Cumae

Cumae was a major ancient port city in Campania, some 20 km west of Naples. The city was founded and colonised by the Greeks from Chalcís, a city on the island of Euboea, in the mid-8th century BC; perhaps the earliest to be colonised by the Greeks in Italy. Cumae became involved in the war against the Etruscans, who founded a city on the river Voltuma - Capua. In 524 BC, Aristodemus led an army of Cumaeans to defeat the Etruscans. Their success didn't last long, because Cumae was captured by the Samnites around 425 BC. The Italic language of Oscan became dominant in the city, replacing the Greek dialect. Almost a century later, Cumae was in Rome's hands.

According to Virgil in the Aeneid, Cumae was where Aeneas found the seeress, known as the Sibyl, who lived in a cave. She guided the Trojan hero into the Underworld, where the hero reunited with his father's shade and learned about his destiny and the future of his descendants. In order to enter the Underworld, Aeneas had to find the Golden Bough in Diana's Woods, and then he had to enter the Underworld through lake Avernus, near Cumae.