Lucrinus Lacus

Present-day lake looking southwest from Monte Nuovo; breakers on the Gulf of Pozzuoli are glimpsed at left, Lago d'Averno at upper right.

Lucrinus Lacus, or Lucrine Lake (Italian: Lago di Lucrino) is a lake of Campania, southern Italy, less than one kilometre to the south of Lake Avernus.

The lake is separated from the sea (the Gulf of Pozzuoli) by a narrow strip of land that is traversed by the coast road, the Via Herculanea, and by a modern railway. The road runs on an embankment, the construction of which was traditionally attributed to Heracles in Strabo's time. This strip was reinforced with a sea wall, "where the sea angrily dashes, but is thrust back with echoing roar" and severed by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, in order to make a harbour of Lake Lucrinus, which he joined to Avernus by a canal, as mentioned in Virgil, Georgics^[1]

The size of present-day Lago Lucrino, also known as the maricello ("little sea"), was much reduced by the rise of the cratered volcanic cone of the Monte Nuovo in 1538.^[2] The length of the former dyke that separated it from the sea, a length of about one-and-a-half kilometres, can be traced by skin divers. Its greatest depth is about 5 metres.^[3]

In Roman days its fisheries were important and its oyster-beds, whose foundation is attributed to one Sergius Orata in about 100 BC, were renowned - as they are today.

It was also in favour as a resort for pleasure excursions from Baiae (cf. Martial i. 62) and its banks were covered with villas, of which the best known was Cicero's villa Cumanum, the seat of his Academia, on the east bank. The remnants of this villa, with the village of Tripergola, disappeared beneath the sea in 1538. In 59, according to Tacitus, Agrippina the Younger proceeded to her villa on this lake's shore after the shipwreck arranged by Nero was bungled and she had managed to swim to some boats and thence arrive ashore.

Today Lucrino is a frazione of the comune of Pozzuoli.

Notes

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Lucrinus Lacus". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.  Endnote:
  • Karl Julius Beloch, Campanien, ed. 2 (Breslau, 1890), 172.

Coordinates: 40°49′46″N 14°4′49″E / 40.82944°N 14.08028°E / 40.82944; 14.08028

Archaeological sites in Campania
Province of Avellino	Aeclanum Compsa
Province of Benevento	Benevento Arch of Trajan Roman Theatre Caudium Ligures Baebiani Saticula
Province of Caserta	Allifae Ausona (ancient city) Calatia Cales Santa Maria Capua Vetere Arch of Hadrian (Capua) Casilinum Sant'Angelo in Formis Sinuessa Trebula Balliensis Vescia
Province of Naples	Atella Baiae Cumae Grotta di Cocceio Herculaneum Villa of the Papyri Liternum Miseno Piscina Mirabilis Naples Aqua Augusta Bourbon Tunnel Catacombs of San Gaudioso Catacombs of San Gennaro Crypta Neapolitana Virgil's tomb Macellum of Naples Oplontis Villa Poppaea Palazzo a Mare Pompeii Pozzuoli Flavian Amphitheater (Pozzuoli) Lucrinus Lacus Lake Avernus Macellum of Pozzuoli Portus Julius Stabiae Suessula Castello Barbarossa Villa Jovis Villa Boscoreale
Province of Salerno	Monte Pruno Paestum Heraion at the mouth of the Sele Temple of Athena Second Temple of Hera Tomb of the Diver Pertosa Caves Velia Villa Romana of Minori