In 37 AD Puteoli was the location for a political stunt by Emperor Gaius Caligula, who on becoming Emperor ordered a temporary floating bridge to be built using trading vessels, stretching for over two miles ( 2 miles ) from the town to the famous neighboring resort of Baiae, across which he proceeded to ride his horse, in defiance of an astrologer's prediction that he had "no more chance of becoming Emperor than of riding a horse across the Gulf of Baiae".