Ijte Phyi^al Notices of the Bay qf Naples. 



not a word either of Herculaneum or Pompeii, and this si- 

 lence has given rise to one of the most extravagant conjectures 

 which modern archaeology can afford. During the mania of 

 the French Revolution, when nothing was too sacred or too 

 well established not to be re-examined by the newly enlighten- 

 ed eye of "la grande nation/' Citoyen du Theil chose to 

 maintain that the two cities above named did not perish in the 

 eruption of 79 but by one four centuries later. The report 

 of Villar, the secretary to the Institute, upon this paper, will be 

 found in the Abbe Barthelemy"'s Travels ; from which it ap- 

 pears that the arguments in favour of this opinion are the un- 

 supported assertion that these cities existed under Adrian ; that 

 the characters of the inscription under the statue of Balbus 

 do not belong to the age of Titus ; that there is an indication 

 of the existence of Herculaneum and Pompeii in a fragment 

 attributed to Petronius Arbiter ; and that they are noticed in 

 a fragment known under the name of the Map of Pentiger ; 

 but not being found in the itinerary attributed to Antoninus, 

 it is presumed they were destroyed by the eruption of 471. 

 Somewhat more classical authorities are to be found in sup- 

 port of the received opinion ; in fact, the only truly classical 

 indications correspond with this idea. Dion Cassius, the his- 

 torian, who flourished about the 230th year of the Christian aera, 

 expressly informs us, * that in the reign of Titus, the great 

 eruption of Vesuvius ejected such quantities of ashes, as not 

 only to kill many men and cattle, and to reach the very shores 

 of Egypt and Syria ; but that it entirely overwhelmed both 

 Herculaneum and Pompeii, even while the people were sitting 

 in the theatres. It appears, however, from the excavations 

 and the small number of skeletons discovered, that if they 

 were in the theatres at the commencement of the eruption, 

 they must have found time to escape. No authority of which 

 we are possessed can invahdate a testimony so distinct and cir- 

 cumstantial as that of Dion, combined with the probabilities of 

 the place and collateral evidence. That the eruption of a. d. 

 79 was competent for the purpose I think has been already 

 shown, especially when we consider its influence on Stabiae and 

 Misenum at such great distances from the volcano. 



* Dion ap. Cluver. ii. 1159. 

 4 



