Castellum Lucullanum
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The Castellum Lucullanum on an island off the promontory (Monte Echia) that creates two small bays within the Bay of Naples, the modern Castel dell'Ovo, had a history of occupation that epitomizes social developments of the Roman Empire: pleasure villa, fortified stronghold, Imperial retreat, monastery.
The island in the famously beautiful bay that was ringed with patrician and imperial residences had been known to the Greeks of Magna Graecia as the island of Megaris, with a shrine to Parthenope, the sea nymph who was the patroness of Greek Neapolis. The old town of Partenope on Monte Echia was the earliest nucleus of Naples. The island was selected for one of the villas of the immensely rich Roman Republican statesman, Lucius Licinius Lucullus (consul 74 BC), the patron of the arts, of scholars and chefs, whose name echoes in a "lucullan feast". The villa's site, which had been selected for its private and airy location and splendid view, served as the retirement villa for the emperor Tiberius.
At some point in the tenser conditions of the later Roman Empire, which culminated in the ruinous Gothic War of 535–552, the island site once pleasant for its views became a defensive fortified stronghold.
In 476, when Odoacer dethroned the last Western Emperor, the boy Romulus Augustus, he mercifully pensioned him and sent him to live at the Castellum Lucullanum, provided with an appropriately sizeable retinue supported by an annuity of 6,000 solidi—a senatorial income— and accompanied by relatives, save his father, Orestes, the power behind his brief reign, whom Odoacer beheaded. In 493 and again in 507 (or 511), Romulus had to renegotiate his financial arrangements with the government of king Theodoric, successor to Odoacer.
As notables, Romulus with Barbaria, doubtless his mother, were the patrons of a monastery founded shortly after 488 in the fortified island site, which contained the relics of Saint Severinus, the apostle of Noricum. The relics of Severinus were brought by his pupil Eugippius from the monastery at the site of modern Linz, which was overwhelmed by barbarian war-bands in 488, sending Eugippius and a small group fleeing for safety to Italy. The monastery was dedicated to St Severinus, and Eugippius became first abbot, erecting a fine shrine to Severinus, whose vita he wrote, providing a unique view of Roman life in the Danube valley at the end of the Empire [link].
The library at Castellum Lucullanum must have been extensive, for before his death about 538 Eugippius compiled a thesaurus of the works of St Augustine (Christian Cyclopedia). Recent research has revealed unexpected monastic and literary endeavors of Eugippius and sets him alongside Cassiodorus as one of the leaders of scholarship in Italy of his time [link].
The 6th-century Antipope Laurentius was confined at Castellum Lucullanum.
The monastery dedicated to St Severinus within the Castellum remained prominent in the pontificate of Pope Gregory I, who recommends stern treatment of a seditious uprising there, which had included the slaves of the lady Clementina and had resulted in unspecified "atrocious" crimes against the person of the bishop Paul (Epistles, I, i) [link]. In the late 9th century, Paul the Deacon, one of the four chroniclers who bore that name, wrote an account of the translation of the remains of St Severinus to a new monastery within the city of Naples. The monastery survived into the 10th century, when the relics of St Severinus were transferred again, this time within the walls of Naples, to the Benedictine abbey of San Severino.
The the late 19th century, landfill extended the coastline and joined the island to the mainland. Today, along this new waterfront of Santa Lucia are located the most luxurious hotels of Naples.
References
- Christian Cyclopedia 2000, "Egippius" [on-line]
- [James J. O'Donnell, "Antiquity: Before and After", 2004]
- Moorhead, J. Theoderic in Italy. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992.
External links
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