Cumae
Frieze-Dennison Vergil
Could not find Cumarum in Logeion dictionaries.
Cumarum Proper-name noun: feminine genitive plural of Cumae
- = Κύμη, an ancient colony of the Chalcidians, in Campania, on the sea-coast, renowned on account of its Sibyl, Mel. 2, 4, 9; Plin. 3, 5, 9, § 61; Lucr. 6, 748; Cic. Div. 1, 43, 98; id. Tusc. 3, 12, 27; Verg. A. 6, 2; Hor. Ep. 1, 15, 11; Ov. M. 14, 104; Vell. 1, 4, 1; Cael. ap. Cic. Fam. 8, 1, 2; Juv. 3, 2 et saep.— Hence,
- II Cūmānus, a, um, adj., of Cumae, Cumaean.
- 1 Adj.: ager, Cic. Agr. 2, 25, 66: litora, Tac. A. 15, 46: linum, Plin. 19, 1, 2, §§ 10 and 11: caementum, id. 35, 13, 47, § 166: calices, made in Cumae, Varr. ap. Non. p. 146, 11; cf.: fictaque Cumanā lubrica terra rotā, i.e. Cumaean vessels, Tib. 2, 3, 48: orbe patinae tortae, Stat. S. 4, 9, 43: pulvere rubicunda testa, Mart. 14, 114: Apollo, i.e. who was worshipped at Cumae, Flor. 2, 8, 3; cf. Cic. Div. 1, 43, 98: vates, i.e. the Sibyl, Luc. 5, 183.—
- 2 Subst.
- a Cūmāni, ōrum, m., the inhabitants of Cumae, Liv. 40, 42, 13.—
- b Cūmānum, i, n.
- α The Cumaean region: in Cumano, Plin. 17, 25, 38, § 243.—
- β An estate of Cicero near Cumae, Cic. Fam. 4, 2, 1; id. Att. 4, 10, 2; 14, 10, 3; id. Ac. 1, 1, 1.—*
- c Cūmāna, ae, f., a vessel made of Cumaean clay, Apic. 4, 2; 6, 9.—
- B Cūmaeus, a, um, adj., Cumaean (poet.): urbs, Verg. A. 3, 441: antrum, Sil. 13, 498: Sibylla, Verg. A. 6, 98; Ov. M. 15, 712; cf. of the same: virgo, id. ib. 14, 135: dux (sc. Aeneae), id. ib. 14, 121: vates, Val. Fl. 1, 5: carmen, i.e. of the Sibyl, Verg. E. 4, 4: in annos Cumaeos vivant, i. e. very long (as the Sibyl was called longaeva sacerdos, Verg. A. 6, 321), Ov. P. 2, 8, 41; cf. Prop. 2, 2, 16.
CUMAE (Κύμη, Strab., Thuc., &c.; Κοῦμαι, Ptol.: Eth. Κυμαῖος, Cumanus: Cuma), a city on the coast of Campania, about six miles N. of Cape Misenum. It was one of the most ancient as well as celebrated of the Greek colonies in Italy, and Strabo expressly tells us that it was the earliest of all the Greek settlements either in that country or Sicily (Strab. 5. p. 243), a statement which there is no reason for rejecting, although we may safely refuse to receive as historical the date assigned it by the later Greek chronologers, who would carry it back as far as 1050 B.C. (Hieronym. Chron. p. 100; Euseb. ed. Seal. p. 135.) Velleius Paterculus (Vellei. 1.4), who mentions its foundation next to that of Magnesia, and before the Aeolic and Ionic migrations, must have adopted a similar view, though he does not venture to fix the year. The statements of a mythical character connected with its foundation, which represent the fleet of the colonists as guided by a dove, or by the nocturnal sound of brass cymbals, in themselves point to a very early period, which would leave room for such fabulous embellishments. (Vell. Pat. l. c.; Niebuhr, vol. 3. p. 177.) There is some discrepancy in regard to the people by whom it was founded, but there is little doubt that the statement of Strabo may be relied on, who describes it as a joint colony of the Chalcidians in Euboea, and the Cymaeans of Aeolis: the two founders being Hippocles of Cyme, and Megasthenes of Chalcis, and it being agreed that the new settlement should bear the name of one of its parent cities, while it ranked as a colony of the other. (Strab. 5. p. 243.) Hence we always find Cumae termed a Chalcidic, or Euboean city, though its name, as well as local traditions, preserved the recollection of its connection with the Asiatic Cyme. (Thuc. 6.3; Liv. 8.22; Plin. Nat. 3.5. s. 9; Virg. A en. 6.2; Ovid, Ov. Met. 14.155; Stat. Silv. 4.3. 24,118.) Velleius however, as well as Dionysius, drops all mention of the Cymaeans among the original colonists, and speaks of Cumae as founded by the Chalcidians, under Hippocles and Megasthenes, while Dionysius calls it a Greek city founded by the Eretrians and Chalcidians. Those writers indeed who adopted the very early date assigned to its settlement by the Greek chronologers, which placed it before the Aeolic migration, were compelled to exclude all co-operation on the part of the Asiatic Cyme: and it was probably in order to overcome this difficulty that Scymnus Chius represents it as colonised first by the Chalcidians, and afterwards by the Aeolians. (Vellei. 1.5; Dionys. 7.3; Scymn. Ch. 236-239.) According to Livy (Liv. 8.22) the original settlement was made in the island of Aenaria, but the new comers found themselves so much disturbed by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, that they removed from thence to the mainland. Strabo (5. p. 247) also notices the establishment of a colony of Eretrians and Chalcidians in Aenaria, but without indicating its date.
