246 On the Peftilential Di ifeafes avbich 
The fituation of Ortygia is important, for it commands 
both the ports; and though fuppofed itfelf to be commanded 
by Achradina, yet, while that quarter of the city remained 
in the pofleffion of the Syracufans, together with the ifle, and 
the oppofite promontory of Plemmyrium, the town was nearly 
macceffible to a naval force*, At prefent Ortygia is the only 
city. To this ftate it was reduced by the Muflulmen. It is 
ftrongly defended towards the land, weakly towards thé fea- — 
fide. Its quay is fmall; its ftreets narrow, winding, and 
wretchedly built; and its population does not exceed 18,000 
petfons +. The fountain of Arethufa, after repeated changes 
of fituation t, is fiill difcoverable in the weft part of the ifle ; 
but its beauty and its honours have fled with the mythology 
to which it is indebted for its fame. 
Achradina. The quarter of Achradina, at the period to 
which this effay has particular reference, was the moft f{pa- 
cious, well built, and ftrongly fortified part of the city. It 
extends over two confiderable levels, divided by a natural 
wall of calcareous rocks; the one as elevated as Tyche; the 
other, and more confiderable, on a plane with Ortygia, and 
thence conferring on this quarter the character of the loweft 
divifion of Syracufe. The eaftern part was the moft com- 
modious, and not lefs extenfive than the modern Paris. The 
whole was adorned with a large forum, a beautiful portico, 
prytaneum, curia, and the temple of Jupiter Olympus; bor- 
dered on three fides by the fea, by the great port on the weft, 
the leffer on the fouth, and the port of Trogilus on the eaft ; 
and, on all fides, nearly impregnable. The rocks of this 
quarter of Syracufe, which are formed by marine depofitions, 
poffefs the fingular property of diffipating or abforbing the 
moifture of dead bodies { fpeedily, that they are preferved in 
vaults excavated for the purpofe, in their proper form and ha- 
biliments. Achradina is remarkably fertile, and naturally 
adapted for bringing to perfeétion every tropical production §. 
* De Non. Swinburne. 
+ Swinburne, Vol. LI. p. g11, 312z- De Non, p. 304. 
+ De Non, p. 307. 
§ Cicero ut antea-. De Non, p. 321, et fequent. Swinburne, Vol. I. 
P. 313) 344, 325+ Rollin’s Rom. Hift. Vol. V. p, 204. 
+ Tyche, 
