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Artnet News reports that a section of opus sectile flooring has been discovered at Baiae, a luxurious Roman town now underwater in the Gulf of Naples, by a team of divers from C.S.R. Restoration of Cultural Heritage, Underwater Archaeology and Technology. Opus sectile flooring is made up of large, polychrome stones cut into precise shapes and was popular among elites during the first century A.D. Such large stones made it more expensive than mosaic flooring, which was made with small tesserae. This floor, made with recycled materials, was installed in a villa's porch reception area overlooking the sea. Baiae eventually...

An ancient Nabataean temple with marble altars has been found in the gulf of Pozzuoli outside Naples in the Italian region of Campania. A statement from the Italian ministry of culture says: "The two marble altars of the Roman period, datable to the first half of the first century AD, are inserted inside the great Temple of the Nabataeans, now submerged." It is unclear when or if the ancient ruins will be removed from the seabed.The Nabataean population was based in the desert areas of the Arabian Peninsula. Around 2,000 years ago they established a settlement at Pozzuoli, building up...

Baiae is an archaeological park consisting of a partially sunken town from the Roman period, located on the shore of the Gulf of Naples in the present-day comune of Bacoli in Italy.Baiae developed into a popular Roman resort which was visited frequently by many notable Roman figures, such as Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus..., Julius Caesar, Gaius Marius, Lucius Licinius Lucullus, Hadrian, and Septimius Severus.The town would never attain a municipal status, but instead gained a reputation for a hedonistic lifestyle. This is supported by an account by Sextus Propertius, a poet of the Augustan age during the 1st century BC, who...

Marine archaeologists have located a "unique" ancient temple lost beneath the seabed close to the site of what has been dubbed the "Las Vegas" of the Roman Empire.The temple, thought to date to around 2,000 years ago, is positioned on the opposite side of the Gulf of Pozzuoli to Rome's "Sin City."This ancient city, known as Baiae, was the playground of the Roman elite in its heyday. A fashionable coastal resort, Rome's rich and powerful built luxurious villas at the site—including the emperors Julius Caesar, Nero, and Hadrian—attracted by its beautiful setting and healing natural hot springs, not to mention...

According to legend, the sibyl traveled to Tarquin's palace bearing nine books of prophecy that set out the whole of the future of Rome. She offered the set to the king for a price so enormous that he summarily declined -- at which the prophetess went away, burned the first three of the books, and returned, offering the remaining six to Tarquin at the same price. Once again, the king refused, though less arrogantly this time, and the sibyl burned three more of the precious volumes. The third time she approached the king, he thought it wise to accede to...