. At the end of the 7th c. or at the beginning
of the 6th the goddess is already represented seated, with a polos, supporting
a child with her left arm, and carrying a pomegranate in her right hand.
The sanctuary flowered mainly in the archaic period, specifically
during the 6th c. Treasury I was constructed between 570 and 550, and at that
time the first series of metopes was made. The octastyle temple was erected toward
the end of the century.
Between the end of the 5th c. and the second half of the 4th the buildings
were gravely damaged and the treasury was probably destroyed. The architectural
elements and the metopes were reused in a stoa of the 4th c. The finding of numerous
votive objects indicates that the sanctuary flourished at the end of the 4th c.
and during the Hellenistic age. Between the end of the Republican epoch and the
1st c. A.D. the sanctuary declined rapidly. An earthquake, perhaps in 63, probably
destroyed the octastyle temple. The eruption of Vesuvius in 79 buried the Heraion,
and every trace of life seems to have disappeared from the area by the beginning
of the 4th c.
Treasury I: Few elements of the building are preserved in situ. Of
the naos there remains the end wall to the W and the long walls to a maximum height
of four courses. There is no trace of a pronaos nor of a wall between it and the
naos. Thus reconstruction remains substantially hypothetical. Of 38 metopes belonging
to the treasury, three are illegible. On the basis of material discovered within
the foundation of the building, and from a stylistic examination of the reliefs,
it has been possible to date the metopes to ca. 570. The erection of the treasury
has been attributed to the Sybarites, and its incompleteness to the destruction
of their city. Two metopes and various fragments have been ascribed to two different
buildings called Treasury II and Treasury III, the foundations of which have not
yet been traced.
Heraion: An octastyle temple (18.7 x 38.9 m) with 17 columns on the
long sides. The stereobate is preserved to its entire height in a few places.
The instability of the terrain dictated the placing of four courses under the
peristasis and two under the cella in the points of greatest pressure by the superstructure.
The axes of the cella walls are aligned with those of the corresponding columns
of the peristasis, following the Ionic usage. The cella is composed of a pronaos,
naos, and adyton. The lateral walls had columns instead of antae. The pteroma
widens greatly on the E side, equaling the dimensions of three interaxials. The
remains of the columns are constructed of drums of sandstone conglomerate, all
with eighteen flutes, to which correspond two groups of capitals, diverse in profile.
A multiple molding crowned the architrave with neither taeniae nor regulae. On
both sides of the course there was a Doric cyma in place of the Ionic. The moldings
of the external faces bear a plastic decoration with Lesbian leaves, egg and dart,
and bead and reel. The normal Doric geison was formed above the frieze by a multiple
molding bearing from top to bottom a Lesbian leaf, an Ionic leaf, and a small
cyma reversa surmounted by an astragal. Above runs a cyma ornamented with lions'
heads. Of the frieze there remain three fragments of triglyphs and twelve figured
metopes of unequal height and tapering toward the bottom.
The temple was entered by means of a ramp abutting the crepidoma on
the E front. The altar is situated at a distance of 34.1 m from the E front.
The sacred area was delineated at the N by two stoas of rectangular
plan. The NW stoa seems to be, from the discovery of proto-Corinthian oinochoai
under the floor level, the most ancient building of those yet explored. The NE
stoa dates to the epoch succeeding the construction of the sanctuary, between
the first and the fourth quarter of the 4th c. B.C. Almost contemporary with the
NE stoa, and connected with it, is a third stoa to the E. This one is a more irregular
structure built with reused material from Treasury I and from the octastyle temple.
In the area between Treasury I and the octastyle temple, and S of
them, bases have been found for donations, for votive columns, and for a bronze
lebes. To the SE of the octastyle temple area a square tower has been found, constructed
in the 3d c. exclusively of reused material, including many metopes.
The most recent discovery at the mouth of the Sele is a building situated
to the E of the Heraion. It was constructed a little after 400 B.C. in the center
of a larger space on a ditch dug for the laying of the foundation and serving
also as a dump for votive objects, datable between 575 and 425, coming from the
destroyed treasury. In spite of the square plan and the opening to the S, it appears
to have been a cult building, destroyed in connection with the sending out of
the colony from Paestum and not intended to be used again.
F. Parise Badoni - P. H. Schlager-Stoops, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains 24 image(s), bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
IRAKLIO (Ancient city) CAMPANIA
The ancient city, buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in A.D. 79, lies
a short distance from the sea, not far from Neapolis (Naples) and from Pompeii.
The earliest ancient writer to mention the city is Theophrastos (6th c. B.C.).
The Roman historian Sisenna in the 1st c. B.C. described Herculaneum
as an inhabited center located in an elevated position near the sea between two
watercourses. Archaeological excavation substantially confirms the description,
even though the site underwent several transformations during the eruption of
A.D. 79.
