Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/426

 410 NEAPOLIS. though more commonly known as tlie Fiume ddia Maddalena, which still forms the extreme limit of the suburbs of Naples on the E. side; from thence it probably extended as far as the mole and old castle, which bonnd the port on the W. Pliny speaks of the small island which he calls Megaris, and which can be no other than the rock now occu- pied by the Castel delV Uovo, as situated between Pausilypus and Neapolis (Plin. iii. 6. s. 12); it is therefore clear that the city did not extend so far as this point. Immediately above the ancient portion of the city rises a steep hill, now cromied by the Castle of St. Elmo ; and from thence thei-e runs a narrow volcanic ridge, of no great elevation, but steep and abrupt, which continues without interrup- tion in a SW. direction, till it ends in a headland immediately opposite to the island of Nesis or Nisida. It is the western portion of this ridge which was known in ancient times as the JIoNs Pausilypus, and is still called the Hill ofPosiUpo. It formed a marked barrier between the immediate environs of Neapolis and those of Puteoli and Baiae, and must have been a great obstacle to the free communication between the two cities ; hence a tunnel was opened through the hill for the passage of the high-road, which has served that purpose ever since. This passage, called in ancient times the Crypta Neapolitana, and now known as the Grotta di PosiUpo, is a remarkable work of its kind, and has been described by many modern travellers. It is 2244 feet long, and 21 feet broad: its height is unequal, but, towards the entrance, is not less than 70 feet. It is probable, liowever, that the work has been much enlarged in later times. Seneca, in one of his letters, gives a greatly exaggerated view of its fancied horrors, arising from the darkness and dust. (Sen. Ep. 57.) Strabo assigns its construction to Cocceius, probably the M. Cocceius Nerva, who was superintendent of aqueducts under Tiberius, and who constructed a similar tunnel from the lake Avernus to Cumae (Strab. v. p. 245); and there is no reason to doubt this statement, though many Italian antiquarians have maintained that the work must be much more ancient. On the hill immediately above the E. en- trance of the grotto is an ancient sepulchre designated by tradition as the tomb of Virgil ; and though popular tradition is a very unsafe guide in such cases, there seems in this instance no sufficient reason to reject its testimony. We know, from the precise statement of Donatus, that the poet was buried on the road to Puteoli, within less than two miles from Naples (" via Puteolana intra lapiJem secundem," Doiiat. Vit. Virg. ; Hieron. Chron. ad 01. 190), which agrees well with the site m ques- tion, especially if (as is probable) the high-road at that time passed over the hill, and not through the grotto beneath. The argument of Clnverius, who inferred, from the description of Statius {Silv. iv. 4. 50 — 55), that the tomb of Virgil was situated at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, is certainly untenable. (Cluver. Ital. p. 1153; Eustace's Classical Tovr, vol. ii. pp. .370 — 380 ; Jorio, Guida di Pozzuoli, pp. 118, &c.) Near the Capo di rosilipo, as the headland oppo- site to Nisida is now called, are the extensive ruins of a Roman villa, which are supposed to be those of the celebrated villa of Vedius Pollio, which gave name to the whole hill, aiid which he bequeathed by his will to Augustus. (Dion Cass. hv. 23; Plin. ix. 53. s. 78.) Immediately opposite to the head- land, between it and the island of Nisida (Nesis), NEAPOLIS. lie two small islets, or rather rocks, one of which now serves for the Lazzaretto, — the other, which is uninhabited, is called La Gajola; these are supposed to be the islands called by Statius Limon and Eu- ploea. (Stat. Silv. ii. 2. 79, iii. 1. 149.) From their trifling size it is no wonder that they are not noticed by any other author. Recent excavations on the supposed site of the villa of Pollio have brought to light far more extensive remains than were previously known to exist, and which afford .i sti-ong illustration of the magnificent scale on which these edifices were constructed. Among the niins thus brought to light are those of a theatre, the seats of which are cut out of the tufo rock ; an Odeon, or theatre for music; a Basilica; besides nu- merous porticoes and other edifices, and extensive resei-voirs for water. But the most remarkable work connected with these remains is a tunnel or gallery pierced through the promontory, which is actually longer than the Grotta di PosiUpo. This work appears from an inscription to have been re- stored by the emperor Honorius; the period of its construction is wholly uncertain. {Bullett. d. Inst. Arch. 1841, pp. 147—160; Avelhno, Bidlett. Ar- cheol. Napol. 1843, Nos. 4 — 6.) Many writers have assigned the extensive ruins visible on the hill of Posili])o to a villa of Lucullus; and it is certain that that statesman had a Neapolitan villa distinct from that at Misenum (Cic. Acad. ii. 3), but its site is nowhere indicated; and the supposition that it was the .same which afterwards passed into the hands of Vedius Pollio is not warranted by any ancient authority. Though the neighbourhood of Naples abounds on all sides in ancient remains, those which are still extant in the city itself are inconsiderable. Two arches of a Roman theatre in the street called Anti- caglia, a fragment of an aqueduct known by the name of the Ponti Rossi, and the remains of a temple dedicated to Castor and Pollux, incorporated into the church of S. Paolo, are all the ancient ruins now visible. But the inscriptions which have been discovered on the site, and are for the most part pre- served in the museum, are numerous and interesting. They fully confirm the account given by ancient writers of the Greek character so long retained by the city, and notice its division into Phratries, which must have continued at least as late as the reign of Hadrian, since we find one of them named after his fovourite Antinous. Others bore the names of Eu- melidae, Eunostidae, &c., the origin of which may probably be traced back to the first foundation of the Cumaean colony. From some of these inscrip- tions we learn that the Greek language continued to be used there, even in public documents, as late as the second century after the Christian era. (Boeckh, C. I. vol. iii. pp. 714 — 750; Mommsen, Inscr. Regn. Neap. pp. 127 — 131.) COIN OF NEAPOLIS IN CA^MPANIA. 2. (^Nabui),3, city of Sardinia, and apparentlyone of the most considerable places in that island, was situ- ated on the W. coast, at the southern extremity of