196 PLINT'S NATUEAL HISTOIIT. [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^ the town 

 of Yolturnum with a river^ of the same name, the town of 

 Liternum^ Cumai^ a Chalcidian colony, Misenum^ the port 

 of Bai£e^ Bauli^ the Lucrine Lake', and Lake Avernus, near 

 Avhich there stood formerly a town^ of the Cimmerians. We 

 then come to Puteoli^^, formerly called the colony of Dicae- 



1 The modern Saove. 



2 Now called the Yoltumo, with a smaU place on its banks called 

 Castel Volturno. 



3 The present village of Torre di Patria is supposed to occupy its site. 



4 Strabo describes Cum£e as a joint colony of the Chalcidians of Euboea 

 and the Cymseans of ^ohs. Its sea-shore was covered with yiUas of the 

 Eoman aristocracy, and here Sylla spent the last years of liis Hfe. Its 

 site is now utterly desolate and its existing remains inconsiderable. 



5 Now Capo or Piinta di Miseno ; a town built on a promontory of 

 Campania, by ^neas, it was said, in honour of liis trumpeter, Misenus, 

 who was di'owned there. It was ma'\e by Augustus the prmcipal station 

 of the Roman fleet. Here was the viUa of Marius, which afterwards be- 

 longed to Lucullus and the Emperor Tiberius, who died here. 



6 Famous for its Avarm springs, and the luxurious resort of the Roman 

 patricians. Marius, Lucullus, Pompey, and Ctesar had villas here. In 

 later tunes it became the seat of every kind of pleasm^e and dissipation. 

 It is now rendered unwholesome by the Malaria, and the modern CasteUo 

 di Baia, with numerous ruins, alone marks its site. 



7 The modem village of Baolo stands near its site. It was here that 

 Hortensius had his fish-ponds, mentioned by Phny in B. ix. c. 55. It 

 rivalled its neighbour Bai» in mmistermg to the luxury of the wealthy 

 Romans, and was occupied by numerous villas so late as the reign of 



Theodosius. t -l . 



« Probably the inner part of the Gulf of Cumse or Puteoh, but sepa- 

 rated from the remainder by an embankment eight stadia in length. It 

 was famous for its oyster-beds. Behind it was the Lake Avenius, occu- 

 pying the crater of an extmct 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, ihe 

 Lucrine Lake was filled up by a volcanic eruption m 1538, and a moun- 

 tain rose in its place. The Lake Avernus is stiU called the Lago di 



Avcrno. „ . 



a Or " the town Cimmerium." Nothing is known ot it. 



10 Now Pozzuolo. The Romans called it Puteoh, from the strong 

 emeU of its mineral springs. There are still many ruins of the ancient 