Legend says that the city was founded by Herakles, and it is probable
that the origins of Herculaneum go back to the remote past. According to Strabo
the city was inhabited by Oscans, Tyrrhenians, and Pelasgians. We may presume
that in the archaic and Classical ages the city, like nearby Pompeii, greatly
increased in population owing to an influx both from the Greek colonies in the
area, especially from Cumae, and from Etruscan Capua. Toward the end of the 5th
c. B.C. when Campania was occupied by the Samnites, Herculaneum also became Samnite
and afterwards was probably involved in the wars between the Samnites and the
Romans. Later the city participated in the social war. It was conquered by T.
Didius, legate of Sulla, and in 89 B.C. became a Roman municipium. Herculaneum
suffered serious damage in the earthquake of A.D. 62; and soon thereafter, like
Pompeii, Stabiae, and Oplontis, was a victim of the Vesuvian eruption of A.D.
79. It is still not known whether Christianity spread to Herculaneum: a mark on
the wall plaster in the Casa del Bicentenaio has sometimes been interpreted as
the outline of a Christian cross.
The eruption of Vesuvius inundated the city with a torrent of mud,
which covered it completely and solidified into a compact layer with a consistency
similar to that of tufa. The average ground level was raised by ca. 15 m. While
the buildings were badly damaged, organic material, especially wood, was preserved
so that the excavations at Herculaneum are unique in this respect.
Casual discoveries that served to fix the site of the ancient city
were made at the beginning of the 18th c., after which more or less systematic
excavation began. In the first phase of research ancient Herculaneum was explored
by means of digging wells and underground tunnels and carrying to the surface
paintings, mosaics, sculpture, and various other objects that were collected in
a Herculanean Museum prepared in the royal palace in nearby Portici. At the same
time, the excavators succeeded in delineating the plan of the city and of its
principal buildings. The discoveries aroused intense interest for their exceptional
historic, antiquarian, and artistic value.
In the following century the research was resumed, adopting more up-to-date
and scientific criteria. With an open excavation and with the attentive recovery
of all the buried elements, the excavations are continuing at present, employing
methods always more modern and precise.
The approximate plan of Herculaneum is known from what has been brought
to light, which is about a quarter of the urban area, and from the outlines traced
by the excavators in the Bourbon age. The city, which must have been enclosed
by walls for at least a part of its circumference, developed over an area of ca.
370 by 320 m and was regular in plan. Streets meet at right angles (decumani in
an E-W direction and cardines leading N-S) forming insulae that contain one or
more buildings. Usually the houses are entered from the cardines. In the last
period of the city's life it developed further. On the S section of the enclosing
wall, which by then was no longer functional or necessary after the peace established
by Augustus, were built luxurious and panoramic houses. Outside the walls a sacred
area was constructed, as well as a large bath. In addition, the countryside around
the city must have become populated by suburban and rural villas. In one of these,
the famous Villa of the Pisoni, was found a library and a collection of sculpture.
The center of the city's life is constituted by the decumanus maximus,
a wide street closed to vehicular traffic, from which there is access to many
public buildings. Thus it appears that the decumanus had the function that in
other cities is usually served by a forum. On the N side of the decumanus rose
a large public building, probably the basilica, which is known only through the
accounts and drawings made at the time of the Bourbon excavations. Several remains
of its pictorial decoration are in the National Museum in Naples.
Recent excavations have revealed that in front of this building extended
a portico faced with marble and with stucco. At the extremities of the portico
arose two foursided arches with decorations in stucco and honorific bronze statues,
of which there remain the bases, and traces of the statues themselves. In the
part excavated to the N of the decumanus there extends another portico with shops
and with at least two upper stories. To the E of the street is a palaestra, with
rooms on several levels and with a large peristyle, at the center of which is
a large pool. The pool was fed by a bronze fountain that represents the Lernaian
Hydra twisted around the trunk of a tree, evidently an allusion to Herakles, and
thus to the name of the city. To the S of the decumanus is a chapel dedicated
to Herakles, which perhaps also fulfilled the functions of the seat of civic administration;
and another monumental building of unknown use, only partly excavated.
The theater is in the NW sector of the inhabited area. Beside it were
other public buildings. Along the decumanus inferior are the baths, of the usual
type, with separate sections for men and women. Outside the S wall of the city
is a sacred area and another large bath that is notable for the development of
its plan and for its decorations in stucco and marble. Here the division into
two sections does not exist; the building seems to date to the last years of the
city.
The private dwellings of Herculaneum vary widely in plan. There is
a rare example of a house containing small rental apartments, each independent
and with a small central courtyard. The Casa del bel cortile has a central courtyard
from which a flight of steps leads to the upper stories.
There are notable examples of houses built around an atrium, Italic
in type, several of which go back to relatively ancient times. They include the
Casa sannitica with beautiful decoration in the first style, the Casa del tramezzo
di legno and the Casa di Neptuno and the Casa di Anfitrite. Other houses recall
the Italic scheme but are amplified in plan. The villas built along the S edge
of the city are distinctive in plan. In these houses the traditional plan is modified.
