!y54 Classic Literature. [Chap. XIII. 



fotiiul himself in possession of more than seven hun- 

 dred fragments, which he laid together with so 

 much skill and patience, as to produce a connected 

 'work, by no means uum orthy of the celebrated Ro- 

 man whose name it bears. This work was trans- 

 lated into French, and published in 1777, at Dijon, 

 in three \'olumes, quarto^ under the following title: 

 Histoire de la Uepiiblique liomaine dans ks cours 

 du vii SihclCy par Salluste, &c. It will be readily 

 supposed that a production of one of the greatest 

 historians of antiquity, recovered in a manner so 

 extraordinary, excited much of the attention of 

 learned men, nototilyin France, but also through- 

 out the literary world. 



Among the numerous monuments of ancient ge- 

 nius, both in literature and the arts, which were 

 dug out of the ruins of Hercidaneum^ in the course 

 of the last age, there w^ere many hundred manu- 

 scripts which excited high expectations among 

 the learned. Ol' these nearly eighteen hundred 

 manuscripts, chiefly Greek, have been long de- 

 posited in the museum at Portiei, belonging to 

 the king of Naples. But so much trouble and ex- 

 pense have attended all the attempts hitherto made 

 to unroll and decipher them, that the anticipations 

 of the curious have been hitherto but little grati- 

 fied. It is hoped, however, that better success may 

 attend future exertions in this ample field of lite- 

 rary labour *. 



* In 1B02 it was nnnouiiced to tho public, by a letter from 

 Italy, that a manuscript of some importance had been, a short 

 time before, found in the museum at Portiei. It seems the prince 

 of Wales lately requested of the court of Naples to authorise Mr. 

 Haiter, one of iiis librarjaiis, to examine the manuscripts in that 



