Baiae
Baiae, a watering-place in Campania
- a small town in Campania, on the coast between Cumae and Puteoli, a favorite resort of the Romans on account of its warm baths and pleasant situation; acc. to the fable, built by one of the companions of Ulysses (Serv. ad Verg. A. 3, 441; cf. Strabo, 5, p. 376): homo durus ac priscus invectus est in eos, qui mense Aprili apud Balas essent et aquis calidis uterentur, Cic. Fragm. in Clod. 4, 1; id. Fam. 9, 12; Prop. 1, 11, 1; 1, 11, 27; 3 (4), 18, 2; Hor. C. 2, 18, 20; 3, 4, 24; id. Ep. 1, 1, 83; 1, 15, 2 sqq.; 1, 15, 12; Sen. Ep. 56, 1 sqq.; also called Aquae Cumanae, Liv. 41, 16, 3.—Adj.: Baiae aquae, Prop. 1, 11, 30.—
- B Meton., for any watering place, Cic. Cael. 16, 38; so id. ib. 15, 35; 20, 47; 20, 49; Mart. 10, 13, 3; so Tib. 3, 5, 3 Huschk.—
- II Deriv.: Baiānus, a, um, adj., belonging to Baiae, of Baiae, Baian: sinus, Plin. 2, 103, 106, § 227: lacus, id. 14, 6, 8, § 61: negotia, Cic. Att. 14, 8, 1: murex, from the sea-coast, Hor. S. 2, 4, 32: soles, Mart. 6, 43: Lucrinus, the Lucrine lake, situated near Baiae, id. 13, 82 al.—
- B Subst.: Baiānum, i, n., the region of Baiae, the Baian territory, Varr. R. R. 3, 17, 9; Plin. 9, 8, 8, § 24; 9, 54, 79, § 168.
- 1. oude haven v. Cumae en prominente badplaats bij Napels;
- 2. (meton.) (a) badplaats; (b) weelderig leven in een badplaats; / adj. Baiānus, a, um.
- a watering-place in Campania: Baias iactare, i. e. luxurious holidays.
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…poterit felix una remanere puella, qui numquam vacuo pectore liber erit. Ecquid te mediis cessantem, Cynthia, Bais, qua iacet Herculeis semita litoribus, et modo Thesproti mirantem subdita regno proxima Misenis aequora nobilibus, nostri cura…
Propertius, Elegies
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…modo quam primum corruptas desere Baias multis ista dabunt litora discidium, litora quae fuerant castis inimica puellis a pereant Baiae, crimen amoris, aquae Quid mihi desidiae non cessas fingere crimen, quod facias nobis, conscia Roma ,…
Propertius, Elegies
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…seu contra laetus amicis, quicquid ero, dicam Cynthia causa fuit. tu modo quam primum corruptas desere Baias multis ista dabunt litora discidium, litora quae fuerant castis inimica puellis a pereant Baiae, crimen amoris, aquae…
Propertius, Elegies
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…meis praediolis quae sunt huius temporis quia frequentiam illam non facile ferrem. ibi sum igitur ubi is qui optimas Baias habebat quotannis hoc tempus consumere solebat. cum Romam venero, nec vultu nec oratione reprehendar. hilaritatem illam qua…
Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum
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…dissimilis istius quae se omnibus pervolgaret, quae haberet palam decretum semper aliquem, cuius in hortos, domum, Baias iure suo libidines omnium commearent, quae etiam aleret adulescentis et parsimoniam patrum suis sumptibus sustineret ; si vidua libere…
Cicero, pro Caelio
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…quid ago paene orationem in epistulam inclusi. redeo ad altercationem. surgit pulchellus puer, obicit mihi me ad Baias fuisse. falsum, sed tamen quid hoc simile est, inquam quasi in operto dicas fuisse. quid inquit…
Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum
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…iam mensis aut de salute aut de gloria dimicaret nihilne igitur illa vicinitas redolet, nihilne hominum fama, nihil Baiae denique ipsae loquuntur illae vero non loquuntur solum verum etiam personant, huc unius mulieris libidinem esse prolapsam ut ea…
Cicero, pro Caelio
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…ducat habeo, sed exspecto tamen. te vero nolo, nisi ipse rumor iam raucus erit factus, ad Baias venire ; erit enim nobis honestius, etiam cum hinc discesserimus, videri venisse in illa loca ploratum potius quam…
Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares
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…nostrum in lecticam me hercule coniecissem, non illam regis Ptolomaei Asicianam ; memini enim, cum hominem portaret ad Baias Neapoli octaphoro Asiciano machaerophoris centum sequentibus, miros risus nos edere cum ille ignarus sui comitatus repente aperuit lecticam et…
Cicero, Epistulae ad Quintum fratrem
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…, tantae consuetudinis, tantae coniunctionis reddas atque exponas necesse est. accusatores quidem libidines, amores, adulteria, Baias, actas, convivia, comissationes, cantus, symphonias, navigia iactant, idemque significant nihil se te invita…
Cicero, pro Caelio
BAIAE(Βαΐαι: Eth. Baianus: Baja), a place on the coast of Campania, celebrated for its warm baths, as well as for the beauty and pleasantness of its situation, on the SW. side of the bay between Cape Misenum and Puteoli, which was commonly known as the Sinus Baianus. We find no mention of a townof the name in early times, but its port was celebrated from a remote period, and was supposed to have derived its name from Baius, one of the companions of Ulysses, who was buried there. (Lycophr. Alex. 694; Strab. 5. p. 245; Sil. Ital.; Serv. ad Aen. 6.107, 9.710.) But it was never a place of any note till it became a favourite resort of the wealthy and luxurious Roman nobles towards the end of the Republic: a favour for which it was almost equally indebted to the abundance and variety of its warm springs, and to the charms of its beautiful situation. Horace speaks of the bay of the pleasant Baiaeas surpassed by no other in the world ( Ep. 1.1, 83); and its praises are not less celebrated by later poets, as well as prose writers. (Mart. 11.80; Stat. Silv. 3.5.96; Tac. Ann. 12.21.) It appears to have come into fashion before the time of Cicero: Lucullus had a villa here, as well as at a still earlier period C. Marius, and the example was followed both by Pompey and Caesar (Varr. R. R. 3.17.9; Seneca, Ep. 51; Tac. Ann. 14.9.) The villas of the latter were on the hill above Baiae, but subsequent visitors established themselves on the very edge of the sea, and even threw out vast substructions into the midst of the waters, upon which to erect their magnificent palaces. (Hor. Carsn. 2.18. 20; Plin. Ep. 9.7.) Baiae thus speedily became noted as an abode of indolence and luxury, and is indignantly termed by Seneca diversorium vitiorum,a place where all restraint was thrown off, and nothing was thought of but pleasure and dissipation. ( Ep. l. c. ). Statius also terms it Desides Baiae. ( Silv. 4.7. 19.) Several Roman emperors, in succession, followed the prevailing fashion, and erected splendid villas, or rather palaces, at Baiae. Nero seems to have regarded it with especial favour, and it was in his villa here that he received his mother Agrippina for the last time, immediately before she fell a victim to his designs upon her life. (Tac. Ann. 14.4, 5; Suet. Nero 34; J. AJ.) Caligula also resided frequently at Baiae, and one of his most celebrated feats of extravagance was the construction of a temporary bridge across the bay from thence to Puteoli, which, though formed of boats, was covered with earth, and rendered passable both for horsemen and chariots. Suetonius states that it was 3,600 paces in length, but the real distance across (whether measured from the Castello di Baja, or from Bauli, which Dio Cassius makes the point of its commencement) is little more than two Roman miles. (Suet. Cal. 19; Dio Cass.; J. AJ.) It was at Baiae also that the emperor Hadrian died, and at a later period Alexander Severus erected several villas here on a splendid scale. (Spartian. Hadr. 25; Lamprid. Alex. Sev. 26.)
