Our best evidence for this comes from of a court speech given by Cicero in 56 BC in defense of the young aristocrat Marcus Caelius Rufus. He had been accused of civil violence, a serious charge that roughly equated to treason against the state. At one stage, Cicero gives a shortlist of some of the character-assassination charges that have been brought against him: “orgies, love affairs, adultery, Baiae, beach parties, banquets, parties, singing, concerts and boat trips”.
The way he drops Baiae’s name so seamlessly into this list of thoroughly disgraceful, thoroughly un-roman activities and doesn’t bother to mention what goes on there tells us two things: Firstly, that it was precisely those things—orgies, beach parties, banquets, boat trips—that went on there; Secondly, Cicero’s audience knew it. In bringing up Baiae, there was the small problem that Cicero opened himself up to accusations. He did, after all, have a house there. But Cicero, of course, was more interested in the natural and intellectual pursuits around the area. Or at least that’s what he said.
Baiae had its heyday at the turn of the first millennium, drawing many more pleasure seekers than nearby Pompeii, Herculaneum or Capri. As time went on its reputation waned, and by the late Roman Empire it had transformed from a decadent and fashionable resort to the port of the Western Roman Navy, the Portus Julius. It was sacked several times after the fall of the Roman Empire in the West, first by the Goths and later by the Muslims in the 8th century. It fell into a derelict, uninhabitable wasteland, rife with malaria, slowly sinking away into due to bradyseism: the falling of land caused by volcanic activity.
A few years ago, all of the remaining sites opened to the public. There are temple remains on land, but the real gems—imperial villae, towers and artificial sea grottos—lie hidden under the sea. You can visit them by booking onto one of the many scuba diving or snorkeling tours run by companies in the area, and see where the ancients went to let loose for their summer holidays 2,000 years ago