NEAPOLIS, LA CITTÀ NUOVA DI CUMA

Abstract

Strabo, with reference to the work of Artemidorus of Ephesus, inserts the city of Neapolis in the description of the coast of Campania. Without mentioning the city of Parthenope, Strabo considers Neapolis the foundation of Kyme and, he alone, adds that Chalcidians and some from Pithecusae and Athens arrived as epoikoi. The city was called Neapolis (= “New city”) because of these new arrivals. The article proposes that the entire story is a construction
of Strabo: he joined in a temporal sequence two different traditions, one favorable to Cuma, the other to Neapolis. The epoikia of Neapolis was not a historical fact.

Key-words : Strabo, Neapolis, Kyme in Italy, Artemidorus of Ephesus, Timaeus of Tauromenium.