No. II. — Herculaneumy Pompeii^ and Stahice. Ill 



bate. Upon these, and a variety of other topics, Hamilton is 

 entirely silent ; but his account is important, as being more ori- 

 ginal than those of other travellers, and forming an appendix 

 of value to all the accounts which have met my eye. 



Upon the whole, I do not despair, within the limits of this 

 short paper, of giving the substance of all that has yet been 

 given to the world in the way of physical facts, regarding the 

 phenomena of the buried cities. I propose to commence by 

 noticing the original condition of these towns as far as bears 

 upon their subsequent catastrophes ; next to give an account of 

 the event by which they were submerged, examining the ac- 

 counts which the ancients have left us upon the subject, more 

 particularly as they are connected with present appearances ; 

 and finally, to describe the existing condition of the cities as 

 they now stand, and the circumstances connected with their 

 disinterment, as modified by past events, and calculated to 

 throw light on volcanic agency. > 



To commence with the original condition of Herculaneum, 

 Pompeii, and Stabiae, we may remark, that, from decisive clas- 

 sic authorities, they appear to have stood in the order just 

 named from W. to E. along the shore of the Bay of Naples, as 

 is expressed in the motto at the head of this paper, taken from 

 Ovid, and in the two following inscriptions from monumental 

 itineraries given by Cluverius.* 



Neapoli 



Herclanium xi. Herclanium 



Oplontis vi. Oplontis vi. 



Pompeis iii. Stabios iii. 



Nuceria xii. Nuceria xii. 



Hekculaneum, it is generally admitted, derived its name 

 from Hercules, who was supposed to be its founder, for which 

 Strabo is the principal authority; but it would be superfluous 

 to enter here into the details connected with its early history, 

 which, however, Bajardi in his great work seems to have found 

 so entertaining, that in the two first volumes of his " Anti- 

 chita di Ercolano^^'' amounting to 1100 pages quarto, he has 



• Italia Antigua, Fol. ii. 1154 and 1155. The reader may also consult, 

 for the position of these towns, Strabo 1. v. Florus 1. 16. Velleius 1. xi. Pliny 

 iii, 5. Columella 1. x. Mela xi. 4. 



