 |
| Nancy in the Solfatara Volcano Crater |
Earliest Greeks, Roman settlements and civil wars, agriculture producing food fit for gods, all set in an active volcanic area. We spent the day filling our eyes with beauty and our minds with mysteries Much more than we can describe but we will try to capture a few highlights. Julianne here using italics. Nancy will weigh in with standard type.
Campi Flegrei is a large suburb west of Naples which was the site of the region's first urban settlers -- Greeks at Cumae -- and remains an active volcanic area. The geology alone is remarkable--we were able to walk in the crater of an active volcano -- Solfatara -- and look into the steam vents. Roman ruins everywhere, from Nero's mother's grave to an amphitheater still used for performances. My target site was the early Greek urban settlement, Cumae, along the sea coast. Everywhere we looked was glorious agriculture with every bit of fertile volcanic soil used for the products the area is famous for.
Friday, we went southwest from Naples to a series of sites with the general name Campi Flegrei. It's plate tectonics made visible, as little volcanoes rose up, left their mark, and died, leaving behind rich volcanic soil and circular lakes. Not all dead, though -- Solfatara steams and belches safely enough that people live quite nearby. Roman ruins and the castles of later conquerors. The beautiful sea, the jagged landscape, the views.
We saw so many stunning things during that one day we are brain-dead trying to comprehend it all. Even more than in other areas within the center of the Roman Empire, layers of occupation and complex excavations make it hard to keep things in mental order. Here, for example, many of the key conflicts between Pompey and Caesar played out in the loyalties of the populations -- I am not even trying to capture any of it. Augustus and Marc Anthony -- another day.
Solfatara volcano
The volcanic crater is a park with paths but the paths are right on the ash and barely fence off the bubbling mud. The rim encloses about 5 hectares of park but on the top of the rim and the outer side of the rim are homes, car dealers, hospitals among the steam vents. It must be horrid in the summer. Now, it was pleasantly warm, a sunny day. Sulfur smell, steam around your toes--a fine day. The million plus people who live in the Naples area have an evacuation plan. Good idea.
Early Greek settlers at Cumae
The destination for me was Cumae, a hill-top town which was the first urban settlement in the area, a Greek city eventually used by the Romans. Ongoing excavations continue to reveal more about the town and its original Greek and later Roman inhabitants. As Greek cities in what we now identify as Greece increased in population, they often split and part of the population left to form new cities elsewhere. The first inhabitants of Cumae settled in about 800 BC, bringing with them their vines, seeds and technologies. They were just a bit earlier than the settlers in Paestum though Paestum has the more dramatic remains. The Cumaeans were from Euboea. They were literate, using the Greek Euboean script but not that much has been recovered.
[Euboean script was an earlier variant of Greek before the Ionian script became standard. It was introduced to the Italian islands and peninsula and adopted by the Etruscans. There are some beautiful examples in the branch of the National Museum in Rome that is behind the Baths of Diocletian.]
There were other people living in the area, also farmers but not urban dwellers. A complex pre-history includes inhabitants from the earliest humans but with an interruption between 4000-3000 BC when Solfatara eploded, affecting miles and miles of territory. The Greek town of Cumae was joined by other Greek settlements throughout the area. but the earlier inhabitants continued to live in the area as well. Eventually the Greek cities as well as the other populations were brought into the realm of the Romans between 300-200 BC.
Cumae includes a strategic hilltop and surrounding area of coast and fertile valley which looks like the crater of a larger volcano. The area is defensible and has been used so until recently--an American naval base was nearby. Temples to Greek gods were reused by Romans and Christians. Cumae was a site where medieval church scholars reconciled the writings of the ancients with Christianity. Virgil set his work here as did Dante and many other ancient-to-Renaissance authors. It is easy to see why it captures the imagination as well as meeting the practical needs of people of different eras. Farmers now are growing vegetables on the edges of the excavations; the original Greek and then Roman road is a major regional highway. I just love this stuff. I could poke around for days.
One of the bits of the site which captures my imagination and that of many of our ancestors is a crack in the earth known as Sibyl's Cave. Sibyl was a soothsayer consulted by many comers for more than a thousand years. In a dispute with one of the gods she won eternal life but forgot to ask for eternal youth so shriveled to nothing but a voice. She was as famous as the oracle at Delphi back in the day.
 |
| Entrance to Sibyl's cave |
The Sibyl's Cave at the entrance to the hilltop of Cumae is the crack in the earth
 |
From the top -- where used to be Jove's temple, then a Christian basilica -- one can see along the coast and inland. Beauty and a view of the incredible agriculture in these volcanic fields.
A particular grape variety, grown in this specific territory is much appreciated in Italy and by us too. Falanghina (the grape variety) of Campi Flegrei. Italy has upwards of 2000 specific terroirs which produce unique wine. Unlikely that we could ever find it elsewhere but what a treat. And a reward at the end of the day: beauty in our eyes, beauty for our tongues.
 |
| Our day's end beverage: Falanghina grape from Campiflegre |
No comments:
Post a Comment