Long before the rise of the Romans, the Greeks were expanding in the Western Mediterranean; the oldest colony in the region was Cumae near Naples. Much of Southern Italy and Sicily were part of Magna Graecia (or Greater Greece). Cumae (and later Greek settlements) would prove to be pivotal to the development of ancient Rome (and even Western Civilization).

The most impressive archeological ruin here is the massive Roman Flavian Amphitheater of Pozzuoli, the third-largest Roman amphitheater ever made. After the Romans took Cumae, the area became home to the Roman coastal resort town of Baiae. Baiae was the 'Sin City' of ancient Rome full of corruption, scandal, decadence, and everything else. Cumae, however, has a very different history.