An axial arrangement is abandoned, and while the typical rooms such as the atrium
are oriented by the fact of their facing the cardines; the peristyles, the gardens,
the salons and the other annexes are oriented toward the S, in such a way as to
exploit the panoramic position of the site with its view toward the sea. To the
houses are annexed the shops, which reveal the various aspects of everyday life
of Herculaneum and of its socio-economic environment. Worthy of mention is a shop
on the cardo IV, where is preserved the wooden counter with the amphorae of the
wine merchant in position on it, and the large containers of cereal grains. Also
preserved are some shops on the decumanus maximus, one of which has a painted
sign, and another of which must have belonged to a metal worker. In another shop
on the decumanus maximus has been found a group of glass objects still enclosed
in their wrappings. Very often the front of the insulae was preceded by a portico,
and the houses reveal in many cases the presence of one or even two upper stories.
It is not easy to calculate the population of Herculaneum, but possibly it had
ca. 5000 inhabitants.
A short distance from the city is the grandiose and celebrated Villa
dei Papiri (or dei Pisoni). Constructed in the middle of the 1st c. B.C., it was
undergoing renovation at the time of the catastrophe in A.D. 79. The villa belonged,
according to many scholars, to L. Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, the father-in-law
of Julius Caesar and a politician and patron of the arts. In the villa was found
a remarkable library, largely of Epicurean philosophy that appears to be the work
of the philosopher Philodemos; and a notable collection of sculpture that constitutes
the only surviving example of a private collection in antiquity. It contains works
in marble and in bronze in the Hellenistic and neoclassical manner, and a series
of portraits of philosophers, Hellenistic princes, and orators.
In public buildings and houses numerous sculpted works have also been
found, for the most part portraits of emperors and of citizens of Herculaneum,
and even an Egyptian statue. Painting in Herculaneum is in the Pompeian style
but often more finely executed and more tastefully composed. Excellent taste is
also shown in domestic furnishings such as vessels of bronze or terracotta, votive
statuettes, lamps, etc.
The works of art and the furnishings found at Herculaneum were collected
in the Herculanean Museum at Portici and then transported to Naples at the end
of the 18th c. when the great National Museum was created. A few pieces found
their way abroad during the Bourbon period. A large proportion of the wall paintings
and some examples of domestic furnishings are preserved in situ.
A. De Franciscis, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
ISCHIA (Island) CAMPANIA
An island off the W coast of Campania opposite Cumae, its central
mountain, Epomaeus, actively volcanic in Classical times. Called Pithekoussai
by the Greeks (the plural sometimes also implies nearby Prochyta/Procida), it
is also referred to as Inarime (e.g., by Vergil and Martianus Capella), apparently
on the basis of the mention (Il. 2.783) of Typhoeus being chained down "ein
Arimois."
Euboian Greeks from Eretria and Chalkis established here in the early
8th c. B.C. a commercial post to facilitate trade with mainland Etruscans. From
here they set up at Cumae, around 750 B.C., the earliest Greek colony in Europe.
Pliny rightly derives the Greek name from the local ceramic clay deposits, not
from pithekos (ape); he explains the Latin name as connected with Aeneas' beach-head.
The island was mostly under the political control of Naples, and was famous for
its pottery, fruit, and rich wine.
The Monte Vico area was inhabited from the Bronze Age. The acropolis
settlement has been located and some Mycenean and Iron Age pottery as well as
evidence of continuous occupation into the 1st c. B.C.
The Greek necropolis nearby has been extensively explored, the 8th
and 7th c. graves being especially instructive. Numerous bronze and silver fibulae,
Egyptian scarabs, oriental seals, and imported Greek pottery show vigorous trade
with Athens, Corinth, Ionia, Euboia, Syria, Phoenicia, and Egypt. Local ware is
also well attested, including a Geometric krater with a vivid shipwreck scene
and fish devouring sailors. A Rhodian skyphos of ca. 740 B.C. carries one of the
earliest of all examples of the Greek alphabet, in Chalkidian script from right
to left: a trochaic trimeter followed by two dactylic hexameters which include
a reference to Nestor's cup--perhaps implying knowledge already of the Iliad.
R. V. Schoder, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
KYMI (Ancient city) CAMPANIA
A city in Phlegraean Fields inside Cape Misenum on the Bay of Naples.
This area and its original Oscan inhabitants were known to Mycenaean explorers
of the 12th c. B.C., but the city was actually founded ca. 750 B.C. by colonists
from Chalkis, Eretria, and the island of Pithekusai (Ischia). The site included
a strong acropolis, fertile hinterland, and an attractive harbor, now nonexistent.
From 700 to 500 B.C. it was a prosperous and important disseminator of Greek culture
in the West through the Chalkidian alphabet, Greek cults, and several important
colonies of its own. The earliest historic Cumaean, Anistodemos, repulsed an Etruscan
attack in 524 B.C. and shared a leading role with the Latins and Romans in defeating
the Etruscans again at Aricia ca. 505; in 474 the Cumaean and Syracusan fleets
combined to crush Etruscan power in Campania. But about a half century later Cumae
was conquered by the Samnites and became Oscan until 180 B.C. Samnites were not
maritime-minded and did not really maintain the harbor. However, after Hannibal's
failure to establish outlets to the sea at Neapolis and Puteoli, in 215 B.C. Cumae
was his third--and equally unsuccessful--choice. Already a civitas sine suffragio
(338 B.C.) Cumae was now granted municipal citizenship with Latin as the official
language, and it became a municipium at the end of the Republic. In 37-36 Agrippa
undertook a massive reorganization of the harbor facilities, adapting the lakes
Lucrinus and Avernus on the bay side into Portus Julius for the construction of
a fleet and the training of personnel against Sextus Pompey (battles of Mylae
and Naulochos, 36 B.C.) and, on the Cumaean side, the construction of a whole
new Roman port for the unloading of supplies, and two long tunnels for communication
between the sea and the lakes (see below). After this great ad hoc achievement
Cumae once more silted up into maritime insignificance, though Symmachos sailed
from there to Formia in A.D. 383.
