Puteoli The port of Italy to which ships from Egypt and the Levant commonly sailed (Josephus, Ant. 18:7, section 4; so Acts 28:13). The bay of Naples was then named from it, sinus Puteolanus. A cross road led thence to Capua, there joining the Appian Way to Rome. Sixteen piers of the harbour mole, formed of the concrete pozzolana, remain. Puteoli was at the E. of the bay, Baiae at the W. Puteoli comes from puteus a "well," or puteo, "to smell strong," from the offensively smelling mineral springs.