BAÏE, an ancient village of Campania, in Italy, situated between the promontory of Misenum and Puteoli, on the Sinus Batanus, and famous for its natural hot baths, which served the wealthier Romans for the purposes both of medicine and pleasure. The variety of these baths, the softness of its climate, and the beauty of its landscape, captivated the minds of opulent nobles, whose passion for bathing knew no bounds. Abundance of linen, and disuse of unguents, render the practice less necessary in modern life; but the ancients performed no exercise and engaged
in no study without previous ablutions, which at Rome required an enormous expense in aqueducts, stores, and attendants; and therefore a place where waters naturally heated to every degree of temperature bubble spontaneously out of the ground, in the pleasantest of all situations, formed a treasure which could not be overlooked. Such was Baïe in the highest perfection: its easy communication with Rome was also a great advantage. Hither retired for temporary relaxation the mighty rulers of the world, to recruit their strength and revive their spirits, fatigued with bloody campaigns and civil contests. Their habitations at first were small and modest; but increasing luxury soon added palace to palace with such expedition, that ground could no longer be had for new erections; while enterprising architects, supported by boundless wealth, carried their foundations into the sea, and drove that element back from its ancient limits. From being a place of occasional resort for a season, Baïe now grew up into a regular city; and whoever found himself disqualified by age or infirmity for any longer sustaining an active part on the political theatre; whoever, from indolence of disposition, sought a place where the pleasures of a town were combined with the sweets of rural life; whoever wished to withdraw from the dangerous neighbourhood of a court, and the baneful eye of informers, flocked hither to enjoy life untainted with fear or trouble. Such a confluence of wealthy inhabitants rendered Baïe as much a miracle of art as it had before been of nature; and its splendour may still be inferred from its innumerable ruins, heaps of marbles, mosaics, stucco, and other precious fragments of taste. It flourished in undiminished magnificence till the days of Theodoric the Goth; but the destruction of these enchanted palaces followed quickly upon the irruption of the northern conquerors, who overturned the Roman power, sacked and burned all before them, and destroyed or dispersed the whole race of nobility. Loss of fortune left the Romans neither the means nor indeed the thought of supporting such expensive establishments, which can only be enjoyed in perfection during peace and prosperity. No sooner had opulence failed, and the guardian hand of man been withdrawn, than the sea rushed back upon its old domain; moles and buttresses were torn asunder and washed away; and promontories, with the proud towers that once crowned their brows, were undermined and tumbled into the deep. Yet, in its ruined state, and stripped of all its ornaments, Baïe still presents many striking objects for the admiration of the traveller and the pencil of the artist. Long. 14. 45. E. Lat. 41. 6. N.