No. II. — Herculaneum, Pompeii, and Stabice. 115 



and under the consulship of Cn. Pompeius and L. Carbo. 

 Cluverius finds, however, no such name as Carbo in the con- 

 sulship along with Pompey ; and we must therefore believe the 

 reading corrupted for Cato, who was consul, which will place 

 it in A. U. C. Qi6^. Thus far all is clear ; but now the diffi- 

 culty in the history commences, and there appear to be three 

 opinions regarding the final fate of Stabiae. By some it is 

 supposed that it never rose after the destruction by Sylla; 

 others consider it to have been rebuilt, and then destroyed by 

 the eruption A. D. 79 ; while a third party maintain that it still 

 existed in the sixth century. Each of these opinions has some 

 weight, and the evidence is rather contradictory. Breislak,* 

 in the few words he says on the subject, supports the first. 

 After mentioning the opinion that it was destroyed by the 

 eruption under Titus, he says, " Pline^ 1. iii. c 5, la renverse 

 formellement lorsqu'il dit que c''est sous le consulat de Cn. 

 Pompee et de L. Carbon, Fan QQ^ de Rome, que Stabia fut 

 detruit par Sylla, et qu'il nous apprend que de ces mines il se 

 forma plusieurs villages." Eustace *(- is nearly of the same 

 opinion ; " Stabiae, now Castellamare di Stabia, had in Pliny's 

 time disappeared as a town, and given place to a villa. It was 

 destroyed by Sylla, and never seems to have revived ; quod 

 nunc in villam abiit, Plin. lib. iii." The reading of this im- 

 portant passage of Pliny in the best variorum edition J; is as fol- 

 lows :— " In Campano autem agro Stabiae oppidum fuere usque 

 ad Cn. Pompeium et L. Carbonem consules pridie Calend. 

 Maii, quo die L. Sylla legatus bello sociali id delevit quod 

 nunc in villas abiit" As a various reading, however, in the 

 margin we have " villam" for " villas," which certainly I 

 should rather be disposed to translate a " small town" than a 

 " villa," as Eustace has it ; and if we retain the original read- 

 ing of " villas," we should render it " villages,'"* which is the 

 meaning adopted by Breislak, Swinburne, and Lalande. But 

 besides this, the younger Pliny speaks of it as still existing, in 

 the famous epistle relating the fate of his uncle ; § so that I 

 cannot at all coincide in the idea that Stabiae was finally and 

 irrevocably destroyed by Sylla. The second opinion, that it 



* Campania, i. 26. t Tour, iii, 127. 



% Lug. Bat. 1669. 3 vols. § Epist. lib. vi. Ep. 16. 



