The Battle of Cumae was a naval battle in 474 BC between the combined navies of Syracuse and Cumae and the Etruscans.
Hiero I of Syracuse allied with Aristodemus, the tyrant of Cumae, to defend against Etruscan expansion into southern Italy. In 474 they met and defeated the Etruscan fleet at Cumae in the Bay of Naples. After their defeat, the Etruscans lost most of their political influence in Italy. They lost control of the sea and their territories were taken over by the Romans, Samnites, and Gauls. The Etruscans would later join the failed Athenianexpedition against Syracuse in 415 BC, which contributed even further to their decline.
In the 7th century, according to the legends, Parthenope, whither the demos of Cumae had taken refuge after an unsuccessful rising against the aristocracy, was attacked by the latter and destroyed, but soon rebuilt under the name of Neapolis (New City, the present Naples).
In 524 B.C. it was the object of a joint attack by the Etruscans of Capua, the Daunians of the district of Nola, and the Aurunci of the Mons Massicus.
On the E. side of Cumae are considerable remains of the Roman period, among them those of the temple of Demeter, as restored by the family of the Lucceii.
Cumae (Cuma, in Italian) is an ancient Greek settlement lying to the northwest of Naples in the Italian region of Campania.
Cumae was the first Greek colony on the mainland of Italy (Magna Graecia), there having been earlier starts on the islands of Ischia and Sicily by colonists from the Euboean cities of Chalcis (Χαλκίς) and possibly Eretria (Ερέτρια) or Cuma (Kύμη).
Cumae was also a place where a widely influential early Christian work The Shepherd of Hermas was said to have been inspired by way of visions.
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