We now move on to Asia Minor. We have already seen that one of the wards in Puteoli was called vicus Tyanius. It was named after the city of Tyana, modern Kemerhisar in central Turkey. The graffito from Herculaneum in which the name is found informs us that a nummularius, a money-changer, was active there, a certain Messius. Apparently people from Tyana had settled in Puteoli.

Ruins in Tyana, Turkey. Photo: Wikimedia, Carole Raddato.

During the reign of Domitianus, Puteoli was visited by Apollonius of Tyana. Apollonius was a philosopher, teacher and miracle worker. His life was described much later by the orator Lucius Flavius Philostratus, who lived in the late 2nd and early 3rd century. Here are some quotes:

Moved by these considerations Domitian had already written to the governor of Asia, directing the man of Tyana to be arrested and brought to Rome, when the latter foreseeing in his usual way through a divine instinct what was coming, told his companions that he needed to depart on a mysterious voyage ... And falling in with a favourable wind and a good current that ran in his direction, he reached Dicaearchia on the fifth day. There he met Demetrius who passed for being the boldest of the philosophers, simply because he did not live far away from Rome, and knowing that he was really to get out of the way of the tyrant, he said by way of amusing himself: "I have caught you in your luxury, dwelling here in the most blessed part of happy Italy, if indeed she be happy, here where Odysseus is said to have forgotten in the company of Calypso the smoke of his Ithacan home." Demetrius led them to the villa in which Cicero lived of old, and it is close by the city. There they sat down under a plane tree where the grasshoppers were chirping to the soft music of the summer's breeze ... [Demetrius then said] "But your life lies within your reach; for here are ships, you see how many there are, some about to sail for Libya, others for Egypt, others for Phoenicia and Cyprus, others direct to Sardinia, others still for places beyond Sardinia. It were best for you to embark on one of these, and betake yourself to one or another of these provinces; for the hand of tyranny is less heavy upon distinguished men, if it perceives that they only desire to live quietly and not put themselves forward." And he led them, Damis says, to where he was lodging; but Apollonius declined and said: "It is now eventide, and about the time of the lighting up of the lamps and I must set out for the port of Rome, for this is the usual hour at which these ships sail. However we will dine together another time, when my affairs are on a better footing; for just now some charge would be trumped up against yourself of having dined with an enemy of the Emperor. Nor must you come down to the harbour with us, lest you should be accused, merely for having conversed with me, of harbouring criminal designs." ... They sailed from Dicaearchia, and on the third day they put in to the mouth of the Tiber from which it is a fairly short sail up to Rome.

Philostratus, The Life of Apollonius VII,10-16. Translation F.C. Conybeare.

More people from the east are documented in Puteoli, but it is difficult to establish whether they had been brought there as slaves, were passers-by, merchants, or inhabitants. In the archive of the Sulpicii, for example, features Menelaos of Keramos, son of Irenaeus (TPSulp. 78; 38 AD). He was involved in the shipping business through a contract called naulotike. The city was situated on the south-western coast of Turkey. Funerary inscriptions document naukleroi, skippers, from Korykos on the southern coast of Turkey (IG XIV, 841 and 854).