It was, however, to its warm springs that Baiae was first indebted for its celebrity; and these appear to have been frequented for medical purposes long before the place became a fashionable resort. They are first mentioned by Livy under the name of the aquaee Cumanaeas early as B.C. 176: and are celebrated by Lucretius. (Liv. 41.16; Lucret. vi, 747.) Pliny also speaks of them as surpassing all others in number and variety, some being sulphureous, others aluminous, acidulous, &c., so that their different properties rendered them efficacious in all kinds of diseases. The establishments of Thermae for the use of them were numerous, and on a scale of the greatest splendour; and we learn from a letter of Cassiodorus that these continued in use as late as the 6th century. (Plin. Nat. 31.2; Flor. 1.16.4; Joseph. l. c.;Cassiod. Var. 9.6; Hor. Ep. 1.15, 2--7; Stat. Silv. 3.2. 17; Vitr. 2.6.2.)
Though Baiae must have grown up under the Roman Empire into a considerable town, it never obtained the privileges of a separate Municipium, and continued for all such purposes to be dependent upon the poor and decayed city of Cumnae, in the territory of which it was included. (Romanelli, vol. 3. p. 512; Orell. Inscr. 2263.) We have little information concerning it during the middle ages; but it appears to have fallen into neglect, and gradually became subject, as it still continues, to the noxious effects of the malaria. The modern Castello di Bajawas erected in the reign of Charles V.; but the name of Bajais still applied to the whole line of coast from thence to the Lucrine Lake. Both the coast itself and the ridge of hill above it are covered with detached ruins and fragments of ancient buildings, to which it is impossible to assign any name. One of the most conspicuous edifices near the sea-shore is commonly known as the Temple of Venus, who appears to have been the tutelary deity of the place (Mart. 11.80. 1); but it is more probable that both this and the two other buildings, called the Temples of Diana and Mercury, really belonged to Thermal establishments. (Romanelli, vol. 3. p. 514; Iorio, Guida di Pozzuoli, pp. 129--136; Eustace's Classical Tour, vol. 2. p. 410, &c.).
[E.H.B]BAIAE(Βαΐαι: Bayas), a small place on the gulf of Issus, placed between Issus and the Cilician gates in the Antonine Itin. The site is identified by the name. At the site of the Baiae or baths of the Romans, there is now a splendid Saracenic structure combining citadel, mosque, a covered bezestein, an elegant khan, and baths.(Ainsworth, Travels in the Track of the Ten Thousand, &100. p. 56.) Baiae may be a Roman name; but nothing appears to be known of its origin.
[G.L]A city of Campania, on a small bay west of Neapolis, and opposite Puteoli. It was originally a village, but the numerous advantages of its situation soon rendered it much frequented and famous. Its foundation is ascribed in mythology to Baius, one of the companions of Odysseus. The cause of the rapid increase of Baiae lay in the fruitfulness of the surrounding country, in the beauty of its own situation, in the rich supply of shell and other fish which the adjacent waters afforded, and, above all, in the hot mineral springs which flowed from the neighbouring mountains and formed a chief source of attraction to invalids. Baiae was first called Aquae Cumanae. Numerous villas graced the surrounding country, and many were likewise built on artificial moles extending a great distance into the sea. It is now, owing to earthquakes and inundations of the sea, a mere waste compared with what it once was. The modern name is Baia. Many remains of the ancient villas may be seen beneath the water. The classics of the imperial age teem with allusions to the splendour, the luxury, and the frivolities of this famous ancient watering-place.