Whatever may have been the real epoch of the foundation of Cumae, it is certain that it rapidly rose to great wealth and prosperity. The extraordinary fertility of the surrounding country, as well as the excellence of the neighbouring ports, gave it immense advantages, and the native population of the interior seems to have been too scanty or too feeble to offer any obstacle to the progress of the rising city. The period of its greatest prosperity was probably from 700--500 B.C.: at this time it was incontestably the first city in this part of Italy, and had extended its dominion over a great part of the province subsequently known as Campania. The fertile tract of plain called the Phlegraean fields was included in its territory, as well as the vine-growing hills that separate this plain from the Bay of Naples, on which Cumae possessed the two excellent ports of Misenum and Dicaearchia. (Dionys. 7.3.) A little more distant it had planted the flourishing colony of Neapolis, which was doubtless at this time still dependent upon its parent city: and the statement which calls Abella and Nola Chalcidic towns (Justin (Justin. 20.1) evidently indicates that Cumae had not only extended its influence over the interior, but had sought to strengthen it by the establishment of regular colonies. The great extent of its walls still attested in the Augustan age its former power: and all accounts represent it as almost rivalling the Achaean colonies of Crotona and Sybaris in wealth and population. The government, like that of most of the Greek cities in Italy, was aristocratical, and continued so until the overthrow of its liberties by Aristodemus. (Dionys. 7.4.) The decline of Cumae was probably owing in the first instance to the increasing power of the Etruscans, and especially to the maritime superiority established by that people in the Tyrrhenian Sea. But the Etruscan conquest of Campania soon brought them into hostile collision by land also: and the first event in the history of Cumae that has been transmitted to us, is that of the successful opposition which it was able to offer to a vast host of invaders, consisting (it is said) of Etruscans, Umbrians, and Daunians (?). Exaggerated as are the numbers of these enemies, who are said to have brought into the field 500,000 foot, and 28,000 horse, there seems no reason to doubt the historical fact of the invasion and its repulse. (Dionys. 7.3, 4.) According to Dionysius, it took place about 20 years before the usurpation of Aristodemus, who first rose to distinction upon this occasion, and was subsequently appointed to command the auxiliary force sent by the Cumaeans to assist the Aricians against Aruns, the son of Porsena. (Liv. 2.14; Dionys. 5.36, 7.5, 6.) His success in this expedition paved the way to his assumption of supreme power, which he attained by the same arts as many other despots, by flattering the passions of the multitude, and making use of the democratic party to overthrow the oligarchy, after which he proceeded to surround himself with a guard of hired partisans, and disarm the rest of the people. Dionysius has left us a circumstantial account of the rise, government, and fall of Aristodemus (7.3--11; Diod. vii. Exc. Vales. p. 547), which, notwithstanding the scepticism of Niebuhr (vol. 1. p. 554, vol. 3. p. 178), may probably be received as historical, at least in its main outlines. According to that author his usurpation may be dated in B.C. 505, and he appears to have retained the sovereign power for above 20 years, when he was expelled by the descendants of those whom he had put to death or driven into exile. It was during this period that Tarquinius Superbus, the exiled king of Rome, took refuge at Cumae, where he shortly after ended his days, B.C. 496. (Liv. 2.21; Dionys. 6.21.) Aristodemus was still ruler of the city when the Roman republic sent an embassy to beg for supplies of corn in time of a great famine (B.C. 492), but the ships, which had been already loaded with grain, were seized by the tyrant and confiscated, as an alleged equivalent for the property of Tarquin. (Liv. 2.34; Dionys. 7.2, 12.)