Cumae was most famous for its oracular Sibyl, just as her grotto is
now its most spectacular monument. As shown by an inscribed bronze disk, she was
giving, and declining to elucidate, responses by the middle or the late 7th c.
B.C., originally for a chthonic Hera and only later for Apollo, and her famous
bargaining with Tarquinius Priscus (regn. ca. 616-579) for the Sibylline Books
was about contemporary. Vergil's poetic but surprisingly accurate description
of her antrum (A en. 6.9-155 for the whole incident) is clearly based on autopsy.
Though restored by Augustus, the Sibyl's official cult lapsed within the next
century.
The site of the Sibyl's grotto was discovered in 1932, a trapezoidal
gallery (131.5 x 2.4 m and an average height of 5 m) cut N-S into a solid tufa
ridge below the acropolis, overlooking the sea through six similar trapezoidal
bays, with a total of nine doorways (not all now documented) and, cut back into
the rock on the left (E) side, three ceremonial baths later converted into cisterns;
note the repetition of triads and the Sibyl's relation to Hekate (Trivia). The
splendid archaic Greek stone-cutting is attributable to the 5th c. B.C. and reminiscent
of Mycenaean and Etruscan dromoi. At the extreme (S) end is an arched chamber,
the inmost adyton wherein Aeneas received oral instructions from the frenzied
priestess; a vaulted chamber to the E, perhaps the Sibyl's personal apartment,
and a similar but smaller W chamber, probably for light and ventilation, open
to left and right of the adyton. This last complex, with vertical walls and doorposts
supporting semicircular arches, is a 4th-3d c. addition or alteration to the original
gallery. Under the early Empire the whole floor was lowered 1.5 m to convert the
entire grotto into a cistern; still later, parts were used for Christian inhumation.
The entrance to the Sibyl's grotto was part of an architectural unit
including steps leading up to the Temple of Apollo (see below) and a ramp leading
downward to the entrance of the so-called Cumaean Roman crypt, a long underground
E-W tunnel passing under the acropolis. The operations of Narses against the Goths
(A.D. 560), landslides, and quarrying have destroyed this impressive facade, but
the crypt itself is undoubtedly attributable to Cocceius, the Augustan architect
who also built the very similar crypt of Cocceius under Monte Grillo (see below)
and the crypta Neapolitana tunnel between Puteoli and Neapolis. For 26 m the Cumaean
crypt is barrel-vaulted 5 m high and then opens into an enormous Great Hall or
"vestibule" 23 m high with revetment of tufa blocks and with four niches
for large statues; lighting for these and the whole crypt, of which the remainder
was a normal tunnel, was supplied by vertical or oblique light-shafts down through
the rock. Toward the E end enormous rock-cut storerooms and cisterns open on one
side. Like the Sibyl's grotto, this crypt was eventually used for Christian burials.
Even more impressive is the so-called crypt of Cocceius itself which,
passing for ca. 1 km under Monte Grillo, was wide enough for loaded wagons to
pass and which, after an open interval from the previous crypt, continued the
underground water-level supply route from Cumae to Agrippa's Lake Avernus base.
It was partly barrel-vaulted with neat blocks; the remainder was cut through unadorned
tufa. Like the other crypt it was lighted by vertical and oblique light-wells
of which the deepest is 30 m. As a further tour de force, Cocceius included an
aqueduct along its N side, with its own niches, ventilation shafts, and wells.
But it and the Cumaean crypt were strictly military in purpose and were not properly
maintained thereafter until the Bourbons cleared it for land reclamation purposes.
It can still be traversed despite ruts and water due to bradyseism and deforestation.-
It was undoubtedly Cocceius' masterpiece.
Not all of the crypt of Cocceius and the mountain under which it passes
is strictly Cumaean, but consideration of Cumae cannot ignore Domitian's cut through
the crest of Monte Grillo and his filling the consequent gash with the high narrow
Arco Felice of brick, not an aqueduct but apparently simply a high-level bridge
from one side of the cut to the other.
The precise areas of the Greek, Samnite, and Roman territory of Cumae
varied from time to time and are not entirely clear, but at least the acropolis
was always the obvious center. It was originally part of a crater; much of it
consists of varying qualities of tufa. Easiest access was from the S where the
harbor and principal city lay with appropriate gates, but on the remaining sides
it was impregnable. In Greek times it was fortified with walls of which some fine
stretches remain visible, but in Roman times it was extensively occupied by private
dwellings which have virtually eradicated structures (portico, cistern), but two
temples remain identifiable.
