Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/696

 680 PUTEOLI. Puteoli certainly continued to enjoy uniler the Empire the rank of a colony. (Phn. iii. 5. s. 9 ; Orell. Inscr. 1694,3697, &c.) In addition to the original '■ colonia civium" settled there, as already mentioned, in b. c. 194, it appears to have received a fresh colony under Sulla (Val. Max. ix. 3. § 8; Plut. Sull. 37; Zumpt, de Colon, p. 260), and cer- tainly was again colonised by Augustus. {Lib. Col. p. 236.) The inhabitants had, as we learn from Cicero (^Phil. ii. 41), warmly espoused the cause of Brutus and Cassius after the death of Caesar, which may have been one reason why Augustus sought to secure so important a point with a colony of veterans. But, as was often the case, the old inhabitants seem to have continued apart from the colonists, with separate municipal rights, and it was not till the reign of Nero that these also obtained admission into the colony. (Tac. Ann. xiv. 27.) In a. d. 69 the Puteolani zealously espoused the cause of Ves- pasian (Tac. JTLit. iii. 67), and it was probably in consequence of this that the city afterwards assumed the honorary title of " Colonia Flavia Augusta Puteoli," by which we find it designated in inscrip- tions. (Orell. Inscr. 3698; Zumpt, I.e. p. 395; Mommsen, 2492, 2493.) It is not improbable, how- ever, that it may at the same time have received a fresh accession of colonists. In addition to its commercial importance, Puteoh, or ratlicr its immediate neighbourhood, became, before the close of the Itepublic, a favourite resort of the Pioman nobility, in common with Baiae and the whole of this beautiful district. Thus Cicero, as we learn from himself, had a villa there, to which he gave the name of Academia, but which he more often mentions merely as his Puteolanum. (Cic. de Fat. 1, ad Att. i. 4, xiv. 7, xv. 1, &c.) It passed after his death into the hands of Antistius Vetus, and the outbreak of a thermal spring there became the occasion of a well-known epigram, which has been preserved to us by Pliny. (Piin. xxxi. 2. s. 3.) This villa was situated between Puteoli and the lake Avemus; it was subsequently chosen as the place of burial of the emperor Hadrian. (Spart. Uadr. 2.5.) We hear little of Puteoli in histoiy during the later periods of the Itoman Empire, but there is every reason to suppose that it continued to be a flourishing and populous town. Its mole and port were repaired by Antoninus Pius (Jlommsen, Inscr. 2490), and numerous inscriptions have been found there, some of which belong to a late period, and attest the continued importance of the city down to the reign of Honorius. (iIommsen, 2494 — 2500.) But it siuired to the full extent in the calamities of the declining empire: it was taken and plundered ])y Alaric in A. d. 410, and again by Genseric in 455, and by Totila in 545. Nor did it ever recover these repeated disasters. After having for some time been almost deserted, it partially revived in the middle ages; but again suffered severely, both from the ravages of war and from the volcanic eruptions of the Solfatara in 1198, and of the Monte Nuovo in 1538. At the present day Pozzuoli, though re- taining its episcopal see, and about 8000 inhabitants, is a poor place, and suffers severely from malaria in summer. It, however, retains many remains of its ancient greatness. Among these "one of the most conspi- cuous is the amphitheatre, on the hill behind the town, which is of considerable size, being larger than that at Pompeii, and calculated to be capable PUTEOLI. of containing 25,000 spectators. It is in goo4 pre- servation, and, having been recently excavated and cleared out. affords in many respects a good speci- men of such structures. It derives additional in- terest from being more than once alluded to by ancient writers. Thus Suetonius mentions that Augustus presided at games there, and it was in consequence of an insult offered to a senator on that occasion that the emperor passed a law assigning distinct seats to the senatorial order. (Suet. Ave/. 44.) It was there also that Nero entertained Tiri- dates, king of Armenia, with magnificent shows both of gladiators and combats of wild beasts. (Dion Cass. Isiii. 3.) Near the amphitheatre are some ruins, commonly known as the temple of Diana, but which more probably belonged to a range of thermae or baths; as well as several piscinas or reservoirs for water on a great scale, some of which are supposed to have been connected with the service of the amphitheatre. Near them are the remains of an aqueduct, intended for the supply'of the city, which seems to have been a branch of that which led to Slisenum. In the city itself the modern cathedral is in great part con.structed out of the remains of a Eoman temple, which, as we learn from an inscription on the architrave, was dedicated to Augustus by L. Calpurnius. From another in- scription we learn that the architect was L. Coc- ceius Auctus, evidently the same who is mentioned by Strabo as having been employed by Agrippa to construct the tunnel at Posilipo. (Mommsen, /. R.N. 2484, 2485; Strab. v. p. 245.) The masonry is of white marble, and there still remain six beautiful Corinthian columns of the same material. JIuch more celebrated than these are the remains of a building commonly known as the temple of Serapis or Serapeum. The interest which attaches to these is, however, more of a scientific than anti- quarian character, from the evidence they afford of repeated changes in the level of the soil on which they stand. (Lyell, Principles of Geology, 8th ed. p. 489, &c. ; Daubeny On Volcanoes, p. 206.) The edifice is one of a peculiar char.icter, and the received attribution is very doubtful. Recent re- searches have rendered it more probable that it was a building connected with the mineral spring which rises within it, and was adapted both for purposes of worship and for the medical use of the source in question. The general plan is that of a large quadrangular atrium or court, surrounded internally by a portico of 48 columns, with chambers at the sides, and a circular temple in the centre. Not far from the temple of Serapis are the ruins of two other buildings, both of them now under water: the one of which is commonly known as the temple of Neptune, the other as the temple of the Nymphs; but there is no real foundation for either name. We know, however, from Cicero that there was a temple of Neptune at Puteoli, as might naturally be expected at so frequented a seaport, and that its portico fronted the bay. (Cic. Acad. ii. 25.) The remains of the ancient mole have been already men- tioned ; there are now portions of 1 6 piers remaining, 13 of which are still visible above water. On the coast proceeding from Pozzuoli towards the Lucrine lake (or rather on the ancient clifl' which rises above the low line of coast) are some ruins called (with at least more probability than in most similar cases) those of the villa of Cicero, which was cer^ tainly, as we learn from Pliny, situated between Pu- teoli and the Lucrine lake. (Plin. xxxi. 2. s. 3.)