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 VEII 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 Pæstum.1 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 Capua. 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 Baia 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. ས. Ferrara was so ruined in the time of Misson,' that it was said to have had more houses than inhabitants : and so poor and desolate, that it could not be seen without compassion. The once powerful city of TARQUINII is sunk into a field for corn; and the plough frequently turns up medals, intaglios, and fragments of inscriptions. On the sea-shore, near Puzzioli,2 are also found seals, coins, cornelians, and agates; bearing impressions of ears of corn, grapes, and vine branches ;-ants, eagles, and other animals. These are thrown up by the waves after violent storms; and commemorate the magnificence of a city, now forming part of the great bed of the ocean. 66 What were the feelings and reflections, my Lelius, of your friend Eustace, among the ruins of POMPEII ? Can any thing be more beautiful than his description of them? It is a passage assuredly uniting all the enthusiasm of Petrarch to the delicacy and elegance of Cicero. “The ruins of Pompeii," says he, " possess a secret power, that captivates and melts the soul! In other times, and in other places, one single edifice, a temple, a theatre, a tomb, that had escaped the wreck of ages, would have enchanted us; nay an arch, the remnant of a wall, even one solitary column was beheld with veneration :-but to discover a single ancient house, the abode of a Roman in his privacy, the scene of his domestic hours, was an object of fond Misson, vol. i. p. 315. 2 Misson, vol. i. p. 439. |