The origins of rowing in the city of Castellammare di Stabia are very ancient and closely linked to the daily life of itspeople.
It might not seem necessary here to recall that Castellammare, a city that even has the sea in its name, could not but have had a history linked to the sea.
And from the sea, according to myth, came Hercules, who, after overcoming the fatigue of capturing the oxen of Gerion, king of the Balearic Islands, founded the pre-Roman Stabiae.
The Latin writer Silio Italico in his long poem, in 17 books, entitled the 'Puniche' (Punica), about the second war between Rome and Carthage, which took place between 219 and 201 B.C., in book XIV, which deals with the siege and capture of Syracuse by the Roman Admiral Marcus Claudius Marcellus, in verses 408-9, recalls the strong Stabiae youth fighting on Admiral Corbulo's ships against the Carthaginian fleet.
Here are the words of Silio Italico: (Punica, XIV, 408-9)
Irrumpit Cumana ratis, quam Corbulo ductor
lectaque complebat Stabiarum litore pubes.
Or:
Already a Cumanian ship is being driven by Corbulo,
full of choice youth from the shores of Stabia.
Although the story has been considered somewhat legendary by critics – for sure Silio must have drawn on some ancient annalist that has not reached us - the news of the presence of the Stabiana pubes on Roman ships is very significant, because it historically gives evidence of the existence of the city of Stabiae and the valour of its oarsmen in the years of the Second Punic War, i.e. in the 3rd century BC.
Even during the Middle Ages, and particularly during the Angevin period (1266-1442), not only were ships built in Castellammare but its oarsmen were also required for the royal army.