The lower of these, epigraphically identified as the Temple of Apollo,
built upon a still earlier sanctuary, exists only in ground plan (34.6 x 18.3
m). It was oriented N-S; in Augustan times the Cumaean Apollo received a new and
presumably more elaborate E-W temple; in the 6th-7th c. this was converted into
a Christian basilica, once more N-S. The Greek phase of the upper so-called Temple
of Jupiter is E-W but even less recognizable than that of Apollo, though its dimensions
were greater (at least 39.6 x 24.6 m). The Tiberio-Claudian phase is of characteristic
reticulate masonry and is generally recognizable in its unusual plan, which was
adapted to a Christian basilica in the 5th-6th c., one of the earliest such structures
in Campania.
In the lower town were Temples of Jupiter Flazzus (later the Capitolium)
and of Divus Vespasianus used for a committee meeting in A.D. 289, a forum (ca.
120 x 50 m) with long porticos, largely unexplored, and two 2d c. bathing establishments.
At the S end of the city was an amphitheater with a major axis of 90 m, of which
only parts of the outer shell remain above ground. Statius, who often refers to
Cumae, refers to quieta Cyme (Silv. 4.3.65) and Juvenal calls it vacuae (3.2),
but this was doubtless in contrast to Rome and busy Puteoli. Under the late Republic
and early Empire Cumae was a favorite resort of upper-class Romans, vying with
Puteoli and Baiae.
A large and ill-defined necropolis surrounds the city, especially
to the NE where extensive plundering during the 19th c., as well as responsible
excavation during the 20th c., has revealed interments of all periods including
pre-Hellenic; some tombs are painted. A tholos tomb reflecting Mycenaean tradition
and a mass grave of headless skeletons are of especial interest.
Most of the finds from Cumae, including a fine marble copy of Cresilas'
Diomedes, are in the Naples Museum.
H. Comfort, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
NEAPOLIS (Ancient city) CAMPANIA
On the W coast of Italy some 241 km SE of Rome, the city stands overlooking
the Tyrrhenian sea in the N part of the Gulf of Naples. To the E lies the silhouette
of Mt. Vesuvius, and to the W stretches a fertile area known to the ancients as
the Phlegraean Fields because of the mineral springs, sulphur mines, and small
craters it contains. To the SW is the Posillipo (the ancient Mons Pausilypos),
a large hill which ends in a promontory and separates the Gulf of Naples from
the Gulf of Pozzuoli.
Neapolis was founded ca. 650 B.C. from Cumae. Ancient tradition records
that it had originally been named after the siren Parthenope, who had been washed
ashore on the site after failing to capture Odysseus (Sil. Pun. 12.33-36). The
early city, which was called Palae(o)polis, developed in the SW along the modern
harbor area and included Pizzofalcone and Megaris (the Castel dell'Ovo), a small
island in the harbor. Megaris itself may have been the site of a still older Rhodian
trading colony (Strab. 14.2.10). Owing to the influx of Campanian immigrants,
the town began to develop to the NE along a Hippodamian grid plan. This new extension
was called Neapolis, while Palae(o)polis became a suburb. Incited to a war with
Rome by the Greek elements, the city was captured in 326 B.C. by the proconsul
Quintus Publilius Philo (Liv. 8.22.9), and the suburb ceased to exist. Neapolis
then became a favored ally of the Romans; it repulsed Pyrrhos, contributed naval
support during the First Punic War, and withstood the attacks of Hannibal. Even
though it suffered the loss of its fleet and a massacre of its inhabitants in
82 B.C. during the Civil War (App. BCiv. 1.89), it became a flourishing municipium
and enjoyed the favors of the Julio-Claudian emperors. Subsequently it was damaged
by the eruption of Vesuvius in A.D. 79.
Remains of both the Greek and the Roman cities are scarce since the
modern town has been built on top. Stretches of the Greek city walls have been
found in various locations, and it has been possible to reconstruct the entire
ring of fortifications. In the N the walls stretch from S. Maria di Constantinopoli
to SS. Apostoli. Some blocks were found when the Ospedale degli Incurabili at
the Piazza Cavour was demolished. On the E they run along the course of the Via
Carbonara, by the Castel Capuano, and down the Via Maddalena to the church of
S. Agostino alla Zecca. In the area of the former convent of the Maddalena have
come to light the remains of a tower measuring 10.8 m on each face with traces
of rebuilding associated with the siege by Belisarius in A.D. 536. In the S they
go from S. Agostino, by the University, and finally reach S. Maria la Nuova. Under
the Corso Umberto I, in the stretch between the Via Seggio del Popolo and the
Via Pietro Colletta, large portions have appeared, dating from the 5th c. B.C.
to the Hellenistic period. On the W side, sections were uncovered at the Piazza
Bellini. Outside the ring of fortifications, in the vicinity of the Via S. Giacomo,
a wall, constructed in blocks of tufa, has been discovered. It dates to the 6th
c. B.C. and probably belongs to the older city of Palae(o)polis.
It is also possible to reconstruct some of the street system of Neapolis,
since it is likely that many modern streets run over their ancient counterparts.