A city belonging in antiquity to Cumae and situated 4 km from it on the Tyrrhenian Sea. Despite its proximity Baiae contrasts with Cumae significantly. it has no specific and defensible citadel but was built on a long hillside sloping down to the shore, “a subsidiary crater in the wall of Avernus.” Only in 178 B.C. were its thermal springs (aquae Cumanae) first mentioned; and not until a century later, perhaps as a by-product of the social war or the Sullan period, did it become the Roman fashionable resort par excellence. From this time until at least Alexander Severus its landholders were Roman aristocracy, especially after a large part of the town became imperial property under Augustus and his successors. Like Puteoli, it was and is far more subject to bradyseism; it is estimated that Roman Baiae extended more than 100 m beyond the present shore. Except for the controversial interpretation of the Great Antrum, it had no special cult significance, aiA no genuine temples have been identified. It had no amphitheater; presumably those at Cumae and especially Puteoli sufficed. it was uniquely famous among poets and vacationers for its natural loveliness and charm and for its hot and curative mineral springs which supplied the baths and, above all, for its licentious living at all periods. Cicero makes it synonymous with libidines, amores, adulteria, actae, convivia, commissationes, cantus, symphoniae, navigia (Cael. 15.35), and Seneca gives a critical but lively account of its life and of Vatia's nearby villa (Ep. 51.55); (for a more rural estate, cf. Martial 3.58). Cumae inspired no souvenir glass vases, but the principal monuments of Baiae are illustrated and identified on a 4th c. glass bottle like those of Puteoli now in the Museo Borgio of the Propaganda Fide, and on the famous Piombino/Populonia glass now at the Corning Museum, which includes scenes of both Baiae and Puteoli. The former bottle shows a pharos, the stagnu (in) Neronis (Nero's fishing lake), a silva and the place-name Baiae; the latter includes the palatiu(m); and both show the famous ostriaria (sic) and a second stagnu(m). According to A. De Franciscis the ruins probably represent an imperial Palatium (cited in the literary and epigraphical sources) occupying the slope of the hillside, extending upward as far as the ridge, and in the arrangement of its various parts, so adapted to the lay of the land as to have the advantage of the panoramic view. Established on an area where there were already constructions, the building of the complex would have developed over the course of several centuries, its principal monuments originating in the age of Augustus, in the middle of the 2d c., and at the beginning of the 3d c. in the various elements on the several levels Professor de Franciscis identifies a vast porticoed courtyard, terraces, grandiose rooms, salons and minor rooms of various dimensions with several sections for receiving delegations, others for lodging, and a vast sector of baths. The coastline of the principal archaeological area runs almost directly N-S with the following principal monuments:
1) The so-called Temple of Diana is a domed structure externally octagonal and internally circular (29.5 m diam.), half preserved, together with its appendages, on the side supported by the hill. it is probably Hadrianic, and has a slightly elliptical profile; possibly it was a casino.
2) South of the railroad, and likewise supported by the hill, the so-called Temple of Mercury is a great round vaulted building (21.5 m diam.), with a circular opening at the top. This vaulted dome, built up over concentric contracting levels of temporary wooden falsework, is a kind of opus incertum of tufa set in cement with a predominance of wedge-shaped tufa blocks of which the wider outward ends conform to the greater outside radius of the dome; toward the center opening the thickness of the shell is 60 cm, increasing down to the junction with the vertical walls. The whole is obviously reminiscent of the Pantheon at Rome, and about half its size, but is assignable to the late Republic or earliest years of Augustus by its fine and careful reticulate work to the exclusion of brick. Cramp-holes on the interior indicate an ornamental marble veneer. Like all the other bath constructions it had high windows for light and ventilation and niches for statues and, in addition, ground-level extensions on a NW-SE axis of which the NW, a kind of nymphaeum, connected with the aqueduct supplying water and the other was perhaps for outflow. A small corridor at the rear exterior base of the dome served both as a retaining wall and drainage channel for earth and water descending from the hill, for maintenance, and as a platform for a small staircase whereby the center opening and high windows could be covered in inclement weather. From the main rotunda a passage leads to a later large rectangular tepidarium(?) embellished with niches and an apse. Bradyseism, neglect, and the installation of a vineyard over the vault had reduced the monument to near ruin when emergency restoration was undertaken, though not thorough excavation, and the whole rotunda was identified as a natatorium. Further excavations (1964-65) in this area have shown dwelling and service quarters, including some late Flavian and Severan painted decoration.
3) To the S and E of this complex a considerable lower area is still unexcavated, but higher on the hill there are over 100 m of parallel N-S loggias, a portico, and an ambulatio on different levels. From here the evening view down the slope of fine buildings and across the bay to Vesuvius, with Sorrento on the right, must have been magnificent.
4) The next considerable unit, excavated in 1951, is the charming Acque della Rogna, so-called from its curative powers, or more elegantly the Terme di Sosandra from a statue found in its upper part. it consists of three levels set in the hill: first, a high residential quarter recently interpreted as a monastery; then lower, a small exedra-and-nymphaeum with a round pool in an orchestra adaptable for dramatic, oratorical, or musical events; and finally, 8 m still lower, a promenade and lounging area surrounding a rectangular swimming pool (34.8 x 28.6 m). This whole unit from top to bottom is bounded on N and S by grand staircases and ramps ca. 60 m long.
