Cumae

An ancient city, probably the oldest Greek mainland colony in the west, and home of the Sibyline Oracle (Greek prophetess), described by Virgil in the opening of the sixth book of the Aeneid. Located on a hill on the Italian coast west of Naples, it was founded about 750 BC by Greeks, though there were earlier Bronze and Iron Age settlements, too. Cumae came to control the most fertile parts of the Campanian plain and fought mainly with the Etruscans during the last half of the 6th century and first half of the 5th. The Samnites, however, overwhelmed Cumae in 428/421 BC, and was dominated by Rome from 338 BC. In 1205 it was destroyed, but remains of fortifications and graves from all periods have been found on the city's acropolis hill and elsewhere on the site. It is probably through Cumae that a Chalcidaean version of the Greek alphabet was transmitted to the Etruscans in the 7th century BC and thence eventually to the Italian peninsula.

A town in Campania, southwest Italy, best known as one of the first Greek colonies in Italy and the home of the Sibylline oracle. Evidence exists for earlier (Bronze Age) occupation. Lying in the area known to antiquity as the campi phlegraei (‘fiery fields’) because of the volcanic and hot-spring activity, the site probably appealed to Greek colonists (from Colchis, c750 bc) by virtue of its fertility and the natural advantages of the port, land defences and citadel. Prosperity was rapidly established, and Cumae went on to found daughter colonies, most notably Neapolis (which was to become Naples) and probably Puteoli. Aided by Syracuse, Cumae finally ousted the Etruscans from Campania in 474 bc, only to fall under Oscan control from c420 bc and Roman domination from 338 bc. As a port, Cumae always had problems with silting-up, and the whole installation was radically re-engineered by Agrippa in 36 BC. A popular tourist resort for upper-class Romans of the late Republic and early Empire, Cumae was one of a trio of such watering-places, with Baiae and Puteoli; Cumae was gradually eclipsed by Puteoli, possibly because of the latter’s greater proximity to the ever-popular Baiae. It is probably through 7th-century Cumae that a Chalcidaean version of the Greek alphabet was transmitted to the Etruscans and thence eventually to the Italian peninsula. Also notable is the spectacular nature of the tunnels, grottos and cuttings which characterize the area, especially Agrippa’s supply tunnel under Monte Grillo, Domitian’s cutting through the same hill (spanned by a high-level bridge) and the famous grotto of the oracular Sibyl, described with apparently eye-witness accuracy by Virgil in the opening of the sixth book of the Aeneid.