Neapolis
Neapolis, an ancient Greek city located in Campania, Italy, was established around 650 BC as a settlement from the nearby city of Cumae. Its name, meaning "new city," distinguishes it from the older settlement known as Palaeopolis. The city quickly became a significant cultural and economic center, issuing its own coinage and forming alliances with Rome, particularly during conflicts with figures like Pyrrhus of Epirus and Hannibal during the Second Punic War. Despite suffering setbacks, including a massacre during the civil war led by Sulla, Neapolis thrived, exporting various goods such as wine and rose oil.
Renowned for its Greek culture, it was home to notable figures like the poet Virgil, who studied philosophy there, and Statius, another prominent poet. The city celebrated games in honor of Emperor Augustus, which later included musical competitions and attracted emperors like Nero. Neapolis faced natural disasters, notably the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, but continued to flourish, receiving colonial rights and fortifications over the centuries. The remnants of its ancient structures, including walls and temples, provide valuable insights into its rich history.
Subject Terms
Neapolis
(Napoli, Naples)
A Greek city in Campania (southwestern Italy), on the northern section of the Gulf of Cumae or `Crater’ (Bay of Naples). To its west stretched the fertile area of the Phlegraean Fields (seePuteoli). According to legend, the earliest settlement had been known as Parthenope, after the siren of that name who had been washed ashore there after failing to lure Odysseus (Ulysses) to his death.
The city was founded from Cumae (Cuma) in 650 BC along what is now the port area, including the small island of Megaris (the Castel dell'Ovo) in the harbor (where there may have been an older Rhodian trading settlement). Further colonists came from Chalcis in Euboea, from Pithecusae (Ischia) beside the Gulf of Cumae, and from Athens. An extension of the city toward the northeast, constructed according to a rectangular grid plan, was given the name of Neapolis; it soon began to issue a famous long-lived coinage with the type of a man-headed bull. After the creation of Neapolis, the original foundation assumed the name of Palaeopolis or Palaepolis (Old City). About 327/6, the hostile attitude of the Palaeopolitans provoked the Roman general Quintus Publilius Philo to attack and capture their town, which thenceforward ceased to exist; whereas Neapolis, on the other hand, became a close ally of the Romans, issuing bronze coins inscribed (in Greek) with their name, and furnishing help in their hostilities against Pyrrhus or Epirus (280–275) and against Hannibal (the Second Punic War, 218–201).
In 82, however, during the Civil War between Sullans and Marians, the Neapolitans were treacherously massacred by Sulla's troops, and suffered the loss of their fleet. Nevertheless, the city recovered to become a prosperous municipium, exporting agricultural products, wine, chestnuts, quinces, rose oil, sulphur and coral. Lucius Licinius Lucullus possessed a magnificent house at Neapolis (in addition to his villa at Misenum, qv), which may well have stood on the island of Megaris (on which the Castel dell'Ovo was later built). The city also resumed its position as a renowned center of Greek culture, where Virgil studied under the Epicurean philosopher Siro, subsequently (before 41) inheriting his villa, in which he often resided, writing a large part of the Georgics in the house; his (unauthentic) tomb is still shown in the city. Games were founded in honor of the emperor Augustus at Neapolis, and celebrated every four years in the Greek fashion; in the last year of his life (AD 14) Augustus attended them. At first these festivals featured athletic and equestrian events. But then, perhaps in 18, musical competitions were added; and it was from here that Greek contests of various types spread to other parts of Italy.
Nero (54–68), who loved Hellenistic Neapolis, was particularly attracted by the Games; and it was here that he made his personal stage début (64), thus creating a precedent that must have alarmed many senators. It was also here that he received the visiting Armenian monarch Tiridates (66), and subsequently, after his successes in the Great Games of Greece, made a triumphant entry into the city in a chariot drawn by white horses, entering through a breach in the wall after the custom of Greek athletes. Returning to Neapolis yet again after a brief visit to Rome (68), he learned the news of the rebellion of Vindex in Gaul, which set off a chain of circumstances leading to his downfall—though for eight days thereafter he continued to make daily visits to the gymnasium.
Neapolis was the birthplace of Statius (45–96), and the frequent residence of his fellow poet Silius Italicus (d. c 101). The city was damaged by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, after which it seems to have received colonial rights from Titus; they were later confirmed by Septimius Severus (193–211) or Caracalla (211–17), by which time the Games had come to be described as the Italica Romaia Sebasta Isolympia. Valentinian III strengthened the city's defences against the menace of Vandal invasion from the sea (c 439).
The Neapolitan mansion of Lucullus was also converted into a castle (the castrum Lucullanum) guarding the coastline against Vandal incursions. This palace-fortress also housed, in retirement, the last western Roman emperor to reign in Italy, Romulus Augustus (`Augustulus’) (475–76). His father, Orestes, military commander in Italy, had placed him on the throne of Ravenna, but was defeated and killed by the German general Odoacer, who thereupon dismissed Romulus with his whole family from the imperial palace, announced his abdication and sent him (with a substantial allowance) to live in Campania, where according to Jordanes he was granted the former residence of Lucullus. As was mentioned above, this may have been the edifice later converted into the Castel dell'Ovo.
It has been possible to reconstruct the outline of the ancient city's walls (including portions going back to the days of Palaeopolis), and the directions of some of its streets have been traced. Remains of Greek and Roman houses have also been found. Beneath the church of San Paolo Maggiore was a Roman temple of the Dioscuri (Castor and Pollux), going back to the time of Tiberius (14–37) but replacing an earlier building.