REVIEWS THE TEMPLE OF SERAPIS. 339 



the low terrace of La Starza cannot supply. The rocky clilf, per- 

 forated by the Lithodomi, tells the same tale of former submergence 

 as the pierced marble columns ; but the rock, thougb inscribed with 

 the same characters, cannot tell all that is revealed by the pillars of 

 the ancient temple of Serapis. It is something of no slight imppr- 

 • tance to the geologist to ascertain that any great change in the rela- 

 tive levels of sea and land has taken place within the recent human 

 era, and this the temple columns establish at a glance. But if the 

 date of the structure, and the uses of the edifice, can be estab- 

 lished, far more accurate approximations may be made to a definite 

 measurement of the period required for such geological phenomena 

 as are there disclosed ; and here it is that the scholar and the anti- 

 quary come to the aid of the scientific geologist ; and from their com- 

 bined labors truths of great value, and with a mutual relation of 

 peculiar significance, are educed and rendered generally available. 



Sir Edmund Head undertakes the solution of three questions, all 

 of an antiquarian character, yet each of them possessing^ considera- 

 ble importance in any discussion relating to the geological phenomena 

 exhibited by the ruins of the so called Temple of Serapis at Pozzuoli. 

 These are — 



1st. "Was it a temple of Serapis ? 

 2nd. What is its proper age ? 



3rd. Can any light be thrown upon its history, or on the dates of 

 the various changes of level ? 



To the first of these reference has been already made. Alexandria 

 was the great seat of the worship of Serapis in its later Egyptian 

 form ; nor was his worship abolished in that famous commercial capital 

 till the reign of Theodosius the Grreat, — the effective ally of orthodoxy 

 against the Arian heresy, — when the ancient pagan rites were sum- 

 marily abolished by Theophilus the archbishop of Alexandria, and 

 the Alexandrian Temple of Serapis was demolished, or converted to 

 the use of Christian devotees. The overthrow of the temple at 

 Pozzuoli followed in like manner. " It served as a fortress when 

 Olympius retreated to it, as the stronghold of paganism during those 

 tumults, which led to the destruction of the temple itself under 

 Theodosius." 



Signor Carelli, who denies the sacred character of the ruined 

 edifice, inclines rather to the idea of its having been public baths, 

 but the iEsculapian attributes of Serapis render the bath room pecu- 



