Submitted for award of PhD September 2006. - King's College London

sand dunes on the shore and the diminishing of springs that fed the lake Fusaro, or
because the Sairmites were not interested in maintaining a navy and let the harbours
silt up.
The arrival of the Samnites is attested by the lack of Greek ceramics in the two
necropoleis to the north and south of the city in the period between the end of fifth
and the early fourth centuries BC. 519 The famous Greek temples of the acropolis
began to decline. Although the temple of Apollo, built following the Cumaean naval
victory against the Etruscans in the mid-fifth century BC, was rebuilt and provided
with a staircase during the Samnite period, its blocks of stones were later used in
building works in the lower city. The temple of Jupiter on the top of the acropolis
was abandoned from the mid-fourth century BC.
However, Cumae saw growth in the number of inhabitants and progressive
urbanization during the fourth and third centuries BC in the city below the
acropolis. 520 Excavations begun in 1994 have outlined most of the city walls and
located several gates and the major avenues of the street plan of the lower city. 521
They confirm that the city did not have a regular street plan in the Greek phase of
settlement and that a Hippodamian checkerboard plan was probably adopted in the
Samnite period, as at Pompeii. The Cumaean acropolis was walled within the outer
walls of the city. The earliest parts of these impressive double curtain walls were
built towards the end of the sixth century BC. 522 Recent excavations have shown that
the Samnites repaired and modified the walls and built consecutive towers and
replaced old ones. Following the abandonment of the acropolis, the area of the
518 Paget (1968) 152-69.
519 Gabrici (1913) 716.
520 D' Agostino-Fatta-Malpede (2005). The study of the urban centre was assigned to the University of
`Federico IF, the research of the port to the Centre Jean Berard, and the study of the city wall and city
plan to the Department of Classical and Mediterranean Studies at the University Oriental Institute of
Naples; McKay (2004) 85-101.
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