Modern sea level 

 Ancient sea level 



The temple at Pozzuoli built in the third 

 century a.D. By the fifteenth century 

 the columns were totally submerged. Since 

 then the sea level has changed and the 

 columns have emerged. Today, at low tide, 

 most of the temple floor is visible. 



wall of the type known as opus pilarum. The tops of the piers might 

 have been joined by arches to form a progressus, as shown in the 

 fresco from Gragnano. Giinther considers that the Roman build- 

 ings at Gaiola, and the harbor at Posilipo, were built on the site of 

 the earlier Greek colony of Parthenope, or Palaeopolis, which is 

 otherwise not located. 



The most perfectly preserved house in Posilipo is that called La 

 Casa degli Spiriti, but because of its remote location and the "white- 

 robed ghost" which haunts it, it is rarely visited. The lower two 

 floors are Roman and are still partly covered with the original 

 plaster, but the third floor is a later addition. Since the ground 

 floor is now eight feet below water, it is amazing that the building 

 should have survived so long. The restoration of the third story 

 was carried out probably to make the place into a tavern, which 

 could be reached only by boat. In the easternmost room there is a 

 line of erosion on the plaster sixteen feet above the present level 

 of the sea, which shows that since Roman times the sea level has 

 been higher than it is now. 



East of La Casa degli Spiriti is the ancient and silted harbor of 

 Marechiano, today outlined by submerged, continuous walls. With 

 a present entrance thirty-eight yards wide and twenty-six feet deep, 

 the harbor contains the ruins of a villa which is supposed to have 

 belonged to Vedius Pollio — a friend of Augustus — who was in the 

 habit of throwing disobedient slaves into tanks full of moray eels. 

 Incidentally, the association of the villa at Gaiola with the name of 

 Virgil is almost certainly inaccurate. "Virgil had a villa here" seems 

 to have been as popular a saying in Italy as "Queen Elizabeth slept 

 here" is in England, or "George Washington slept here," in the 

 United States. 



At the extreme east of the Posilipo area is the Roseberry region, 

 near Capo Posilipo. Here, outside a breakwater built by convict 

 labor to protect the villa of the Bourbon Prince Luigi, is a large 

 area of submarine ruins. But only one concrete block, the Pietra 

 Salata — eleven yards long and two yards wide — breaks the surface 

 of the sea. The block is part of a huge wall, reinforced with massive 

 bastions, that encloses a rectangular area within which are three 

 large rock-and-concrete foundations. Judging by their size and 

 complexity, these must have been villas of the type found at Gaiola, 

 but on an even grander scale. 



At Pozzuoli, four miles west of Posilipo, is the most well-known 

 Roman breakwater, commonly called the Bridge of Caligula. This 

 imposing structure once consisted of fifteen tall piers of concrete 

 joined by arches. Each pier was fifty-two feet square and rose from 



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