Cumae
Cumae (Italian: Cuma, Greek: Κύμη or Κύμαι) is an ancient Greek settlement lying to the northwest of Naples in the Italian region of Campania. Cumae was the first Greek colony on the mainland of Italy (Magna Graecia) and is perhaps most famous as the seat of the Cumaean Sibyl.
Today Cuma - Fusaro is a frazione of the comune of Bacoli.
Early history
The settlement is believed to have been founded in the 8th century BC[1] by Greeks originally from the cities of Cuma and Chalkis in Euboea led by the oecist (colonizer) Hippocles.
The Greeks were planted upon the earlier dwellings of indigenous, Iron-Age peoples whom they supplanted; a memory of them was preserved as cave-dwellers named Cimmerians, among whom there was already an oracular tradition.[2] Its name comes from the Greek word kymé, meaning wave - perhaps in reference to the big waves that the peninsula of Κyme in Euboea has. The colony was also the entry point in the Italian peninsula for the Cumaean alphabet used in the ancient Greek city of Cuma, a variant of which was adapted by the Romans.
Cumae was a direct offshoot of an earlier colony on the island of Ischia, Pithekoussai,[3] founded by colonists from the Euboean cities of Cuma (Kύμη) and Chalcis (Χαλκίς) which was accounted its mother-city, by agreement among the first settlers.[4]
The colony thrived. By the eighth century it was strong enough to send Perieres and a group with him, who were among the founders of Zancle in Sicily, and another band had returned to found Triteia in Achaea, Pausanias was told.[5] It spread its influence throughout the area over the seventh and sixth centuries BC, gaining sway over Puteoli and Misenum and, thereafter, founding Neapolis in 470 BC. All these facts were recalled long afterwards; Cumae's first brief contemporary mention in written history is in Thucydides.
The Latins, Greeks and Etruscans were among the first settlers...
The growing power of the Cumaean Greeks led many indigenous tribes of the region to organize against them, notably the Dauni and Aurunci with the leadership of the Capuan Etruscans. This coalition was defeated by the Cumaeans in 524 BC under the direction of Aristodemus, called Malacus, a successful man of the people who overthrew the aristocratic faction, became a tyrant himself, and was assassinated.[6] Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the last legendary King of Rome, lived his life in exile with Aristodemus at Cumae after the establishment of the Roman Republic.[7]
The combined fleets of Cumae and Syracuse defeated the Etruscans at the Battle of Cumae in 474 BC.
Oscan and Roman Cumae
The Greek period at Cumae came to an end in 421 BC, when the Oscans broke down the walls and took the city, ravaging the countryside. Some survivors fled to Neapolis.[8] Cumae came under Roman rule with Capua and in 338 was granted partial citizenship, a civitas sine suffragio. In the Second Punic War, in spite of temptations, Cumae withstood Hannibal's siege, under the leadership of Tib.. Sempronius Gracchus.[9]
Under Roman rule "quiet Cumae" slumbered until the disasters of the Gothic Wars, when it was repeatedly attacked, as the only fortified city in Campania aside from Neapolis: Belisarius took it in 536, Totila held it, and when Narses gained possession of Cumae, he found he had won the whole treasury of the Goths. In 1207, forces from Naples, acting for the boy-King of Sicily, destroyed the city and its walls, as the stronghold of a nest of bandits.
The Sibyl of Cumae
Cumae is perhaps most famous as the seat of the Cumaean Sibyl. Her sanctuary is now open to the public.
In Roman mythology, there is an entrance to the underworld located at Avernus, a crater lake near Cumae, and was the route Aeneas used to descend to the Underworld.
The Temple of Zeus at Cumae was transformed into a Christian basilica at the end of the fourth century. At Cumae was set a widely influential Christian work of the second century, The Shepherd of Hermas said by its author to have been inspired by way of visions.
The colony was built on a large rise, the seaward side of which was used as a bunker and gun emplacement by the Germans during World War II.
Geology
The emphasis is on the acropolis in Cuma (h. 80 mt. Sl) is northward and eastward from lavas trachyte precalderiche associated with breaches and waste related to the "First Period Flegrei" (dated between 42,000 and 35,000 years ago), while its core and its eastern and southern Europe is characterized by tuffs yellow postcalderici of "Second Period Flegrei" (dated 35.000-10.500 years ago), remains of paramount volcano of Campi Flegrei whose crater (with a diameter of about 15 Km. Epicenter and Pozzuoli) is formed by the mountains of Licola-S.Severino, from the northern ridge of Fourth, by hill of Camaldoli, from the hill Posillipo and Monte di Procida.
History
The area where this was built Greek colony, was inhabited since the prehistoric and proto. Of all the Greek colonies of the Magna Grecia, Cuma placed on the Campania coast opposite the island of Ischia, was one of the oldest and most distant from the motherland.
In principle it is thought to have been founded around 740 BC, although the oldest archaeological records dating from 725-720 BC.
According to legend, the founders of Cuma were Evia by Chalkida, which under the leadership of Ippocle of Cuma (dibattutto is whether this was Cuma euboica or wind Cuma) And Megastene of Chalkida, chose to land at that point because the coast attracted to the flight of a dove or other by a clang of cymbals.
The founders found a particularly fertile ground at the edge of the plain bell. While continuing their maritime traditions and commercial Cuma of the settlers strengthened their political and economic power on the exploitation of their land and extended their territory against neighboring peoples of the mire.
