The island was perhaps occupied by Greek settlers even before Cumae; its Eretrian and Chalcidian inhabitants abandoned it about Soo B.C. owing to an eruption, and it is said to have been deserted almost at once by the greater part of the garrison which Hiero I.
The potter's clay of Ischia served for the potteries of Cumae and Puteoli in ancient times, and was indeed in considerable demand until the catastrophe at Casamicciola in 1883.
It was probably once dependent on Cumae.
Puteoli was reached direct by a road from Capua traversing the hills to the north by a cutting (the Montagna Spaccata), which went on to Neapolis, and by the Via Domitiana from Rome and Cumae.
It is said to derive its name from Baios, the helmsman of Ulysses, whose grave was shown there; it was originally, perhaps, the harbour of Cumae.