A despotism such as that of Aristodemus is represented, and the civil dissensions that must have attended its overthrow as well as its establishment, could not but weaken the power and impair the prosperity of Cumae, and render her less able to cope with the increasing power of the Etruscans. Hence, the next time her name is mentioned in history, we find her invoking the aid of Hieron, the then powerful despot of Syracuse, against the combined fleets of the Tyrrhenians and the Carthaginians, who had attacked her by sea, and threatened her very existence. The victory of Hieron on that occasion (B.C. 474) not only delivered Cumae from immediate danger, but appears to have given a severe blow to the maritime power of the Etruscans. (Diod. 11.51; Pind. P. 1.136--146, and Schol. ad loc.) Nor do we hear of the latter any further molesting Cumae by land; and that city appears to have enjoyed an interval of repose, which, so far as we can judge, would seem to have been a period of considerable prosperity: but a more formidable danger now threatened it from the growing power of the Samnites, who, in B.C. 423, made themselves masters of Capua, and. only three years afterwards, after defeating the Cumaeans in the field, laid siege to their city, and after repeated attacks succeeded in carrying it by assault. No mercy was shown by the conquerors: the unfortunate city was given up to pillage, many of its citizens put to the sword, and the rest sold into slavery, except such as were able to make their escape to Neapolis: while their wives and daughters were forced to cohabit with the Campanian conquerors,who established a colony in the city. (Liv. 4.44; Diod. 12.76; Strab. 5. p. 243.) The date of this event is given by Livy as B.C. 420; and the archonship of Aristion, to which it is assigned by Diodorus, would give the same date (B.C. 421--420), but the Roman consulship, to which the latter refers it, is that of B.C. 428: the former date is probably the true one.
From this period Cumae ceased to be a Greek city, though still retaining many traces of Hellenic rites and customs, which subsisted down to the Augustan age: but a fatal blow had been given to its prosperity, and it sank henceforth into the condition of a second-rate Campanian town. Having shared in the general defection of the Campanians from Rome and in their subsequent defeat, it was in B.C. 338 admitted to the Roman franchise, though at first without the right of suffrage (Liv. 8.14): at what time it obtained the full franchise we know not, but it seems at a later period to have not only enjoyed the fullest municipal privileges, but to have been regarded by the Romans with especial favour, on account of its unvarying fidelity to the republic. (Liv. 23.31; Vellei. 1.4; Cic. de leg. Agr. 2.3. 1, ad Att. 10.13.) In the Second Punic War Hannibal made an attempt upon the city, but was repulsed from its walls by Sempronius Gracchus, and obliged to content himself with laying waste its territory. (Liv. 23.36, 37, 24.13.) From this time we hear but little of Cumae, but the circumstance that, in B.C. 180, the citizens requested and obtained permission to use the Latin language in their public documents, shows the continually decreasing influence of the Greek element in the city. (Liv. 40.42.) We may probably infer from the expressions of Velleins (1.4) that it continued faithful to the Romans during the Social War. In the latter ages of the Republic its neighbourhood began to be frequented by the Roman nobles as a place of retirement and luxury; but these established their villas rather at Baiae and Misenum than at Cumae itself, the situation of which is far less beautiful or agreeable. Both these sites were, however, included in a municipal sense in the territory of Cuma (in Cuemano), and hence we find Cicero applying the name of Cumanum to his villa, which was in full view of Puteoli (Acad. 2.25), and must therefore have been situated on the Bay of Baiae, or at least on the E. side of the ridge which separates it from Cumae. The same thing is probably true of the villas of Catulus, Pompeius, and Varro, mentioned by him. (Cic. Acad. 1.1, 2.25; ad Fam. 16.10; ad Att. 4.10.) At an earlier period Sulla retired to the neighbourhood of Cumae after his abdication, and spent the last years of his life there. (Appian, B. Co 104.) The increasing popularity of Baiae, Bauli, and Misenum, under the Roman Empire, though it must have added to the local importance of Cumae, which always continued to be the municipal capital of the surrounding district (Orell. Inscr. 2263), was unfavourable to the growth of the city itself, which appears to have declined, and is spoken of by Juvenal as deserted (vacuae Cumae, Sat. 3.2) in comparison with the flourishing towns around it. Statius also calls it the quiet Cumae (quieta Cyme, Silv. 4.3. 