114 Physical Notices of the Bay of Naples. 



made for embarkation and the management of merchandise 

 displayed by the excavations ; but the same event by which 

 the city was destroyed, forced the sea outwards by the accu- 

 mulation of volcanic soil, to the distance of a mile, — a striking 

 proof of the real magnitude of the catastrophe, and at the 

 same time easily credible, when we recollect that the neigh- 

 bourhood was an extended plain, little elevated above the sea, 

 and giving rise to the " palus Pompeia," mentioned by Colu- 

 mella in the lines already quoted. Pompeii, as well as Her- 

 culaneum, stood on the sides of Mount Vesuvius, but at a con- 

 siderable distance (5 miles) from its present crater, and the 

 former one was probably greatly farther off; and this is rather 

 sanctioned than otherwise by Pliny the elder, * in his expres- 

 sion " Neapolis, Herculanium, Pompeii ; baud procul spec- 

 tante Monte Vesuvio ;" for as he speaks of these cities nearly 

 in a similar situation with regard to the mountain, if we sup- 

 pose the crater to have existed considerably to the north of 

 the present one, as in my last paper I showed was probable, 

 the distances are more nearly equalized. 



The situation of SxABiiE was very different, being placed 

 at the base of the Surrentine range of hills, composed of 

 Apennine limestone, and a branch of the great chain which 

 passes through Italy. It was near the site of the modern 

 Castel-a-Mare, between the flank of the hills and the sea-shore. 

 Its situation was known to Cluverius long before the time of 

 its discovery. Its neighbourhood was peculiarly remarkable 

 for hot medicinal springs, of which Galen,f Cassiodorus,J and 

 Pliny,§ have given an account. Even in modern times these 

 springs remain, and an account of them has been published by 

 Raimondo de Majo. || Of Stabiae we know little as a town, 

 and its history has been a subject of some dispute. Certain it 

 is that it was of great antiquity, as it is said to have been] 

 founded by the Osci, and successively inhabited by the Etrusci, j 

 Pelagi, and Samniti. We have the distinct testimony of the 

 elder Pliny, that it was destroyed by Sylla in the civil wars,] 



Campaniam acta et adpulsa Porapeios esset, socii inde navales ad depopu- 

 landum agrum Nucerium profecti." (Lib. ix.) 



" Lib. iii. cap. v. t De Meih. Medendi, lib. v. J Lib. xi. Epist. x. 



§ Lib. xxxi. 2. II Napoli, 1745. 8vo. See Ferber.j 