Three main E x W decumani can be distinguished: the Via S. Biagio dei Librai,
the Via Tribunali, and the Via Anticaglia. These were crossed at right angles
by about 20 narrower N x S cardines having an average width of 4 m and forming
some 100 house blocks. A stretch of one of these cardines has been located under
the church of San Lorenzo Maggiore. In the Via del Duomo have been found the foundations
of a small sacred edifice dating to the 5th c. B.C. and rebuilt completely in
the 1st c. of our era. Parts of Greek houses have been uncovered on the Via del
Duomo and on the Via Nib in the W part of the town. Graves of the Greek period
are scattered throughout the city. In the region of Pizzofalcone on the Via Nicotera,
part of a necropolis, belonging to the original city of Palae(o)polis, has come
to light with pottery dating from the 7th and 6th c. B.C. A second early cemetery
lay in the spot now occupied by the Piazza Capuana.
Evidence for the Roman buildings of Neapolis is more abundant. The
church of S. Paolo Maggiore contains building materials from an earlier temple,
identified by means of an inscription as sacred to the Dioscuri and of the time
of Tiberius, but standing on the site of an older sanctuary. The temple itself
was Corinthian hexastyle. Its front faced S and looked over the decumanus maximus
(Via Tribunali). On the Via Anticaglia, between the Via S. Paolo and the Vico
Giganti, are the remains of a theater, dating to the early empire. The cavea faces
S towards the harbor and has a diameter of some 102 m. Beneath the level of the
Early Christian basilica under San Lorenzo Maggiore have been uncovered the foundations
of a large public building of the 1st c. A.D., perhaps the aerarium of the city.
In various locations there are remnants of baths. Roman houses appear at the NE
end of the Corso Umberto I, near the section of wall found there, and in the Via
del Duomo. The cryptoporticus of a villa belonging to the 1st c. A.D. has emerged
in the vicinity of the Via S. Giacomo. The Castel dell'Ovo can be identified with
the site of Lucullus' villa and famous fish ponds (Plin. HN 9.170).
The most direct route from Neapolis to Puteoli (modern Pozzuoli) was
along a coast road named the Via Puteolana. This road passed through the Posillipo
hills by means of a tunnel, the Crypta Neapolitana, located in the region of Mergellina.
The crypta, built by Augustus' architect Cocceius but many times restored and
remodeled, now measures 700 m in length. A second ancient tunnel, now called the
Grotta di Seiano, was built at the extreme tip of the Posillipo promontory. It
led from the villa of Vedius Pollio (later given to Augustus) to the Puteoli road
and is a little larger than the crypta. On the Posillipo itself are the remains
of a small Augustan odeum once connected with a private villa, perhaps Pollio's.
Near the entrance to the crypta is a sepulcher identified by some as the tomb
of Virgil, which according to Donatus (Vita Virg. 36) was located before the second
milestone on the Via Puteolana. Others argue that the present tomb is too far
away and that the second milestone, calculated from the Porta Puteolana, would
lie on the modern Riviera di Chiaia; furthermore, they assert that the present
tomb resembles a family columbarium rather than a poet's sepulcher. The grave,
belonging to the Augustan period, is in the form of a columbarium, built in the
opus caementicium technique. It is circular and stands on a square podium; inside
are ten niches (loculi) for cinerary urns.
The Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples off the Piazza Cavour is
one of the finest in Italy and contains extensive collections of mosaics, paintings,
and sculpture.
W.D.E. Coulson, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
POSSIDONIA (Ancient city) CAMPANIA
On the E coast 96 km S of Naples, the site stands in the center of
the Sele plain between the sea and the W ridges of the Monte Alburno. Discoveries
of handmade tools indicate that the site was inhabited in Palaeolithic and Neolithic
times. Fragments of Protocorinthian pottery make it possible to date the founding
of the Greek city to the middle of the 7th c. B.C. According to Strabo (5.4.13)
the city was established by colonists from Sybaris, who built a fortified town
by the sea, forcing the settlers already inhabiting the area to move inland; the
Sybarite city was called Poseidonia. The fertility of the plain surrounding it,
as well as its advantageous position for trade enabled it to become extremely
prosperous. Around 400 B.C. this prosperity was shattered when the Lucanians,
who had lived in the hills behind, captured the city, renaming it Paiston or Paistos.
It enjoyed a brief period of freedom from 332 to 326 B.C. when Alexander the Molossian
united the Greek peoples of S Italy against the Lucanians. In 273 B.C., the Romans
established a colony on the site, renaming it Paestum. During the Roman period
the city prospered, but in the 1st c. A.D. the silting up of the river Sele (Salso)
caused the area to become infested with malaria. At the beginning of the Middle
Ages the site consisted simply of a small community centered around the northernmost
of the temples, which had been turned into a church. In the 9th c. A.D. the site
was finally abandoned and subsequently hidden by forest and swamp, not to be rediscovered
again until the middle of the 18th c. when a road was built through the area.