Many were the battles that Cumani fought to defend their land from attack of Etruscans by Capua, the Aurunci and internal populations of Campania.
Over time, Cuma established its dominance on almost all the Campania coast until Punta Campanella, reaching its maximum power. Charged Peoples of the border, but does not let you wait long, in fact 524 BC Capua of the Etruscans formed a league with other populations, to win Cuma expand both geographically and by trade. The clash was resolved favorably for Cumani, thanks also how to strategically of the tyrant Aristodemus said Malachi.
After this battle followed two other victorious for Cumani, a first next to the Latins Aricia against Etruscans and a second in 474 BC alongside Siracusans which had sent their fleet ever against the Etruscans, finally succeeding in hunting them from Campania. Clash remembered as Battle of Cuma. The glorious victories of the colony had increased the prestige, so much so that refers to what Diodorus Siculus, with the name of 'campaign Cuma' is used to indicate the whole region of Campi Flegrei.
The luck of Cuma not wait long because, around 421 BC, advanced succumb Campani of the conquered.
In the Roman conquest of the Campania, was given a Cuma (in 334 BC) the civitas sine suffrage and when, more than a century later, Hannibal tried in every way to conquer along with Pozzuoli, she is resolutely opposed inflicting at Hama (which some scholars identify the outskirts of the "Torre of Santa Chiara", while others more to the north, towards the Volturno) with a tough defeat Troops Capua that alliance with Carthaginians (251 BC).
Since then Cuma is served Latin language in its official acts and was loyal ally of Rome of which became municipium.
At that time the Campania was in full economic development and Cuma, which on the one hand enjoyed an excellent strategic position for military action, the other suffered for the difficult communication caused by the presence of Silva Gallinaria and marshes of which he was surrounded.
During the civil wars Cuma was one of the most valuable strongholds that Lewisville opposed to Sextus Pompey, but after the victory of Octavian, it became a place of rest and quiet, a refuge from the stormy and troubled life of Puteoli, a city so quiet that Juvenal, in satire III, can not help but envy a friend of his.
Later he became one of the major centers of Christianity in Campania and bulwark of civilization. Fall inexorably fortunate to Pozzuoli because of the barbarian incursions, on the contrary, Cuma set on a hill inaccessible, fortified and surrounded by Silva Gallinaria, managed to stand still for a long time.
During the war between Goths and Byzantines, Cuma was the scene of long-ups of fighting. Fell under the power of the Byzantines and 558 was fortified by the prefect of the fleet Flavius Nonius Erastus until it passed under the domination and Lombard ruled by the Dukes of Naples.
The raids of Saracens gave the coup de grace. Established the Acropolis where they could find a safe refuge in tunnels of the mountain, the pirates long sow terror in the Bay of Naples, until the latter in 1207 under the command of Godfrey of Montefuscolo, decided to put an end to raids and incursions, Stan the Saracens in their dens, thereby releasing the Gulf.
Since then Cuma was virtually uninhabited, the underground water of Clanis and Volturno did so that the city and its territory, especially in the lower part, become a huge quagmire. For centuries there was along the coast of Licola, and only a swamp at the beginning of the twentieth century they began reclaiming and archaeological excavation.
Cuma was that the widespread colony in Italy, the Greek culture, spreading the alphabet Calcidesi, who assimilated and adopted by the Etruscans and the Latin, became the alphabet of the language and literature in Rome and then of the whole Western culture.
Intimately linked to Cuma is the myth of the Cumaean Sibyl. Since the third book is written that dell'Eneide Aeneas, if you would finally find the land devoted to his people by the gods, must go to question the oracle of Cuma (Aeneid, III, 440-452). Currently l'lair of the Sybil is a tourist attraction of considerable interest.
Lucius Tarquinius Superbus the last king of Rome, he lived the last years of his life in exile in Cuma after the establishment of the Roman Republic.
It is also the place where according to tradition, was inspired by a vision The Shepherd of Hermas, one of the earliest writings Christian.
During the World War II was exploited for its strategic position and used as bunker for the use of guns.
Geography
Cuma and its territory occupy an area that extends north-south, following the trend of coast Domizio.
To the east rise the hills of Monteruscello and Monte Grillo, which represent the outer flanks of two volcanic systems. To the south the area grows until Lake Fusaro, while the north includes the reclaimed area of the Lake Licola.
Cumano The territory is characterized by a coastal low and sandy, in a stretch connecting the slopes of volcanic hills. Area of slopes not too steep and otherwise shaped by erosion of rainwater.
The importance of Mount Cuma (Acropolis) and its southern extensions, interrupt the continuity of morphological Therefore, reaching the top by lying coastal sharply up at the building about 80 m. Here emerge the oldest volcanic products, consisting of lavas trachyte with breaches and associated waste. These rocks form the dome structure of a lava dome, which pose tuffs gray sub-litoidi and limited to Eastern Europe, tuffs yellow litoidi dating to about 11,000 years ago.
The erosive action and transport of atmospheric resulted, at the foot of the slopes, the accumulation of debris thin materials, which combine to sea with the bodies of sedimentary sandy coastal dune systems. The latter is formed and increase the charge by sediment coming from even more distant areas, carried by currents long-coast.
Near the south side of Mount Cuma in natural formed in the low hill tufaceous, was probably placed the ancient port of cumana colony, which today is completely buried by sediments from coastal and carry materials used for the rehabilitation of .