196 PLINT's KATUEAL HISTOET. [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 Volturnum with a river^ of the same name, the town of 

 Liternum^, Cuma)", a Chalcidian colony, Misenum*, the port 

 of Baiae®, Bauli^, the Lucrine Lake^, and Lake Avernus, near 

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

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



1 The modem Saove. 



2 Now called the Voltvimo, with a small place on its banks called 

 Castel Voltumo. 



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



* Strabo describes Cumce as a joint colony of the Chalcidians of Euboea 

 and the Cymseans of jEolis. Its sea-shore was covered with villas of the 

 Koman aristocracy, and here Sylla spent the last years of liis hfe. Its 

 site is now utterly desolate and its existing remains inconsiderable. 



^ Now Capo or Punta di Miseno ; a town buUt on a promontory of 

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

 who was drowned there. It was ma^e by Augustus the principal station 

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

 longed 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 Csesar 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 modem CasteUo 

 di Baja, with nxmierous 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 Pliny in B. ix. c. 55. It 

 rivalled its neighbour Baise 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 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 Avernus, occu- 

 pying 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 moun- 

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

 Avemo. 



* Or " the town Cimmerium." Nothing is known of it. 



^° Now Pozzuolo. The Romans called it PuteoU, from the strong 

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



