BAIAE
Campania, Italy.
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.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
General: 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) 1-10
I; P. Mingazzini,
“Due statue ercolanesi rivendicate a Baia,”
Scritti in
onore di Guido Libertini (1958) 111-16
I; N. Lamboglia,
“Forma Maris Antiqui,”
RStLig 25 (1959) 302-9
PI; 26 (1960) 361-64
P; F. Rakob, “
Litus beatae Veneris aureum: Untersuchungen am ‘Venustempel’ in Baiae,”
RömMitt 68 (1961) 114-49
MPI; A. De Franciscis,
FA 18-19 (1963-64) no. 7303; id., “Underwater Discoveries around the Bay of Naples,”
Archaeology 20 (1967) 209-16
PI; 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) 102-12
PI; id.,
In the Footsteps of Orpheus (1967) (Great Antrum)
MPI; id.,
“From Baiae to Misenum,”
Vergilius 17 (1971) 22-38
PI; id.,
Atti Taranto (1970) 126ff; C. G. Hardie, “The Great Antrum at Baiae,”
BSR 27 (1969) 14-33.
H. COMFORT