72 SPRINGS, HIVERS, CANALS, LAKES, 



ruins of the villa of Maecenas, down the wood}? steep which forms 

 the opposite bank of the river, and present the painter with one o* the 

 most picturesque objects imaginable, the foreground to which varies 

 beautifully with every step he takes. 



But I must now quitTivoli, which I believe no lover of landscape 

 ever did without regret, and hasten to the main object of my ex- 

 cursion, the villa of Horace. 



The villa of Horace was situated about fifteen miles from Tibur, 

 and about four from the ancient Via Valeria. So late as the year 

 1767, a Frenchman of the name of Chaupy claimed the honour of 

 having discovered it, though the fact is, that the greater part of 

 the ancient geographers had placed it where he does, in the valley 

 of Licenza. The Abbe Dominico de Sanctis, who has exposed the 

 absurdity of Chaupy's pretensions, has written a book upon the 

 same subject,which is certainly in one respect better than his it is 

 shoner ; his proofs too are drawn from the best of authorities the 

 words of Horace himself. 



He sets out wilh shewing, that Horace had but one villa, and 

 that in the part of Sabina not far from Tivoli; from the circum- 

 stance that though Horace is perpetually speaking of different places 

 of summer resort which he frequented, as Tarentum, Tivoli, Baire, 

 Praeneste, &c. he never mentions his having any property in any 

 other place, and says expressly, B. 2. Ode 18. "I neither ask the 

 gods for more, nor solicit my powerful friend for greater favours, 

 being fully content with my Sabine farm alone." And again, Od 

 18, Book 2, 



Why should I change my Sabine val e 

 For riches more oppressive ? 



And to Maecenas, Ode 1, B. 5, he says, 



Enongh and more thy bounty hath enricli'd me. 



But nothing, as the Abbe observes, contributes so much towards 

 finding out the exact part of the Sabine territory in which it was 

 situated, as to ascertain the places near to which it lay; and 

 Horace has mentioned three ; the ancient temple of Vacuna, Varia, 

 acd Mandela. 



