MISENUM

ancient port of Campania, Italy, located about 3 miles (5 km) south of Baiae at the west end of the Gulf of Puteoli (Pozzuoli). Until the end of the Roman Republic it was a favourite villa resort dependent on Cumae. Agrippa made the fine natural harbour into the main naval station of the Mediterranean fleet (31 BC). Pliny the Younger was stationed in Misenum, from which he witnessed (and wrote about) the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. In 890 it was destroyed by the Saracens. The harbour consisted of the outer basin, or Porto di Miseno, protected by moles (mounds of large stones used as a breakwater), of which remains still exist, and the present Mare Morto, separated from it by a comparatively modern embankment. The town lay on the south side of the outer harbour, near the village of Miseno, where remains of a theatre and baths have been found. Remains of villas can also be traced; the largest of these, which occupied the summit of the promontory, belonged first to Marius, then to Lucullus, and then to the imperial house. Tiberius died in it.