(Livy, Strabo): a town of Campania. so called either from its wells, there being many hot and cold springs thereabouts; or from its stench, putor, caused by sulphureous exhalations, (Varro, Strabo). It is now called Puzzuoli, and is pleasantly and advantageously situated for trade. In a very remote age, the Cumeans made it their arsenal and dockyard; and to this naval establishment gave the sublime appellation of Dicarchia or Jus Power.

The Romans were well aware of the utility of this port, and took great pains to improve its natural advantages. Nothing remains of their works but a line of piers, built to break the force of a rolling sea: they are vulgarly called the bridge of Caligula, because that madman is said to have marched in triumph from Puzzuoli to Baia on a bridge; but his was a bridge of boats.

The ruins of its ancient edifices are widely spread along the adjacent hills and shores. An amphitheatre still exists entire in most of its parts, and the temple of Serapis offers many curious subjects of observation; half of its buildings are still buried under the earth thrown upon it by volcanic commotions, or accumulated by the crumbling of the hill; the inclosure is square, environed with buildings for priests and baths for votaries; in the centre remains a circular platform, with four flights of steps up to it, vases for fire, a central altar, rings for victims, and other appendages of sacrifice, entire and not displaced; but the columns that held its roof have been removed to the new palace of Caserta (see Caserta). Behind this round place of worship stand three pillars without capitals, part of the pronaos of a large temple; they are of cipollino marble, and at the middle of their height are full of holes eaten in them by the file-fish*.

The present city contains near 10,000 inhabitants, and occupies a small peninsula; the cathedral was a pagan temple, dedicated to the divinities that presided over commerce and navigation. E. Long. 14° 40' N. Lat. 41° 15'.

In the neighbourhood of Puteoli are many relics of ancient grandeur, of which none deserves more attention than the Campanian way paved with lava, and lined on each side with venerable towers, the repositories of the dead, which are richly adorned with stucco in the inside. This road was made in a most solid expensive manner by order of Domitian, and is frequently the subject of encomium in the poems of Statius.