65). But the expression of the satirist must not be taken too strictly: the great extent of the ancient walls, noticed by Velleius (1.4), would naturally give it a deserted appearance; but we know that Cumae had received a colony of veterans under Augustus, which appears to have been renewed by Claudius (Lib. Colon. p. 232), and though Pliny does not give it the name of a colony, it bears that title in several inscriptions of Imperial date (Orell. Inscr. 1857, 2263, 2533). We learn from various other sources that it continued to exist down to the close of the Roman Empire (Plin. Nat. 3.5. s. 9; Ptol. 3.1; § 6; Itin. Ant. pp. 122, 123; Tab. Peut. ), and during the wars of Belisarius and Narses with the Goths, it re-appears as a place of importance. At this time, however, the city appears to have shrunk, so as to be confined to the ancient citadel or arx (still called the Rocca di Cuma), an isolated and precipitous rock, very difficult of access, and which on that account was regarded as a very strong fortress. It was chosen by the Gothic kings as the depository of their regalia and other valuables, and was the last place in Italy that held out against Narses. (Procop. B. G. 1.14, 3.6, 4.34; Agath. 1.8--11, 20.) This citadel continued to exist till the 13th century, when having become a stronghold of robbers and banditti, it was taken and destroyed: and the site has remained desolate ever since.
Under the Roman Empire Cumae was noted for a manufacture of a particular kind of red earthenware. (Mart. 14.114.) Its territory also produced excellent flax, which was especially adapted for the manufacture of nets. (Plin. Nat. 19.1. s. 2; Grat. Falisc. Cyneg. 35.) Of the fertility of the adjoining plain, or the wines of Mt. Gaurus, it is unnecessary to speak, but the latter was in the time of the Romans probably dependent on Puteoli.
Inseparably connected with the name of Cumae is that of the Sibyl who, according to the general tradition of antiquity, had her abode there. There is little doubt that the legends connected with her were brought by the Greeks from Cyme in Asia Minor, and were transferred from Gergis or Gergithes in the Troad to the Italian Cumae. (Grote's Greece, vol. 3. p. 472; Klausen, A eneas und die Penaten, vol. i. pp. 209, 210.) Similar peculiarities in the nature of the soil and localities seem to have contributed to this: it was doubtless also owing to the striking physical characters of the adjoining region that the myths connected with the entrance to Hades became permanently localized about Lake Avernus: and the idea of placing the Cimmerians of the Odyssey in the same neighbourhood was probably an afterthought in later times. It seems likely, indeed, that the Cumaeans were one of the main channels by which the Trojan and Greek legends were transferred to this part of Italy, and the names of Aeneas and Ulysses inseparably associated with the coasts of the Tyrrhenian Sea. The cave of the Sibyl was still supposed to exist in the historical period; the cavern shown under that name was a vast subterranean chamber or grotto, hewn out of the eastern side of the rock on which stood the citadel. ( Excisum Euboïcae latus ingens rupis in antrum,Verg. A. 6.42; Pseud. Arist. Mirab. 95; Lycophr. 1278--1280; Ovid, Ov. Met. 14.104.) Justin Martyr, who visited it about the middle of the second century, describes it as like a great hall or basilica, artificially excavated, containing three reservoirs of water, and with an inner chamber or recess, from which the prophetess used to deliver her oracles. (Just. Mart. Paraen. 37.) Agathias, in relating the siege of Cumae by Narses, also mentions the existence of this great cavern, of which that general availed himself to undermine the walls of the citadel, and by this means caused them to fall in, together with the roof of the cavern: and thus destroyed the abode of the Sibyl, though without effecting the capture of the fortress. (Agath. B. G. 1.10.) On the summit of the arx was a temple of Apollo, whose worship here seems to have been intimately connected with that of the Sibyl, though legends gave it a still more ancient origin, and ascribed the foundation of the temple to Daedalus. (Verg. A. 6.14--19, and Serv. ad loc.;Sil. Ital.--102; Juven. 3.25.) Some obscure ruins on the summit of the hill are supposed to have formed part of this ancient edifice: and the remains of a cavern on the E. face of the cliff are believed to have belonged to that of the Sibyl. The true situation of this was first pointed out by Cluverius: earlier commentators and topographers had confounded the cave of the Sibyl herself with the entrance to the infernal regions near the Lake Avernus, and hence the name of Grotta della Sibilla is still popularly given to an artificial excavation on the banks of that lake, which has the appearance of an imperfect tunnel, and is in all probability a work of Roman times. (Cluver. Ital. pp. 1107--1113; Romanelli, vol. 3. p. 517.)
