Avernus was an ancient name for a crater near Cumae (Cuma), Italy in the Region of Campania north of Naples. Within the crater is Lake Avernus (Lago d'Averno). It was believed to be the entrance to the underworld, and is portrayed as such in the Aeneid of Virgil. In later times, the word was simply an alternate name for the underworld. On the shores of the Lake is the grotto of the Cumaean Sybil and the entrance to a long tunnel (Grotta di Cocceio, ca. 800 meters) leading toward Cumae, where her sanctuary was located. There are also the remains of temples to Apollo and Jupiter. During the Civil War between Octavian and Pompey, Agrippa tried to turn the lake into a military port, the Portus Julius. A waterway was dug from Lake Lucrino to Avernus to this end. The Port's remains may still be seen under the Lake's surface. Cumae (Cuma, in Italian) is an ancient Greek settlement lying to the northwest of Naples in the Italian region of Campania. ... Campania is a region of Southern Italy, bordering on Lazio to the north-west, Molise to the north, Puglia to the north-east, Basilicata to the east, and the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west. ... Naples (Italian Napoli, Neapolitan Napule, from Greek Νέα Πόλις - Néa Pólis - meaning New City; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is the largest city in southern Italy and capital of Campania Region and the Province of Naples. ... Lake Avernus by Leo C. Curran (1997) Lake Avernus is located in the Southern part of Italy near Cumae and the Bay of Naples. ... Roman mythology can be considered as two parts. ... Hades (Greek: - Hadēs or - Háidēs) (unseen) means both the ancient Greek abode of the dead and the god of that underworld. ... The Aeneid is a Latin epic written by Virgil in the 1st century BCE (between 29 and 19 BCE) that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who traveled to Italy where he became the ancestor of the Romans. ... A sculpture of Virgil, probably from the 1st century AD. Publius Vergilius Maro (October 15, 70 BC–19 BC), known in English as Virgil or Vergil, is a Latin poet, the author of the Eclogues, the Georgics and the Aeneid, the last being an epic poem of twelve books that... Hades (Greek: - Hadēs or - Háidēs) (unseen) means both the ancient Greek abode of the dead and the god of that underworld. ... Michelangelos rendering of the Cumaean Sibyl The Cumaean Sibyl was the priestess presiding over the Apollonian oracle at Cumae, a Greek colony located near Naples,Italy. ... Grotta di Cocceio, also known as the Cocceius Tunnel, is a straight-line subterranean gallery nearly a kilometer in length connecting Lake Avernus with Cumae north of Naples, Italy. ... Apollo (Greek: Απόλλων, Apóllōn; Απελλων) is a god in Greek and Roman mythology, the son of Zeus and Leto, and the twin of Artemis (goddess of the hunt), one of the most important and many-sided of the Olympian divinities. ... Jupiter et Thétis - by Jean Ingres, 1811. ... A civil war is a war in which the competing parties are segments of the same country or empire. ... Augustus Caesar The title Caesar Augustus, given to every emperor of the Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire, originates from this person. ... Pompey the Great Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Latin: CN·POMPEIVS·CN·F·SEX·N·MAGNVS¹) (September 29, 106 BC – September 29, 48 BC), commonly referred to in English as either Pompey or Pompey the Great, was a distinguished and ambitious Roman military leader, provincial administrator and politician of the 1st century... Agrippa may refer to: Menenius Agrippa, a Roman consul in 503 BC. Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa (63–12 BC), Roman statesman and general, friend of Augustus Caesar. ...