Baiae: Rome's Las Vegas now underwater

[guy]

 

This trip seems wonderful while in the Gulf of Naples, especially for those who can scuba dive. Part of this ancient city is now underwater but has many treasures to enjoy. Unfortunately, Seneca the Younger did not seem to enjoy this "Las Vegas of Ancient Rome."

 

Quote

Baiae (Italian: Baia; Neapolitan: Baia) was an ancient Roman town situated on the northwest shore of the Gulf of Naples and now in the comune of Bacoli. It was a fashionable resort for centuries in antiquity, particularly towards the end of the Roman Republic, when it was reckoned as superior to Capri, Pompeii, and Herculaneum by wealthy Romans, who built villas here from 100 BC to AD 500. It was notorious for its hedonistic offerings and the attendant rumours of corruption and scandal.

The lower part of the town later became submerged in the sea due to local volcanic, bradyseismic activity which raised or lowered the land, and recent underwater archaeology has revealed many of the fine buildings now protected in the submerged archaeological park

Baiae was notorious for the hedonistic lifestyle of its residents and guests. In 56 BC, the prominent socialite Clodia was condemned by the defence at the trial of Marcus Caelius Rufus as living as a harlot in Rome and at the "crowded resort of Baiae", indulging in beach parties and long drinking sessions. An elegy by Sextus Propertius written in the Augustan Age describes it as a "den of licentiousness and vice". In the 1st century, "Baiae and Vice" formed one of the moral epistles written by Seneca the Younger.

 

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20200713-baiae-a-roman-settlement-at-the-bottom-of-the-sea

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baiae.

 

Seneca the Younger was no fan of Baiae. Here's part of his "Moral Letters to Lucilius: On Baiae and Morals," letter 51:

 

 

Quote

1. As for myself, I do the best I can; I have had to be satisfied with Baiae; and I left it the day after I reached it; for Baiae is a place to be avoided, because, though it has certain natural advantages, luxury has claimed it for her own exclusive resort.

3. Therefore, if he is contemplating withdrawal from the world, he will not select Canopus  (although Canopus does not keep any man from living simply), nor Baiae either; for both places have begun to be resorts of vice. At Canopus luxury pampers itself to the utmost degree; at Baiae it is even more lax, as if the place itself demanded a certain amount of licence.

4. We ought to select abodes which are wholesome not only for the body but also for the character. Just as I do not care to live in a place of torture, neither do I care to live in a cafe. To witness persons wandering drunk along the beach, the riotous revelling of sailing parties, the lakes a-din with choral song, and all the other ways in which luxury, when it is, so to speak, released from the restraints of law not merely sins, but blazons its sins abroad, – why must I witness all this?

 

http://philosophy.redzambala.com/seneca/51-moral-letters-to-lucilius-seneca.html

 

 

 

Edited July 27 by guy