The entire Greek city was surrounded by a fortification wall, some
4750 m in length with an average thickness of 5 m. The present walls date to the
Lucanian and Roman periods; the W section is the best preserved. The entire circuit
was surrounded by a moat crossed by bridges at the points of the four major gates:
the Porta della Sirena to the E, the Porta Aurea to the N, the Porta della Giustizia
to the S, and to the W the Porta Marina, which consists of round and square towers
forming a vestibule with guard rooms.
The major part of the modern excavations have been conducted in the
central part of the city. Two major precincts flank a central agora. To the N
is the area sacred to Athena, and to the S that dedicated to Hera. The S sanctuary
includes two major temples, the southernmost of which is the older dating to the
middle of the 6th c. B.C. Because of its resemblance to a civic building, it has
been called the Basilica, but it is actually a Temple to Hera. It is of the Doric
order, facing E (enneastyle x 18; 24.5 x 54.3 m on its stylobate). The columns
have a pronounced entasis, tapering at the top. The capitals have very flat echini,
the bases of which are decorated with carved leaf designs (anthemion). Nothing
remains above the architrave except part of the antithema of the frieze course.
The temple probably did not contain sculptural decoration. The pronaos is tristyle
in antis; the cella is divided into two aisles by a single row of eight columns
down the center, three of which are still standing, their capitals carved with
anthemion designs, and there probably was an adyton at the back. The interior
columns are of the same height as those of the pronaos, but the level of the floor
of the cella was higher than that of the pteron and was paved with limestone slabs,
some still visible on the S side. In front of the temple stands a rectangular
limestone altar with a bothros near its S side. To the S of the temple are the
foundations of what was probably a small treasury distyle in antis (15.25 x 7.15
m). To the N of the altar are the remains of another treasury, of the Doric order,
distyle in antis, and dating to ca. 450 B.C. Two smaller archaic altars in this
area have also been found.
To the N of the Basilica stands the second temple of the S sanctuary,
formerly called a temple of Poseidon (Neptune); but because of the votive offerings
found, it is now considered a temple dedicated to Hera. This excellently preserved
Doric temple faces E (hexastyle x 14; 24.3 x 59.9 m on its stylobate). It is variously
dated to 460 B.C. and to 440 B.C. The columns of the peristyle have a slight entasis
and are unusual in that they contain 24 flutes. The entablature is well-preserved,
but nothing remains of the timber roof. This temple exhibits a number of refinements:
all horizontal lines have a curvature of 0.02 m, the corner columns are elliptical
in shape instead of round, and the columns of the E and W sides are wider in diameter
than those of the flanks. The principle of double contraction has also been used.
The pronaos is distyle in antis. The door of the cella is flanked by two smaller
doors. The one to the N leads to a stone stairway which originally went to the
wooden roof for repairs and for storage; the one to the S simply leads to a small
closet. The cella itself is divided into three aisles by two rows of columns (7
on each side), which support a second tier of smaller columns, containing only
16 flutes each. These interior columns simply supported the wooden roof since
there is no evidence for a gallery. At its W end, the temple contains an opisthodomos
also distyle in antis. Much of the limestone paving of the pteron and cella still
exists, and remains of stucco are visible on the walls. Neither the inetopes nor
the pediments contained sculptural decoration. Two altars belonged to this temple.
The original one of the 5th c. B.C. stood in line with that of the Basilica. It
was cut through in Roman times by a road to the forum and replaced by a smaller
one to the W, nearer the temple, the podium of which still survives.
Several small sacred buildings have been located between the later
Temple of Hera and the Roman forum. Near the NE end of the temple are the remains
of a small temple distyle in antis with altar, both dating to the end of the 5th
c. or the beginning of the 4th c. B.C. Six other small temples have been found
in this area, one of which is an amphiprostyle temple dating to the 4th c. B.C.
and standing on a podium (30 x 8 m). The temple contained four columns at each
end and one at the sides. All these buildings were dedicated to Hera Argiva, the
goddess of fertility. In the very NE corner of the S sanctuary dedicated to Hera
are the remains of a four-sided portico, probably a palaestra.
To the N of the Sanctuary of Hera stands the Roman forum, a rectangular
structure (57 x 150 m) occupying the site of the Greek agora. It was surrounded
by a portico of reused Doric columns, probably carrying a second story.
The S side of the forum contains tabernae, a square building with
an apse in the center of its S side built on the foundations of a Greek temple,
and a rectangular building identified as the curia with walls decorated with engaged
columns having composite capitals. On the SW side are the baths, built by M. Tullius
Venneianus at his own expense. On the W side is a structure with three podia,
probably serving as the lararium. On the N side are more shops and in the center
stands a prominent temple, which, when it was found in 1830, was called the "temple
of Peace." It probably served as the Capitolium of the Latin colony. It was
begun in 273 B.C. (14.5 x 26.5 m on its stylobate, with a N-S orientation). It
stood on a high podium with a deep porch and three cellae. There were six columns
on the front (S) and eight on both sides, but none at the back (N). This plan
was never completed. In 80 B.C., building on the temple resumed and changes in
the original plan were made: only one cella was built, and the columns in the
front were reduced to four. The entablature of the temple is basically Doric but
with Ionic influences. The columns have four-sided capitals resembling the old
Aeolic type with female heads projecting from each face.