The existing remains of Cumae are inconsiderable: the plain around the rock of the citadel, in which the ancient city spread itself out in the days of its greatness, is now covered with a royal forest: some remains of an amphitheatre however still exist, and numerous other masses of masonry, most of them of Roman construction. To the same period belongs a picturesque archway in a massive and lofty wall of brick, called the Arco Felice, which stands on the road to Pozzuoli, and is supposed by some to be one of the gates of the ancient city, but the nature of its construction renders this almost impossible. Between this and the foot of the rock are the remains of a small temple, popularly known as the Tempio dei Giganti. This is all that remains of Cumae above ground, but excavations at different periods have brought to light numerous architectural fragments, vases and statues, many of them of the best period of art, and it is probable that few sites would better reward more systematic researches. (Romanelli, vol. iii. pp. 501, 502; Eustace's Classical Tour, vol. ii. pp. 427--434; Iorio, Guidas di Pozzuoli, pp. 102--125; Bull. dell Inst. 1842, pp. 6--10.) COIN OF CUMAE.
[E.H.B](Κύμη). A town of Campania, the most ancient of the Greek colonies in Italy and Sicily. It was founded from Cymé in Aeolis, in conjunction with Chalcis and Eretria in Euboea ( Strab. p. 243; Verg. Aen. vi. 2). Its foundation is placed in B.C. 1050, but the date must be regarded as uncertain. It was situated on a steep hill of Mount Gaurus, a little north of the promontory Misenum. It became in early times a great and flourishing city; its commerce was extensive; its territory included a great part of the rich Campanian plain; its population was at least 60,000; and its power is attested by its colonies in Italy and Sicily—Puteoli, Palaeopolis (afterwards Neapolis), Zanclé (afterwards Messana). But it had powerful enemies to encounter in the Etruscans and the Italian nations. It was also weakened by internal dissensions, and one of its citizens, Aristodemus, made himself tyrant of the place. Its power became so much reduced that it was only saved from the attacks of the Etruscans by the assistance of Hiero, who annihilated the Etruscan fleet, 474. It maintained its independence till 417, when it was taken by the Campanians and most of its inhabitants sold as slaves (Diod.xii. 76). From this time Capua became the chief city of Campania; and although Cumae was subsequently a Roman municipium and a colony, it continued to decline in importance. At last the Acropolis was the only part of the town that remained, and this was eventually destroyed by Narses in his wars with the Goths. Cumae was celebrated as the residence of the earliest Sibyl, and as the place where Tarquinius Superbus died. See Sibyllae.
A city in Phlegraean Fields inside Cape Misenum on the Bay of Naples. This area and its original Oscan inhabitants were known to Mycenaean explorers of the 12th c. B.C., but the city was actually founded ca. 750 B.C. by colonists from Chalkis, Eretria, and the island of Pithekusai (Ischia). The site included a strong acropolis, fertile hinterland, and an attractive harbor, now nonexistent. From 700 to 500 B.C. it was a prosperous and important disseminator of Greek culture in the West through the Chalkidian alphabet, Greek cults, and several important colonies of its own. The earliest historic Cumaean, Anistodemos, repulsed an Etruscan attack in 524 B.C. and shared a leading role with the Latins and Romans in defeating the Etruscans again at Aricia ca. 505; in 474 the Cumaean and Syracusan fleets combined to crush Etruscan power in Campania. But about a half century later Cumae was conquered by the Samnites and became Oscan until 180 B.C. Samnites were not maritime-minded and did not really maintain the harbor. However, after Hannibal's failure to establish outlets to the sea at Neapolis and Puteoli, in 215 B.C. Cumae was his third—and equally unsuccessful—choice. Already a civitas sine suffragio (338 B.C.) Cumae was now granted municipal citizenship with Latin as the official language, and it became a municipium at the end of the Republic. In 37-36 Agrippa undertook a massive reorganization of the harbor facilities, adapting the lakes Lucrinus and Avernus on the bay side into Portus Julius for the construction of a fleet and the training of personnel against Sextus Pompey (battles of Mylae and Naulochos, 36 B.C.) and, on the Cumaean side, the construction of a whole new Roman port for the unloading of supplies, and two long tunnels for communication between the sea and the lakes (see below). After this great ad hoc achievement Cumae once more silted up into maritime insignificance, though Symmachos sailed from there to Formia in A.D. 383.
