Augustus Building the Port of Misena

The port of Misena, a rallying point of the Roman fleet during the reign of the Emperor Augustus, took its name from the Trojan hero whose death provoked by the jealousy of the god Triton is told by Virgil in the Aeneid. This subject is an allusion to the building of the port of Rochefort, directed by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, one of the principal ministers of Louis XIV. It reveals the king's ambition to surpass the work of the Romans.