There is a sculptural triglyph-metope frieze, above which runs a row
of dentils. Adjacent to the E side of this temple are the remains of a circular
structure with tiers of seats, variously identified as the Greek bouleuterion
or the Roman comitium, but probably serving as a small amphitheater for the gladiatorial
games of the Lucanian period. To the E of this building is another row of tabernae
and to the NE stands the large Roman amphitheater, of which only the W half has
been excavated because the national highway intersects it.
The main N-S street of the Roman city, the cardo maximus, runs along
the same course as the Greek sacred way, passing by the W side of the forum. At
the forum it meets the main E-W street, the decumanus maximus, at a crossroads
(coinpitum) which is indicated by two columns. After it goes by the forum, the
cardo passes on its E side the remains of a large building, identified as the
gymnasium, having in its center a large swimming pool of Greek construction. Sometime
before A.D. 79 this pool was partially filled in and converted to a cistern to
help with the drainage of the area. After the gymnasium, the cardo turns sharply
E for a short while and then turns N again to the Porta Aurea.
To the E and W of the cardo are the remains of Roman houses of the
Samnite type with deep wells. Among these houses, to the E of the cardo, is a
square temenos within which stands a small rectangular underground shrine (hypogaeum)
to Hera (4.4 x 3.3 m). It was built of limestone blocks and had a gabled roof
with clay tiles. The top of the roof stood below the road level, so that the entire
shrine could be covered with earth. The interior walls were covered by white plaster
but otherwise remained undecorated. In the center of the interior was found a
stone bench on which were the remains of five iron rods wrapped in cloth. Similar
rods were found under the Altar of Hera at Samos. The shrine dates to the end
of the 6th c. B.C.
To the N of the Roman houses is the Sanctuary of Athena in which stands
the third large temple at Paestum. It was formerly called a temple to Ceres but
on the basis of the clay statuettes of Athena that have been found nearby, it
is now identified as belonging to Athena. It is of the Doric order (hexastyle
x 13; 32.8 x 14.5 m on its stylobate). The Doric columns recall those of the Basilica,
having a pronounced entasis with capitals decorated with anthemion designs. The
temple has a tetrastyle prostyle porch, but no opisthodomos. The columns of this
porch, however, were Ionic, with simple bases; two of the sandstone capitals also
remain. The cella contains no interior columns. Above the architrave runs another
Ionic feature, a sandstone egg-and-dart molding, replacing the conventional regulae
and guttae. The pediment is of unusual construction: on the flanks, the horizontal
cornice, instead of having the usual mutules and guttae, was decorated with a
series of coffered sinkings. On the facades, there is no horizontal cornice, thus
omitting the pediment floor which has been replaced by an egg-and-dart molding.
The slanting cornice is also decorated with a series of coffered sinkings which
join those of the flanks. To the E of the temple stands its altar, and to the
S are the remains of a small temple dating back to the first half of the 6th c.
B.C. To the NE of the temple stands a Doric votive column on a three-stepped base,
also dating to the first half of the 6th c. B.C.
About 1.6 km N of the city at Contrada Gaudo a prehistoric necropolis
has been found, yielding spherical vases, beakers, and askoi dating to between
B.C. 2400 and 1900. Nearby, painted tombs of a 4th c. B.C. Lucanian necropolis
have recently been discovered. The pottery from these tombs dates them to between
340 and 310 B.C. To the S of the city is a third necropolis. The most important
of the tombs here is the Tomb of the Diver, discovered in 1968. The vertical sides
of the tomb have been painted with symposium scenes and the underside of the cover
slab has the representation of a boy diving from a tower into the sea. An attic
lekythos in the tomb dates it to between 480-470 B.C. The paintings, as well as
other finds from the area, are located in the museum at the site.
W.D.E. Coulson, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains 146 image(s), bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
PYXOUS (Ancient city) ITALY
A port at the mouth of the Bussento, the only good harbor other than
Sapri on the Golfo di Policastro (sinus terinaeus). In the 6th c. B.C. when it
first appears in history, Pyxous was apparently a dependency of Sybaris and issued
coins of Sybarite type that also bear the name of Siris on the Gulf of Tarentum.
It is possible that an overland route connected these cities. Pyxous may have
collapsed after the fall of Sybaris in 510 B.C., for it is next heard of as a
foundation of Mikythos, tyrant of Messine and Rhegion in 467. The majority of
the colonists planted there is said by Strabo (6.253) to have soon departed, and
we next hear of it as the site of a Roman colony of 300 families in 194 B.C. that
had then to be reinforced with a second draft of colonists in 186 (Livy 32.29.4;
34.42.6; 34.45.2; 39.23.4). Though it seems never to have flourished, it is mentioned
by geographers in the Imperial period, and inscriptions show that it had duovirs
as magistrates and was inscribed in the tribus Pomptina.
All that is known of the ancient city is a stretch of Roman road recently
excavated. The name Buxentum, which Strabo (6.253) says was also given to the
cape, harbor, and river, refers to the abundance of box growing in the vicinity.
L. Richardson, Jr., ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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