The baptismal font of the Cathedral of San Massimo, the remains of which are still visible among the ruins of this basilica, is perhaps one of the most famous symbols of Paleochristian Cumae.
Commonly dated to a period between the 5th and 6th centuries, this baptismal font was located in a room of the Cumae cathedral specifically designated as a baptistery, located behind the presbytery, towards the western end of the building.
This baptistery consisted of a circular basin, with an external diameter of approximately 3 meters, made of small stone blocks, and whose bottom was reached by two concentric steps (three, if we count the parapet as a "step").
The entire basin was originally completely covered, both inside and out, with small marble slabs of various colors (mostly white, with some fragments of green and red marble), while the bottom consisted of a single circular slab of white marble.
One element of this baptistery that has now disappeared, but some remains of which were discovered by archaeologist Amedeo Maiuri during excavations in the late 1920s, was the so-called "tegurium," a sort of ciborium or canopy supported by columns that sometimes covered baptismal fonts in the early Christian era.
In the specific case of the Cumaean baptistery, the ciborium was supported by six columns, at least one of which must have been twisted.
Although some fragments of the small columns that supported the "tegurium" were discovered, unfortunately, no trace remains of the top of this structure.
In this reconstruction, I have placed a hexagonal architrave, made of wood, similar in structure to the one that once covered the contemporary (or perhaps slightly more recent) baptismal font in Nocera Superiore.
