16 0?i the supposed Change 



The olive tree has been known in Greece from time 

 immemorial. See Theophrast's history of plants, Lib. 

 iv. and v. and notes. At what time it was introduced 

 into Italy, is not recorded. Fenestella, says Pliny, re- 

 lates that in the age of Tarquinius Priscus, the olive 

 was not known in Italy, Spain or Africa. It was how- 

 ever cultivated in all parts of Italy, in Spain and Gaul, 

 long before the christian ersi....Plin. A^at. Hist. lib. xv. 

 ca. 1. 



We have then the data to ascertain the ancient climate 

 of Italy with great precision. In our country, olives 

 will grow well in Virginia, but frosts are too frequent 

 and severe to permit their cultivation, to any valuable 

 purpose. In South Carolina, they are cultivated to ad- 

 vantage. Italy then has had, from very early ages, a 

 climate as mild as that of South Carolina. 



The fig seems to have been a native of Italy. Plu- 

 tarch, in his life of Romulus, tells us, that Romulus and 

 Remus were found under a fig tree, where they were 

 nourished by a Vv^olf. Whether this was true or not, it 

 is certain that the Romans paid a particular veneration to 

 a fig-tree that was in the forum, " ob memoriam ejus, 

 quce nutrix fuit Romuli et Remi conditoris appellata," 

 says Flint/. Lib. xv. xviii. If the fig tree is a native of 

 Italy, the climate could never have been colder than the 

 Carolinas in America. This evidence is incontestible, 

 and it totally overthrows the modern hypothesis of the 

 severity of the winters in ancient Italy. It is needless 

 to swell this argument by mentioning many other fruits, 

 as dates, pomgranates and others, that will not thrive in 

 cold climates. 



The same plants grew and produced abundantly in 

 Thessaly and Macedonia ; although the ancients repre- 

 sented the latter as a cold country. It was doubtless 

 colder than Greece, perhaps colder than Italy ; but cer- 

 tainly could not be much colder than the Carolinas in 

 America.* 



The time of sowing corn in Italy is a confirmation of 

 vdiat is here advanced. Virgil directs the husbandman 



* Herodotus, in Thalia, speaks of the seasons in Greece as 

 " agreeable and temperate. "....&c?. 106. 



