Archaeology Magazine - January/February 1985 - 43

The upper part of a garum (fish sauce)
amphora found at the Scoglia di Frisio
dates to the latter part of the first
century B.C. Preserved height , 23.5
centimeters.

The fragmentary handle of this thirdcentury A.D.garum amphora from
Scoglia Ravia is attached directly to the
rim. Preserved height, nine centimeters.

This upper part of an amphora from
Scoglia Ravia , probably dating from the
last half of the second century A.D.,
may have been used for wine. Preserved
height , 20 centimeters.

island of Pontia before the Romans
is exclusively one of myth and
poetry. Vergil's description of the
route advised by the Trojan seer,
Helenus, for the journey of Aeneas
and his followers in their migration
to Italy offers a beautifully poetic
but none the less accurate picture of
the Tyrrhenian approaches to the
mouth of the Tiber in which Pontia
emerges as Circe's Isle. After earlier
advising that the ships steer a
course outside Sicily to avoid an encounter with the Scylla monster,
Helenus instructs: "You must bend
your oar in the THnacrian wave and
traverse with your ships the surface
of the Ausonian sea and go to the
nether lakes and the island of Aeaean
Circe before you can build your city
on safe land." (Aeneid 3. 384-87).
The THnacrian wave indicates
the seas of Sicily; the Ausonian sea
is to the southwest of Italy. The
nether lakes must be the volcanic
lakes at the legendary entrance to
the underworld near Cumae. Thus
Circe's Isle, the last of the landmarks
in the chain, can only be Pontia, or
perhaps Cape Circe itself, which
looks like an island from the sea.
Maiuri points out that no other
island better than Pontia accords
with the Homeric verse, "the island
which the boundless sea encircles"
(Odyssey 10. 195). "The island,"
Maiuri continues, "with its shadowy
mirrors" (referring to its coves), "its
grottoes fantastically hung all round
with polychrome rocks or frightening precipices. . .must necessarily
call up here, better than elsewhere,
the fabled voyage of Ulysses and
the enchanted abode of Circe."
It is interesting that Vergil has
the ships pass through the area
known to have been traveled by the
heroes of the Mycenaean Age, then

go beyond to enter an unknown
world before they may land in an
area of safety. In the actual voyage,
related at the end of the fifth book
of the Aeneid , Aeneas' last stop in
what we might think of in this context as the "civilized world" was at
Cumae, following the incident of
Palinurus' death. Palinurus is lulled
into unconsciousness and cast overboard by Somnus (Aeneid 5. 835-61)
at a point that must correspond
more or less with Cape Palinurus,
the place to which legend has attached his name. After Palinurus
drowns, and the ships have seemingly sailed on for a good part of the
night, they encounter next the Islands of the Sirens. Aeneas awakens
to the danger just in time, as the
ships approach the Sirens' rocks,
"perilous formerly and white with the
bones of many men" (line 865). He
can hear how the "rocks resounded
hoarsely afar with the constant
surf" (line 866). At this point, the
fleet begins to look for a place to
put in for water and provisions, and
arrives at Cumae.
If we start from the drowning
off Cape Palinurus, accepting its
present location as the one Vergil envisioned, the idea that the fleet
must encounter one more obstacle,
the islands of the Sirens off the
Amalfi coast, before reaching the
shelter of Cumae in the Gulf of
Naples, accords perfectly with the
geographical realities. Near the tip
of the Amalfi promontory, not far
from Positano, there is a group of
rocks that very well may be those
Vergil had in mind for the islands of
the Sirens, or he may have meant
Capri, some distance off the point.
Next comes Cumae and finally Circe's
Isle, or Pontia, the last thing to be
seen, after which the ships of Aeneas

enter the "safe" or non-Greek part
of the Tyrrhenian coast.

TThe Roman colonization of Pontia
in the late fourth century B.c. is
recorded in Livy (9.28.7) and Diodorus Siculus ( 19.101.3), and it is not
surprising that the archaeological
evidence brought to light in our
nautical survey of the island confirms the accuracy of the written
record. This evidence is in the form
of a small collection of amphora
fragments found in the waters of
Pontia by scuba divers working
under the auspices of the American
Academy in Rome. In fact, it was at
the suggestion of Frank E. Brown,
then director of the Academy's excavations at Cosa, that the exploration of the Pontine waters was
undertaken in the 1970s. Cosa and
Pontia were founded by the Romans
only a few decades apart. Both colonies were to become important
maritime bases for Rome in its wars
with Carthage. It would seem that
the planting of the two towns represented an early effort by Rome to
establish commercial and maritime
bases, thus enhancing the economic
and military security of the Tyrrhenian coast. While the location of
Roman Cosa has long been known,
and the Port of Cosa is emerging as
a major export center during the
second and first centuries b.c., the
exact location of the Roman colony
on the island of Pontia has never
been determined. A survey group
set out for the island to see if any
hints of the location of the ancient
town might be discovered. The crew
consisted of student divers from
the State University of New York
at Binghamton, under the superJanuarv/
February
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Archaeology Magazine - January/February 1985

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - January/February 1985