196
PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY.
[Book III.
In no country too has the oil of the olive a more exquisite flavour. This territory, a battle-ground as it were for the gratification of every luxurious pleasure of man, has been held successively by the Osci, the Greeks, the Umbri, the Tusci, and the Campani.
On the coast we first meet with the river Savo[1], the town of Volturnum with a river[2] of the same name, the town of Liternum[3], Cumæ[4], a Chalcidian colony, Misenum[5], the port of Baiæ[6], Bauli[7], the Lucrine Lake[8], and Lake Avernus, near which there stood formerly a town[9] of the Cimmerians. We then come to Puteoli[10], formerly called the colony of Dicæ-
- ↑ The modern Saove.
- ↑ Now called the Volturno, with a small place on its banks called Castel Volturno.
- ↑ The present village of Torre di Patria is supposed to occupy its site.
- ↑ Strabo describes Cumæ as a joint colony of the Chalcidians of Eubœa and the Cymæans of Æolis. Its sea-shore was covered with villas of the Roman aristocracy, and here Sylla spent the last years of his life. Its site is now utterly desolate and its existing remains inconsiderable.
- ↑ Now Capo or Punta di Miseno; a town built on a promontory of Campania, by Æneas, it was said, in honour of his trumpeter, Misenus, who was drowned there. It was made by Augustus the principal station of the Roman fleet. Here was the villa of Marius, which afterwards belonged to Lucullus and the Emperor Tiberius, who died here.
- ↑ Famous for its warm springs, and the luxurious resort of the Roman patricians. Marius, Lucullus, Pompey, and Cæsar had villas here. In later times it became the seat of every kind of pleasure and dissipation. It is now rendered unwholesome by the Malaria, and the modern Castello di Baja, with numerous ruins, alone marks its site.
- ↑ The modern village of Baolo stands near its site. It was here that Hortensius had his fish-ponds, mentioned by Pliny in B. ix. c. 55. It rivalled its neighbour Baiæ in ministering to the luxury of the wealthy Romans, and was occupied by numerous villas so late as the reign of Theodosius.
- ↑ Probably the inner part of the Gulf of Cumæ or Puteoli, but separated from the remainder by an embankment eight stadia in length. It was famous for its oyster-beds. Behind it was the Lake Avernus, occupying the crater of an extinct volcano, and supposed by the Greeks to be the entrance to the Infernal Regions. Agrippa opened a communication with the Lucrine Lake to render Lake Avernus accessible to ships. The Lucrine Lake was filled up by a volcanic eruption in 1538, and a mountain rose in its place. The Lake Avernus is still called the Lago di Averno.
- ↑ Or "the town Cimmerium." Nothing is known of it.
- ↑ Now Pozzuolo. The Romans called it Puteoli, from the strong smell of its mineral springs. There are still many ruins of the ancient
