JANUARY 21, 1904] NATURE 255 
The evidence is of the most diverse description ; | ation of the southern extremity of Posilipo, which 
masses of concrete or of Roman brickwork may be | was pre-eminently adapted to the conditions of 
seen under water, so disposed that 
they show the ground-plans of the 
buildings they once supported; 
stairways with steps several feet =a i 
below water are cut in the rock of [®=™ — < antigus pict: 
caves, the walls of which still show 
traces of a stucco covering even 
where they are submerged; a drain 
which runs several feet below the 
surface, in a sea-side palace of 
Tiberius; artificial tunnels or cuni- 
culi entirely submerged; these are 
but few among many other facts 
which have been a puzzle to anti- 
quarians, and can be accounted for 
by the theory that the Roman land- 
level was about 17 feet higher than Z 
the present. Pansanias Island. 
By the same theory we Can e€X- Fic. 2.—The Breakwater of Puteoli, after a Roman Picture. 
plain why the malarious Lago 
d’Agnano was not mentioned by 
Roman writers, for it would not 
have been in existence with the 
land at the higher level; the pre- 
sent unhealthiness of the low-lying 
plain of Pastum, once the site of 
a flourishing Greelx colony, is also 
explained; then the Pool of Baiz, 
mentioned by classical writers, and 
an island off Diczearchia, described 
by Pausanias (Fig. 2), that have 
apparently vanished, we find by 
this theory to have been carried 
down by the land as it sank so that 
they are. now covered by the sea; 
and finally the Roman fresco re- 
presenting the famous breakwater 
of Puteoli Harbour (Fig. 2), which 
shows us the arches that join the 
piers or pilae, with the springing 
of the arches well above the water, 
is of the breakwater as _ the 
Romans saw it; nowadays the 
springing of the arches is sub- 
merged (Fig. 3). 
These researches have thrown a 
new light on a point of controversy 
among scholars, namely, the ques- Fic. 3.—The Breakwater of Puteoli, after an eighteenth century drawing. 
tion as to the exact site of the 
ancient Greelk colony of Palapolis, the mother- | Greek colony life, have emboldened us to believe 
town of Neapolis, the present Naples. This} that here, beneath the foundations of the later 
ancient town was supposed by some authorities | 
to have stood where Naples now is, by others 
to have been further inland towards Aversa. Follow- | 
ing up our hypothesis that the shore was higher 
by nearly 17 feet than it is now, there would be a 
stretch of land extending nearly half a mile out to 
sea at the base of the cliffs of the promontory 
of Posilipo; it is here, where the ruins now under 
water attest to the existence of numerous buildings 
grouped round the Gaiola rocks, that we would 
place Paleepolis. Close by under the lee of this 
extended foreshore we discovered the defensive 
works of an ancient harbour, and we found many 
traces of an ancient coast road, also submerged, 
which ran along the foot of the cliffs and by tunnels 
through some of the little headlands on the eastern Fic. 4.—Ancient tunnel through Headland of the Villa Luisa, Posilipo. 
side of Posilipo (Fig. 4). This road gave an (After an oil painting by Mrs. Holcombe Ingleby.) 
easy means of communication with the neighbouring : 
colonies, and the many proofs we have found) Roman edifices, the site of the vanished town is to be 
of its existence, as well as the geographical situ- | sought. R. T. GUNTHER. 
NO. 1786, VOL. 69] 
