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Modern photograph of the Cave of the Sibyl, Cumae · Wikimedia Commons
Cumae
Italia · Roman province·Italy·Founded 8th c. BCE (Euboean Greek)
The oldest Greek colony in Italy, home of the Cumaean Sibyl. By 117 CE its acropolis temples were already tourist attractions.
An uninhabited archaeological park in the Campi Flegrei near Naples, including the Cave of the Cumaean Sibyl and acropolis temples, with no modern settlement on site.
Excavation history
1852-1857
Prince Leopoldo of Bourbon — The first real systematic excavation campaign at Cumae focused on the Masseria del Gigante area and several necropolises.
1924-1934
Amedeo Maiuri and Vittorio Spinazzola — Excavated the Temple of Jupiter and, in 1932, identified the roughly 131-meter rock-cut tunnel now shown as the Cave of the Sibyl, based on Virgil's description in the Aeneid.
Notable finds
Colossal Jupiter Bust
Only the marble head, hands, and feet of this cult statue survive from Cumae's Capitolium — the rest of its body was wood clad in real drapery, a technique called acrolithic sculpture. Once excavated, the giant head was set up to decorate the grand staircase of Naples's own archaeology museum.
Naples National Archaeological Museum
Diomedes Stealing the Palladium
This marble statue is a Roman copy of a bronze original attributed to the 5th-century-BC Greek sculptor Kresilas, recovered from Cumae's acropolis, showing the Greek hero Diomedes clutching Troy's sacred Palladium mid-theft, sword drawn.
Naples National Archaeological Museum
Painted Tomb of the Banquet
Excavators opened a 2nd-century-BC chamber tomb at Cumae's necropolis in June 2018 and found its walls covered in a rare figured fresco: a naked servant carrying a wine jug toward banqueters painted along the side walls.
Removed for conservation; destined for the Cumae Archaeological Park's site museum
Marble Dedication to the Fratria of the Cumaeans
An inscribed marble base records a Greek-language dedication made by the fratria, a civic and religious association of Cumaean citizens, dated to the early 2nd century AD — one of the few inscriptions preserving Cumae's own civic institutions.
Naples National Archaeological Museum
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →