There are two items on this page:
1. Old City/New City (directly below) 2. a blue insert box on the ancient port of Palepolis (added March 2018)
Livy tells us* that
Roman general Quintus Publilius Philo, during the second
Samnite war in 326 b.c., put his army between the cities
of Palepolis [old city], Parthenope, and the “new city”,
Neapolis [Naples], in order to keep the Palepolitans
from linking up with the Neapolitans and aiding the Samnites in the war with Rome.
The above
graphic is in the delightful mini-museum of the metro
stop below the large National
Archaeological Museum. Parthenope is on the hill
on the right. That area today corresponds to Mt. Echia, also known as
Pizzofalcone; it overlooks the small island (or,
possibly, peninsula, depending on the date) of Megaride, which is where the Castel dell'Ovo now sits. New
City is about a mile away to the east at sea-level,
although the graphic does not make particularly
evident that there was (and still is) is a prominent
height at the north-west corner where the Greek
Neapolitans located their own
acropolis. Assuming the graphic to be a
reasonably accurate reconstruction, the main harbor at
Neapolis is now filled in and is roughly where today's
Piazza Municipio is
located. The space between the two towns looks big
enough to accommodate the encampment of Roman soldiers
that Livy speaks of; thus, give or take some decades,
this might be the area in the year 300 b.c.
When you try to
reconstruct the history of Greeks in the gulf of Naples,
you rely heavily on historians such as Livy (mentioned
above) and Strabo and his 17-volume encyclopedia
entitled Geographica,
a compendium of the peoples and places known in his age
(he wrote at the time of Augustus Caesar; Book V,
chapter 4 of the Geographica
is about the peoples and places of the Campanian coast.
Livy wrote at about the same time). Putting those
histories together with others, you get a foundation of
Parthenope at about 750 b.c. by settlers from nearby Cuma and of nearby Neapolis (also
by Cumans) at around 450 b.c. The difference between the
two became moot when the Romans took over the area in
the third century b.c., by which time the two towns had
grown together.
*Titus
Livius, Ab Urbe condita [History of Rome
from its Foundations, VIII.23]
2.
added March 16, 2018 The
Port of Palepolis
(Old City)
Underwater archaeology has now revealed remnants of what appear to be the harbor of Palepolis (which itself may be on the site of whatever port the Parthenopians had). So far the submerged remnants (image, above) include four tunnels, a three-meter-wide (9 ft) street with cart-furrows still visible. There is also a long trench at a depth of 6 meters (18 ft) near the castle, as well as a street obviously meant to lead away from the port and up to the city, itself. The most obvious physical fact is that what we think of as the island upon which the Egg Castle stands was once a true peninsula (it is now an "artificial peninsula," joined by a causeway to the mainland). The great change in sea level is also evident elsewhere along this part of the coast. Further submerged archeology will continue in May. There is a great deal to be learned about the early history of the city and there are already enthusiastic comparisons to the sunken ruins of Baia at the western end of the bay of Pozzuoli and the possibilities of somehow opening the site to tourism. Don't hold your breath. Seriously, get some SCUBA gear. |
See also: Greek
Naples: Two Tales of One City