196 
plikt's natural history. 
[Book III. 
In no country too has tlie oil of tlie olive a more exquisite 
flayour. 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 IJmbri, 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 Baise^, 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 Dicse- 
^ The modern Saove. 
2 Now called the Yolturno, with a small, place on its banks called 
Castel Yolturno. 
3 The present village of Torre di Patria is supposed to occupy its site. 
^ Strabo describes Cumse as a joint colony of the Ohalcidians of Euboea 
and the Cymseans of .^^ohs. Its sea-shore was covered with villas of the 
Roman aristocracy, and here Sylla spent the last years of his hfe. 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 ./Eneas, it was said, in honour of his trumpeter, Misenus, 
who was drowned there. It was mane 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 Caesar 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 CasteUo 
di Baja, with numerous ruins, alone marks its site. 
7 The modern 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 neighboul* 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 Grulf 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 Grreeks 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 
Averno. 
^ Or "the town Cimmerium." JSTothing is known of it. 
1^ Now Pozzuolo. The Romans called it Puteoh, from the strong 
smell of its mineral springs. There are still many ruins of the ancient 
