Archaeological World in Roman & Greek period


Cuma (Cumea) 64 pictures Probably founded by the Chalcidians of Euboea in the 8^th century B.C. in an area distinguished by particularly fertile terrain, Cumea developed rapidly, quickly acquiring total hegemony over a good part of the coasts of Campania, a hegemony that enabled it to victoriously resist the rampant expansion of the Etruscans. Later the city was conquered by the Samnites, it later passed, in 338 B.C., to the control of the Romans. In 334 B.C. Cuma became a Roman province. Conquered by the Goths, who barricaded themselves here in 560, resisting the siege of the troops of Narsete. In 1216 the city was completely destroyed by the Neapolitans. View of the Coast Temple of Apollo and Jupiter The temple is located on the acropolis. Sibyl's Caves The earliest references to an "Altar of the Sibel" are to be found in a text of the 4^th-3^rd centuries B.C. and in a work of the Greek poet Lycophron (3^rd century B.C.) Successively Virgil, in the 1^st century B.C., in the VI book of the "Aeneid" wrote an impressive poetic description. The Greek geographer Pausania (2^nd century A.D.) maintains that the people of Cuma were unable to show him any oracle of the Sibyl, only the urn containing the shapes of the prophetess of Apollo. This is indirectly confirmed by the "Life of the Emperor Clodio Albino" (196-197 A.D.), dating from the 4^th century A.D. which tells of the monarch going to Cuma to consult the oracle in the temple of Apollo. Other writers of the 4^th and 6^thcenturies A.D. give a complete description of a place indicated as "antro" but their writings seem better to describe the "Roman Crypt" which at that time must have already been abandoned. The monumental entrance on the port side of this structure allows to hypothesize that it had a sacred function. Structures Back to Italy Index