No. II. — Herculaneum, Pompeii, and Stabioc. 121 



The argument of the Frenchman, founded upon the cha- 

 racters of the inscription below the statue of M. Nonius Bal- 

 bus, I consider the most erroneous of all. I do not very pre- 

 cisely recollect these letters; but I would simply ask if it is 

 within the bounds of possibility, that a statue like that of Bal- 

 bus, which has been allowed by judges to equal or even ex- 

 ceed the exquisite one of Marcus Aurelius on the capitol at 

 Rome,* should have been a production of the decline of the 

 empire and of art ? I have devoted not a little time and 

 care to the study of the forms which the characters of in- 

 scriptions assumed in different ages ; I have copied many of the 

 most remarkable in the excavations of Pompeii with my own 

 hand, and carefully compared them with those of different 

 ages, and with others more especially known to be of the age 

 immediately preceding the reign of Titus, and I do not hesi- 

 tate to declare, that I have not observed one from the buried 

 cities which does not correspond to the period between Augus- 

 tus and Vespasian, — a period in which the characters are so 

 marked, as in general to prevent the possibility of confusion 

 with those either preceding or following. With this statement, 

 which I could easily substantiate by instances, I shall content 

 myself at present, and will only add, that, had these cities last- 

 ed till the fifth century, they must have been filled with bar- 

 barisms of sculpture and masonry, as well as of inscriptive 

 characters, which is inconsistent with the state of observed 

 facts. 



Nothing is more peculiar in the excavated state of the ruins 

 than the mixture of dilapidation and repair which we observe 

 in the public buildings, obviously occasioned by an earth- 

 quake. I have already alluded to the account which Seneca 

 gives of the shocks experienced in a. d. 63. " Pompeios, ce- 

 lebrum Campanise urbem," says he " desedisse terrae motu 

 audivimus." And a httle after, " Herculanensis oppidi pars 

 ruit ; dubieque stant etiam quae relicta sunt -[•.■" At Pompeii 

 many pillars were found lying on the ground ; and it would 

 appear that the pubhc buildings were going to have been re- 

 stored in travertine instead of the tufa, with which they had 



Lumifiden's Antiquities of Rome ; appendix oiji Herculaneum. 

 1[ Nat. Quopst. vl 11, 