5) The most southerly of the baths centered round the so-called Temple of Venus now also confusingly but more accurately described as the Baths of Venus. The area shows remains of Augustan construction, but the present spectacular structure is Hadrianic. its lower story, the natatorium, is externally roughly square with at least one highly complicated annex, and internally circular (26.3 m diam.) with four large bays; its upper story is octagonal outside but the interior circle continues with high windows.
A part of the same bathing establishment and several meters higher than the so-called Temple lie the Baths of Venus across the modern strada provinciale, excavated early in WW ii. These baths rise 5 or 6 stories against the hill; their principal feature is a large apsed rectangular hall enclosing a bathing basin.
6) Still higher, at the 23 m level, is a Sacred Area, a complex of buildings of several periods and the entrance to the spectacularly impressive Great Antrum, which consists of a descending passage (0.5 x 2.5 m) cut straight back into the rock for 124.5 m and continued by a complicated series of further passages downward to a tunnel flooded by hot springs at about sea level, and upward to an inner sanctuary. The whole unit extends ca. 350 m from the entrance.
The remainder of Baiae, both the seashore and the heights behind, including Julius Caesar's magnificently located villa, has been archaeologically wrecked and aesthetically ruined by the construction of Don Pedro de Toledo's castle, installation of the modern port, pozzolana quarries, road building, etc.
Some serious underwater archaeology has been undertaken at Punta dell'Epitafflo to the N and elsewhere, as well as less systematic raising of columns, statues, etc. Some of these are now in the Naples Museum.
BIBLIOGRAPHYGeneral: A. Maiuri, The Phlegraean Fields (Guide books to Museums and Monuments in Italy, 32) (3d ed. 1958, tr. Priestley) MPI; M. Napoli in EAA (1958) PI; J. H. D'Arms, Romans on the Bay of Naples (1970) MI; ThLL II, s.v Baiae.
A. Maiuri, “Il restauro di una sala termale a Baia,” BdA 2, 10 (1930-31) 241-55 (Tempio di Mercurio) PI; id., “Terme di Baia: scavi, restauri e lavori di sistemazione,” BdA 4, 36 (1951) 359-64 (Terme di Sosandra) PI; G. d'Ossat, “Il ‘Tempio di Venere’ a Baia,” BMusImp 12 (1941) 121-32 (Appendice al vol. 69 del BullComm) PI; M. Napoli, “Di una villa marittima in Baia,” Boll. Storia dell'Arte del Mag. Salerno 3 (1953) 77-109 (Severan villa with statues); id., “Una nuova replica della Sosandra di Calamide,” BdA 4, 39 (1954) 1-10I; P. Mingazzini, “Due statue ercolanesi rivendicate a Baia,” Scritti in onore di Guido Libertini (1958) 111-16I; N. Lamboglia, “Forma Maris Antiqui,” RStLig 25 (1959) 302-9PI; 26 (1960) 361-64P; F. Rakob, “Litus beatae Veneris aureum : Untersuchungen am ‘Venustempel’ in Baiae,” RömMitt 68 (1961) 114-49MPI; A. De Franciscis, FA 18-19 (1963-64) no. 7303; id., “Underwater Discoveries around the Bay of Naples,” Archaeology 20 (1967) 209-16PI; P. E. Auberson, “Etudes sur les ‘Thermes de Vénus’ à Baies,” RendNap NB 39 (1964) 167-78; W. Johannowski, FA 20 (1965) no. 4601; R. F. Paget, “The Great Antrum at Baiae,” BSR 3S (1967) 102-12PI; id., In the Footsteps of Orpheus (1967) (Great Antrum) MPI; id., “From Baiae to Misenum,” Vergilius 17 (1971) 22-38PI; id., Atti Taranto (1970) 126ff; C. G. Hardie, “The Great Antrum at Baiae,” BSR 27 (1969) 14-33.
H. COMFORT