Once we leave Bacoli, the road leads to Capo Miseno, a promontory which, according to Virgil’s story, saw drowning the herald of Aeneas, whose name was, in fact, Miseno. Already a cumaean port, it had an important place in the Augustan military organisation. On the idea of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, the naval base of the Tyrrhenian see was installed. Between the prefects of the Classis Misenensis, we can remember Tiberius Claudius Aniceto who sent his assassins to slaughter Agrippina, Nero’s mother, and Pliny the Elder who died during the eruption of the Vesuvius (79 b.D). Between the sumptuous villas, the one of the dictator Caius Marius dominated and was then bought by Lucullus where the emperor Tiberius died in 37 A.D.
The past testimony of the most fascinating area is the Piscina Mirabilis: an immense basin dug during the first half of the Augustan period. It is a truly unique hydraulic work, a 70 meters long, 25,5 meters-wide and 15 meters high cistern, the biggest one), built to collect the waters of the Serino which were intended to supply the imperial fleet quartered at Miseno. The first settlement was founded by Augustus in 31 b.C as a military colony. Along Via Dragonara, the remains of the Terme Pubbliche are still visible, as well as the Shrine of the Augustals (which dates back to Julian-Claudian age) and, on the beach, the Cave of the Dragonara, dug into the tuff and covered with opus reticulatum with an cocciopesto plaster, it is a cistern divided into five naves: a freshwater reserve for the fleet. Miseno is a seaside town very popular with beaches and establishments.
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