Cumae was most famous for its oracular Sibyl, just as her grotto is now its most spectacular monument. As shown by an inscribed bronze disk, she was giving, and declining to elucidate, responses by the middle or the late 7th c. B.C., originally for a chthonic Hera and only later for Apollo, and her famous bargaining with Tarquinius Priscus (regn. ca. 616-579) for the Sibylline Books was about contemporary. Vergil's poetic but surprisingly accurate description of her antrum (A en. 6.9-155 for the whole incident) is clearly based on autopsy. Though restored by Augustus, the Sibyl's official cult lapsed within the next century.
The site of the Sibyl's grotto was discovered in 1932, a trapezoidal gallery (131.5 x 2.4 m and an average height of 5 m) cut N-S into a solid tufa ridge below the acropolis, overlooking the sea through six similar trapezoidal bays, with a total of nine doorways (not all now documented) and, cut back into the rock on the left (E) side, three ceremonial baths later converted into cisterns; note the repetition of triads and the Sibyl's relation to Hekate (Trivia). The splendid archaic Greek stone-cutting is attributable to the 5th c. B.C. and reminiscent of Mycenaean and Etruscan dromoi. At the extreme (S) end is an arched chamber, the inmost adyton wherein Aeneas received oral instructions from the frenzied priestess; a vaulted chamber to the E, perhaps the Sibyl's personal apartment, and a similar but smaller W chamber, probably for light and ventilation, open to left and right of the adyton. This last complex, with vertical walls and doorposts supporting semicircular arches, is a 4th-3d c. addition or alteration to the original gallery. Under the early Empire the whole floor was lowered 1.5 m to convert the entire grotto into a cistern; still later, parts were used for Christian inhumation.
The entrance to the Sibyl's grotto was part of an architectural unit including steps leading up to the Temple of Apollo (see below) and a ramp leading downward to the entrance of the so-called Cumaean Roman crypt, a long underground E-W tunnel passing under the acropolis. The operations of Narses against the Goths (A.D. 560), landslides, and quarrying have destroyed this impressive facade, but the crypt itself is undoubtedly attributable to Cocceius, the Augustan architect who also built the very similar crypt of Cocceius under Monte Grillo (see below) and the crypta Neapolitana tunnel between Puteoli and Neapolis. For 26 m the Cumaean crypt is barrel-vaulted 5 m high and then opens into an enormous Great Hall or “vestibule” 23 m high with revetment of tufa blocks and with four niches for large statues; lighting for these and the whole crypt, of which the remainder was a normal tunnel, was supplied by vertical or oblique light-shafts down through the rock. Toward the E end enormous rock-cut storerooms and cisterns open on one side. Like the Sibyl's grotto, this crypt was eventually used for Christian burials.
Even more impressive is the so-called crypt of Cocceius itself which, passing for ca. 1 km under Monte Grillo, was wide enough for loaded wagons to pass and which, after an open interval from the previous crypt, continued the underground water-level supply route from Cumae to Agrippa's Lake Avernus base. It was partly barrel-vaulted with neat blocks; the remainder was cut through unadorned tufa. Like the other crypt it was lighted by vertical and oblique light-wells of which the deepest is 30 m. As a further tour de force, Cocceius included an aqueduct along its N side, with its own niches, ventilation shafts, and wells. But it and the Cumaean crypt were strictly military in purpose and were not properly maintained thereafter until the Bourbons cleared it for land reclamation purposes. It can still be traversed despite ruts and water due to bradyseism and deforestation.- It was undoubtedly Cocceius' masterpiece.
