Antiquities 



and scholar, but practical. Roads, bridges, 

 aqueducts, and other public works would 

 surely have survived the fall of the Empire, 

 and as elsewhere within its confines would 

 either serve modern uses, or point the way 

 for their successors. 



And a very little thing turned the scale and 

 left this fertile island unoccupied for another 

 fifteen hundred years. The writers of the 

 guide-books do not seem to have stumbled 

 on the story, but it is recorded by Plutarch 

 that in the century before the birth of Christ 

 some Andalusian seamen made two islands 

 in the Atlantic, which from the account would 

 seem to have been Madeira and Porto Santo. 

 They described to the Roman general Sertorius 

 the richness of their soil, the wealth of their 

 vegetation, their soft airs, and the equable 

 warmth of their climate. Having heard these 

 things, we are told, Sertorius was filled with 

 a wonderful longing to dwell in these islands, 

 and to live in quietness far removed from the 

 usurpation of tyrants and the stress of war. 

 But he was prevented by his followers, and 

 some time after was assassinated. No later 

 Roman made the attempt. How many little 



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