page_title: Cape Miseno
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Cape Miseno / History
caption_attribution_description: Italiano: Capo Miseno e Bacoli visti dall'alto di Capo Miseno (quasi 180°)
context_page_description: Cape Miseno is the headland that marks the northwestern limit of the Gulf of Naples as well as the Bay of Pozzuoli in southern Italy. The cape is directly across from the island of Procida and is named for Misenus, a character in Virgil's Aeneid.
context_section_description: Historically, the cape was important to the Romans since it was a natural shelter for  passage into the inner harbor of Portus Julius, the home port for the Roman western imperial fleet. In 39 BCE, Sextus Pompeius and the members of the Second Triumvirate — specifically, Mark Antony and Gaius Julius Caesar, the later Roman Emperor Augustus — signed the Pact of Misenum at the cape. Mythologically, important sections of the Aeneid play out in the Gulf of Naples:  This is where Aeneas' comrade, Misenus, master of the sea-horn — the conch-shell — made "the waves ring" with his music and challenged the sea-god Triton to musical battle. He was dashed into the sea and killed by "jealous Triton". Then:
  "...Pious Aeneas
  sets up a mighty tomb above Misenus
  bearing his arms, a trumpet, and an oar;
  it stands beneath a lofty promontory,
  now known as Cape Misenus after him:
  it keeps a name that lasts through all the ages."
  (trans. Allen Mandelbaum. The Aeneid. Bantam. 1981)
caption: Capo Miseno and Bacoli seen from above.
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