Crater ille delicatus (Epistulae ad Atticum 2.8.2), “that delicate Crater” is the famous phrase used by Cicero to describe the amenity of the Campania area overlooking the Gulf of Naples. It is therefore not surprising that this area was dotted with villas belonging to wealthy members of Roman society. The first evidence of luxury residences in this area dates back to the early 2nd century BC: among these is the villa—one of the oldest in Miseno—that belonged to Cornelia, the famous “mother of the Gracchi.”
The Gulf of Naples became a “worldly” center, especially starting in the late Republican period. In this regard, the testimony of Arpinate is illuminating, as he recalls how many members of high-ranking Roman circles moved to Pozzuoli and the surrounding areas in the spring (Pro Plancio, 65) and how Cuma seemed to him to be a miniature Rome (Epistulae ad Atticum 5.2.2). Written sources testify that the orator himself owned properties in Cumae, Puteoli, and Pompeii.
However, it should be remembered that it is rarely possible to associate the remains of a particular residence with a specific person. For example, it is quite remarkable that L. Calpurnius Piso Caesonianus, consul in 58 BC and Caesar's father-in-law, can be identified as the owner of the famous “Villa dei Papiri” in Herculaneum, now reproduced on a large scale in Malibu, California, for the oil magnate J. P. Getty.
Nevertheless, archaeological, epigraphic, and historical studies allow us to reconstruct a very varied social landscape, ranging from the properties of prominent local figures, such as municipal magistrates, to those of important personalities in Roman history, and, in the imperial age, to the possessions of the princeps and his family.
One of the favorite places of this large ruling class was certainly Baia, now home to an archaeological complex and a submerged park. Some of the most important figures of late Republican Rome owned residences here, including Caesar himself and perhaps even the infamous Clodia, wife of the politician Metellus Celer, whose beauty was probably celebrated by the poet Catullus under the guise of Lesbia. Among the literati who owned villas, in addition to Cicero, we can mention the poets Statius and Silius Italicus, who preferred the healthier climate there to that of Rome. It is likely that Virgil, whose love for Naples is well known, Petronius, arbiter elegantiae of Nero's court, and the Neoplatonic philosopher Plotinus also owned properties there.
The idyllic landscape offered by the Gulf is reflected in the words of the geographer Strabo, who at the beginning of the Christian era noted how the bay was dotted with both towns and “residences and plantations, close to one another,” almost taking on “the appearance of a single city” (Geography 5.4.8). Looking down from above, the whole area would have appeared as a succession of luxurious buildings with porticoes, peristyles, gardens, and terraces richly decorated and adorned with statues and water features.
Strabo's testimony also highlights the importance of urban centers: those who lived along the shores of the Gulf enjoyed not only the “naturalistic” pleasure of an area of dazzling beauty and the opportunity to spend peaceful days devoted to the otium so dear to Latin writers, but also the opportunity to have the pleasures of city life at their fingertips. On the other hand, the towns also offered commercial outlets for both agricultural production and fish farming; in fact, as Cicero stated once again, the income derived from working the land made a substantial contribution to the costs of maintaining his villas in Cuma and Pozzuoli (De lege agraria, 2.78).
In the early imperial period, members of the princeps' family had economic interests in the Gulf area, as evidenced, for example, by the presence of bricks produced in the workshops belonging to Empress Livia.
Despite the widespread presence of imperial properties, as John H. D'Arms noted, from the end of the 1st century AD there was a gradual decline in the appeal of the Gulf of Naples to wealthy property owners: fashionable centers moved elsewhere, from Formia to the upper Adriatic coast. The reasons for this change are many and not yet fully understood, but it is certain that the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD and the destruction of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae dealt a blow from which the socio-economic fabric of the coastal area struggled to recover. This, of course, does not mean that the area was completely abandoned by the elite in the late empire: we know, in fact, that the senator and writer Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, who died at the beginning of the 5th century, owned six villas in the area stretching from Cuma to Pozzuoli.
