= 
1808.] 
_ of the river Xalon, of which the fertility, 
the culture, the plantations, would arrest 
the attention in any country ; bow must 
- these objects then strike the traveller in 
leaving the lofty parched ridges of Arra- 
gon? 
In describing the luxuriant foliage 
with which, as with a verdant carpet, the 
young plantations of Spain cover the 
vallies, the Spaniards employ the terms 
frondoso, or leafy, and frondosidad, or 
leafiness, The Greeks had fot a Similar 
Purpose their phyllodes and polyphyllos : 
the Latins their frondosus and foliosus ; 
why then might not the English, adopt- 
ing a term so expressive, have their 
Frondosity and foliosity? Whetirer in the 
neological mania of France a similar 
mode of expression has been adopted, I 
know not; buthere an innovation would 
have been proper; for their adjective 
feuillu, or full of leaves, is applicable 
only to a single tree, but not to the fron- 
dosity of a richly covered vale. 
This day’s journey ended at Calatayud, 
distant about fourteen leagues, or fifty 
English miles, in a south-west direction 
from Saragossa. 
Calatayud is a considerable town, pos- 
sessing above six thousand inhabitants 
situated in part on a plain, and in part 
On rising ground behind it, along the west 
bank of the river Xalon (or as it is pro- 
nouncedin Spanish, Halon) ; which rising 
in the mountains dividing Arragon from 
Old Castille, runs northward and falls 
into the Ebro, near Alagon, about four 
leagues above Saragossa. 
Calatayud owes its name, and perhaps 
its foundation, to a Moorish chief called 
Ayub (the proper pronunciation of the 
Name of the ancient sage usually called 
Job) and the word ought to be written, 
Calatayud. 
This town is celebrated as the succes- 
sor and representative of the ancient 
Bilbilis, the birth-place of the epigram- 
matist Martial, who, having repaired to 
me, rose into favour with Titus and 
Domitian ; but being neglected by their 
‘successor, Traian, he returned to his ua- 
tive city, where he married a lady, wlidse 
wealth and other qualifications indemni- 
fied him for his disappointments in the 
capital of the world. Qn this subject he 
tells us— 
Has Marcella domos, parvaque regna dedit, 
and to Marcella herself he says— 
‘i Romam tu mihi sola faeis. 
Whatever opinion may be entertaified 
Mentary Mac., No, 178. 
Account of recent Travels in Spain. 
4id 
of the wit and poetic powers of Martial, 
his candid judgment of the merits of his 
epigrams mast be universally acknow- 
ledged, when he thus characterises 
them— 
Sunt bona, sunt quedam mediocria, suat mala 
plura. 
The site pointed out for Bilbilis is an 
eminence about half a league from Cala- 
tayud, lower dowa the river Xalon, and 
partly surrounded by it: on this spot are 
discovered ruins of buildings, coins, and 
other vestiges. of antiquity; and the 
name now given to it, Bambola, carries 
a sufficient relation to the original Bi- 
bilis.. Of this place Martial says— 
Municipes augusta mihi quos Wilbilis acri 
Monte creat, rapidis quos Salo cingit aquis 
Bilbilis was by the Romans erected 
into a municipium, and honoured with the 
epithet Augusta : money was also coined 
there, many of which coins are preserved 
in Spain, bearing the names of Augustus, 
Tiberius, and Caligula, . 
The situation of this town on cliffs 
hanging over the river is also pointed out 
by St. Paulinus, who says— 
Bilbilim acutis scopulis pendentem. 
In the inn at Calatayud I met with an 
inliabitant who had taken some pains re 
specting the antiquities of Bilbilis, and 
who referred me to Zurita’s Annals of Ar- 
ragon for the best information on the 
subject. 
Bilbilis is one of the two mentioned by 
Strabo as the principal towns in the dis- 
trict of the warlike Celtiberians ; and it 
is celebrated by Martial for its excellencé 
in horses and in arms. 
Videbis altam, Liciniane, Bilbilim 
Equis et armis nobilem. 
In this passage, some critics have sub- 
stituted aquis for equis, under the idea 
that the poet meant to celebrate the vir- 
tues of the waters of the Salo, particularly 
for giving a due temper tw the swords 
made on its banks: but as this quality 
may be comprehended in the term arms, 
it is not unreasonable to suppose egwis to 
have been the original reading. Besides 
this circumstance, the coins of Bilbilis 
have in general on the reverse’a warrior 
with his spear conched on horseback ; 
and it is known, that the Celtiberians 
were famous for the excellence of their 
cavaliy. The warrior on horseback is 
still the armorial bearing of Calatayud. 
The river Xalon probably still revains 
“3G its 
