DOMAIN xn. VOLCANIC. 543 



tioh, as not only appears from the testimony of 

 Strabo before adduced, but from others. For 

 Diodorus Siculus, who flourished at the beginning 

 of the reign of Tiberius, says Vesuvius emitted 

 fire in the time of Hercules ; and he adds, that in 

 fact it retained many vestiges of conflagration*. 

 Vitruvius had before asserted that the eruptions of 

 Vesuvius were mentioned in history, and that 

 pumice, there found, also appeared near Etna, 

 and in those hilly parts of Mysia which the Greeks 

 called the burnt country)'. SiliuS Italicus also 

 expresses the same tradition. Nay, in latter 

 times, Vesuvius became extinct from A. D. 1136 

 till 1506, that is 370 years ; the crater being filled 

 with coppice woods and pools of water, refuges 

 of the most timid animals J. 



From the month of October 1702, till July 

 1703, a series of earthquakes, like those of 1783> 

 desolated the southern parts of Italy. Among 

 other phenomena, a volcano near Sigillo, in Fur- 

 ther Abruzzo, which had been extinct beyond all 

 history or tradition, suddenly opened the cover of 

 its crater, and smoke and flames issued for three 

 days, after which it has remained tranquil. The 

 mouth of the abyss is only about twenty-two feet 



* Lib. v. 21. t Lib. ii. 6. 



J Acad. Nap. apud Ord, 237. 