Not all of the crypt of Cocceius and the mountain under which it passes is strictly Cumaean, but consideration of Cumae cannot ignore Domitian's cut through the crest of Monte Grillo and his filling the consequent gash with the high narrow Arco Felice of brick, not an aqueduct but apparently simply a high-level bridge from one side of the cut to the other.
The precise areas of the Greek, Samnite, and Roman territory of Cumae varied from time to time and are not entirely clear, but at least the acropolis was always the obvious center. It was originally part of a crater; much of it consists of varying qualities of tufa. Easiest access was from the S where the harbor and principal city lay with appropriate gates, but on the remaining sides it was impregnable. In Greek times it was fortified with walls of which some fine stretches remain visible, but in Roman times it was extensively occupied by private dwellings which have virtually eradicated structures (portico, cistern), but two temples remain identifiable.
The lower of these, epigraphically identified as the Temple of Apollo, built upon a still earlier sanctuary, exists only in ground plan (34.6 x 18.3 m). It was oriented N-S; in Augustan times the Cumaean Apollo received a new and presumably more elaborate E-W temple; in the 6th-7th c. this was converted into a Christian basilica, once more N-S. The Greek phase of the upper so-called Temple of Jupiter is E-W but even less recognizable than that of Apollo, though its dimensions were greater (at least 39.6 x 24.6 m). The Tiberio-Claudian phase is of characteristic reticulate masonry and is generally recognizable in its unusual plan, which was adapted to a Christian basilica in the 5th-6th c., one of the earliest such structures in Campania.
In the lower town were Temples of Jupiter Flazzus (later the Capitolium) and of Divus Vespasianus used for a committee meeting in A.D. 289, a forum (ca. 120 x 50 m) with long porticos, largely unexplored, and two 2d c. bathing establishments. At the S end of the city was an amphitheater with a major axis of 90 m, of which only parts of the outer shell remain above ground. Statius, who often refers to Cumae, refers to quieta Cyme (Silv. 4.3.65) and Juvenal calls it vacuae (3.2), but this was doubtless in contrast to Rome and busy Puteoli. Under the late Republic and early Empire Cumae was a favorite resort of upper-class Romans, vying with Puteoli and Baiae.
A large and ill-defined necropolis surrounds the city, especially to the NE where extensive plundering during the 19th c., as well as responsible excavation during the 20th c., has revealed interments of all periods including pre-Hellenic; some tombs are painted. A tholos tomb reflecting Mycenaean tradition and a mass grave of headless skeletons are of especial interest.
Most of the finds from Cumae, including a fine marble copy of Cresilas' Diomedes, are in the Naples Museum.
BIBLIOGRAPHYGeneral: A. Maiuri, The Phlegraean Fields (Guide books to Museums and Monuments in Italy, 32) (3d ed. 1958, tr. Priestley) MPI; W. Johannowsky in EAA (1959) PI; J. H. D'Arms, Romans on the Bay of Naples (1970) MI.
G. Pellegrini, “Tombe greche archaiche e tomba grecosannitica a tholos della necropoli di Cuma,” MonAnt 13 (1903) cols. 201-96I; E. Gàbrici, “Cuma,” MonAnt 22 (1913) cols. 9-871 (chiefly necropolis) PI; A. Maiuri, “Horrenda secreta Sibyllae : Nuova esplorazione dell'antro Cumano,” BStM 3, 3 (1932-33) 21-29I; J. Bérard, Bibliographie topographique (1941) 50-52; M. Guarducci “Un antichissimo responso dell'oracolo di Cuma,” BullComm 72, 3-4 (1946-48) 129-41I; C. C. van Essen, “Etudes VI-X,” Meded 2 XXXIII 4 (1966) (Sibyl's grotto); R. V. Schoder, S.J., “Ancient Cumae,” Scientific American 209 (1963) 109-18MI; R. F. Paget, “The Ancient Harbours of Cumae,” Vergilius 14 (1968) 4-15PI; id., “The Ancient Ports of Cumae,” JRS 58 (1968) 152-69PI; id., “Portus Julius,” Vergilius 15 (1969) 25-32M.
H. COMFORT- Paus. 7.22.8, Paus. 8.24.5, Paus. 10.12.8