ISO HcrculuncJ/m JManuscripfs. 



to go to Italv, and, with a suitable provision, to 'exert him- 

 self on the t^pot, under the kind permission ot" the king of 

 Naples, to unrol and transcribe the papyri. Hawas gene- 

 rously moved to this undertaking by the love ot" literature, 

 and by the accounts of the verv slow progress which up to 

 that time had been made in the work of developing the ma- 

 nuscripts. 



The importance of the undertaking will be best shown to 

 our readers bv an extract from the letter which Mr. Hayter 

 addressed to the prince at the outset ot his mission in 1800, 

 a few copies of which were printed at the time, and distri- 

 buted among literary men. 



After a very becoming expression of gratitude to his TOyal 

 highness for the honour of his confidence, he gives this short 

 narrative: 



" The numerous setllemcnts of the Greeks in Italy re- 

 ceived the name of Magna Greecia, because their mother 

 country was of a size considerably less than that in which 

 thcv were planted : among these were nearly all the cities in 

 the' province of Campania, includmg Naples, the capital 

 of his Sicilian majesty, and also Herculaneum and Pompeii, 

 which are supposed to boast a foundation coeval with iler- 

 cules himself, three thousand and fifty years ago, or tv/elve 

 hundred and fifty years before the Christian asra. This pro- 

 vince, more than any other part of Magna Groecia, was al- 

 ways celebrated for the studious and successful cultivation 

 of the arts and sciences. The two cities of Herculaneum 

 and I'ompeii ranked next to that of Naples in every re-pect, 

 as ijlaces of. considerable note; they had their public thea- 

 t;es, with every other attendant of great population, splen- 

 dour, opulciice, and general prosperity, 'fhese, in comnion 

 with all the rest of Campania, became the elegant and 

 favourite resort of the Romans, for the ditrcrent purposes of 

 health, luxury, repose, and erudition. 



" In the ninth year of Nero's reign*, these two cities 

 experienced a most formidable shock from an earthquake, 

 which .overthrew a crtat part, of them. Nor had they re- 

 covered altogether from the etfects of this calamity by their 

 own exertions, and the aid of imperial munifi^iice, when 

 a second calamity, of a diflerent nature, but 'equally un- 

 ♦•xpecicdj consigned them both at once to the most com- 



* U. C. ?i6. 

 A. D. 63. 



Ciiius Ml mniius Rcgiiliis, I ^1 , 

 Luf^us \ irjjinius Ruliis, J^ 



plctc 



