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"Among these were some who augmented the real terrors by imaginary ones, and made the frightened multitude falsely believe that Misenum was in flames. At length a glimmering light appeared, which we imagined to be rather the forerunner of an approaching burst of flames, as in truth it was, than the return of day.
Hereupon our friend left us, and withdrew with the utmost precipitation. Soon afterward, the cloud seemed to descend, and cover the whole ocean; as it certainly did the island of Capreae, and the promontory of Misenum.
Its origin is unknown, though piles of lava lie along its coast, which seems fresh as that thrown from the mountain yesterday. The long, low bit of land, insulated like its neighbor, is called Procida, a scion of ancient Greece. Its people still preserve, in dress and speech, marks of their origin. The narrow strait conducts you to a high and naked bluff! That is the Misenum, of old.
Thus it was that among the first acts of Augustus was the establishment of two fleets, as we might say, "in being" in the Mediterranean; the fleet of Misenum and the fleet of Ravenna; the latter with stations probably at Aquileia, Brundusium, the Piraeus, and probably elsewhere. The fleet of Ravenna was, certainly after A.D. 70, probably about A.D. 127, entitled Praetoria.
On the left lay Baiae, all but forsaken, its ancient temples and villas stretching along the shore from the Lucrine lake to the harbour shadowed by Cape Misenum; desolate magnificence, marble overgrown with ivy, gardens where the rose grew wild, and terraces crumbling into the sea.
Besides the principal ports of Ravenna and Misenum, Augustus stationed a very considerable force at Frejus, on the coast of Provence, forty ships in the Euxine, with 3000 soldiers; a fleet to preserve the communication between Gaul and Britain, another near Alexandria, and a great number of smaller vessels on the Rhine and the Danube.
He held out, however, for some time; and sailing as far as Misenum , omitted nothing in his usual mode of life, not even in his entertainments, and other gratifications, partly from an ungovernable appetite, and partly to conceal his condition.
THE letter which, in compliance with your request, I wrote to you concerning the death of my uncle has raised, it seems, your curiosity to know what terrors and dangers attended me while I continued at Misenum; for there, I think, my account broke off: "Though my shock'd soul recoils, my tongue shall tell." After which I went to supper, atmd then fell into a short and uneasy sleep.
I remember some who declared that one part of Misenum had fallen, that another was on fire; it was false, but they found people to believe them.
Thus regarded, Misenum was a very proper place for three masters to meet, and at leisure parcel the world among them. In the old time, moreover, there was a gateway in the wall at a certain point fronting the sea an empty gateway forming the outlet of a street which, after the exit, stretched itself, in the form of a broad mole, out many stadia into the waves.
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