search for it in the map of Asia. NAZARETH is dwindled to a village.' CAPERNUUM, in former times the metropolis of Galilee, has fulfilled the prophecy, and now consists of only six fishermen's huts ;-and where flows the waters of the lake Asphaltites, once flourished more than thirteen cities.2 TRIDAT, formerly the most delightful spot in Cyprus, and breathing every charm of pastoral comfort, is now a dreary, cheerless, and infectious marsh. The territory of CAMPANIA,3 producing a double spring of flowers, and once so fruitful, that Pliny called it, "the work of Nature in the height of her felicity," is now desolate: and ENNA, once so fruitful, that Diana and Minerva were fabled to inhabit it six months every year, is now a marsh, full of toads and water-reeds. The LEONTINE fields, so 3 This village will be long remembered for a conversation between Dr. Clarke and an Arab, whom the Franciscan Friars had taught Italian. 66 Beggars in England are happier, far better, than we poor Arabs."-"Why better?"-" Happier," returned the Arab, σε because they live under a good government; better, because they will not endure a bad one." 2 Strabo, lib. lxvi. In the reign of Tiberius, says Suetonius, twelve cities of Asia were destroyed by an earthquake. Suet. in Vit. Tib. vi.This was the great convulsion of nature, which is recorded in the Gospel of St. Matthew, as occurring at the time of the Crucifixion. St. Mat. ch. 27. v. 51. The fact is confirmed by Tacitus: Ann. lib. 10. c. 47. and by Pliny. lib. 11. сар. 86. 3 Thus Lucius Florus.-Omnium, non modo Italia, sed toto orbe terrarum pulcherrima Campaniæ plaga est: nihil`mollius cœlo: denique bis floribus vernat; nihil uberius solo: ideo Liberi Cererisque certamen dicitur. L. Flor. lib. i. c. 16. VOL. IV. P highly extolled by Cicero, and now called the plains of Catania, are little frequented, less cultivated, and present a curious and melancholy medley of every description of flowers, growing among miniature forests of weeds and thistles. Nor bleat of sheep may now, nor sound of pipe The shepherd's kingdom. The Fleece, book i., p. 521. The nation of SOLYMI?-so entirely was it destroyed, even in the time of Pliny, the naturalist, that no traces remained of it. Its vineyards had become desolate, and its sons had perished. The city of VEI has been a solitude, for nineteen hundred years ;ETRURIA, once the scene of heroic achievements, is now a desert; and the roses, so celebrated by Ausonius, no longer decorate the ruins of Pastum.' Shapeless masses-monuments of the power of Genseric, king of the Vandals,-now occupy the spot, where Hannibal lost the fruits of victory, among streets, palaces, and public buildings, which even surpassed those of Rome itself. III. CORINTH?-a comparatively modern city, in which only two capitals remain of that order, to which its name was given and in vain the Nereids lament its destruction in the epigrams of Perdiccas. : 1 Сария. This fate attended ancient cities, much more frequently than modern ones. Hence arose the minuteness, which gives such value to Herodotus. "I shall, as I proceed, describe the smaller cities and larger communities," says he;" for many of these, at present possessed neither of opulence or power, were formerly splendid and illustrious: others, even within my own remembrance, have risen from humility to grandeur. From my conviction, therefore, of the precarious nature of human felicity, they shall all be respectively described." SPARTA?-It is occupied by the hut of a goatherd, whose wealth, says Chateaubriand, consists in the grass, that grows upon the graves of Agis and Agesilaus. Sparta no longer remembers Lycurgus;-while in the solitudes of ASIA, innumerable cities, whose fabrics were beautiful and magnificent, have pulverized like the dust of insects. VENAFRO has been twice destroyed by earthquakes ; once by fire; and twice depopulated by the plague. In what condition is the city of DELOS, and the island, on which it was situated: an island, so celebrated by Pindar and Callimachus, and once the richest in all the ancient world? The city is a confused mass of rubbish; and the island totally destitute and abandoned: without a temple-and without a hut! All that remain of the ancient part of TENTYRA, are two gates and four temples; while the isle of ELEPHANTINE is covered in its south part with ruins half buried beneath the soil. 1 Clio v. Beloe. IV. A multitude of palaces are still to be seen, at the bottom of the sea, in the neighbourhood of Baiæ and Puteoli; and Gaurus, once the most fruitful mountain in all Italy, now smokes with sulphur: while HERCULANEUM and POMPEII lie concealed beneath large beds of lava. Dion Cassius informs us, that these two cities were destroyed in the first eruption of Vesuvius; the endeavour to investigate the causes of which occasioned the death of the elder Pliny. From the silence of Pliny the younger, however, the account of Dion Cassius has been made a subject of doubt.' But this silence is no argument. For it was not the duty of that orator to give Tacitus. a general description of the whole catastrophe, attending that remarkable eruption; and of which Tacitus was, there is little doubt, as well informed as himself; but only that part of which he was a witness, (quorum pars fuit;) and which affected him in so serious a point as the loss of an uncle. The portion of Tacitus, in which this event was recorded, has been lost.2 1 Some have attempted to prove, that neither Pompeii nor Herculaneum were overwhelmed by the lava of Vesuvius; but by a rising of the waters of the Mediterranean; which deposited over them stratified rocks.* 2 That historians should still assert, that this eruption of Vesuvius was the first visitation, with which it had been agitated, will be sufficiently curious to those, who will take the trouble to consult critically, the following referential passages.-Diod. Sic. lib. v. c. 21.-Vitruvius, lib. ii. c. 6.-Strabo, lib. v.-Should the reader entertain a wish to form Philosoph. Mag. vol. li. If we are to doubt the evidence of historians because their facts are not confirmed by others, we may call in question many of the most important events, recorded in the history of the world. Several incidents, related by Suetonius and Velleius Paterculus, are passed over by Tacitus; and Livy gives no account of innumerable particulars mentioned by Plutarch-while the conflagration of Alexandria, which is so particularly described by Abulfaragius, is not even alluded to by Eutychius. Voltaire omits a multitude of important events in his general history; Robertson is exceedingly deficient, both in facts and authorities; and Plutarch, in his life of Cæsar, overlooks all the events, related in the third and sixth books of that great general's Commentaries. Quintilian omits the name of Polybius, in his enumeration of historians ; and Dion Cassius himself, who records the eruption, that gave occasion to these remarks, has omitted the event of Hadrian's voluntary resignation of Trajan's conquests :-one of the most important instances of prudential policy, recorded in history! form some adequate idea of the ornaments of Herculaneum, he may consult with advantage, Di Bronzi di Ercolano, published at Naples, in nine volumes, folio. He will find it in the library of the London Institution. A Neapolitan writer insists, as we have observed in the preceding note, that no eruption of Vesuvius took place at the time alluded to; and that Pompeii and Herculaneum were most probably destroyed by an overflow of water, which covered them with a bed of papillo; similar to that which is formed every day by the waves on the shore of the Bay of Naples. It is certainly very curious, that in the imperial library at Vienna there should be a map of the Itinerary of Theodosius, of the fourth century, in which are set down on parcament the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum ;—supposed to have been de- stroyed three centuries before. |