262 



VESUVIUS AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 



[1854. 



The hills on the northern side of this late — the walls of the ancient 

 cralier — ar e richly covered with chestnut trees and vines. The 

 rim of the bowl on the southern side has been broken down, just 

 as we have seen the southern side of the ancient crater of Vesu- 

 vius carried away. It is in consequence--of a celebrated " cut " 

 made by Agrippa — the bold engineer- statesman 10 whom Augus- 

 tus owes so much of the eclat of his reign — that we see the lake 

 of Averaus reduced to the limited dimensions of a mile and a 

 half in circumference, and five hundred feet in depth. Between 

 it and the sea, towards the south-east, we can see the famous 

 Lacus Zucrinus, itself a crater, lower down on the flank of the 

 ancient volcano. Into this Lake Agrippa admitted the sea by a 

 canal ; then by another canal he let down Avernus into Lucrinus 

 — thus forming a magnificent double dock, where the Roman 

 fleet, quadrupled, might float securely. This port, a grand topic 

 with the poets and historians of the day, existed in good order 

 until a.d. 1538, when the long dormant volcano over which the 

 united lakes reposed suddenly awoke. — A short distance to the 

 south-east, you may observe a conspicuous hill, resembling the 

 cone of a volcano. This is the celebrated Monte Nuovo, which 

 was thrown up in the space of forty-eight hours on the occasion 

 now spoken of. After a succession of volcanic shocks a fissure 

 took place near the Lucrine Lake ; from the aperture rose to a 

 great height, first cold water, then hot; — then followed masses of 

 ashes and lapilli, descending on the country in torrents of mud; 

 then followed vollies of dry ashes and red-hot pumice stones. 

 And in forty-eight hours a hill was formed 440 feet in height, 

 and a mile and a half in circumference, filling up a large portion 

 of the Lucrine Lake, and ruining Agrippa's harbour. On the 

 top of the hill is a crater one fourth of a mile in circumference, 

 and 419 feet- deep. It is only of late years that the scoriae on its 

 surface have become sufficiently decomposed to admit of the 

 growth of small trees thereupon. The line of the coast in the 

 immediate neighbourhood was, during this explosion, elevated 

 to such an extent that the sea seemed to have retired 400 paces. 

 ■ — The protrusion of the mountain of Jorullo, in Mexico, in A.d. 

 1759, is a well known parallel to Monte Nuovo. Both are inte- 

 resting, as throwing light on the nascent condition of volcanic 

 hills. — To the south-west of the Lucrine, you. come to Fusaro 

 (the old Acherusian), famous to this day for its oysters, another 

 water-filled crater, and still further on is Mare Morte, another. 

 To arrive at the latter, you pass through Elysium — the tract which 

 is said to be the original and veritable prototype of that fair crea- 

 tion of the poets. 



To the north of Avernus, I should have mentioned just now, 

 one more crater is traceable in this region ; and a fragment of its 

 ancient walls constitutes the acropolis of the venerable Cumas, 

 the earliest Greek settlement in Italy. — The Lake Licola, to the 

 north of Cumae, which looks like one of the system of volcanic 

 lakes, which we have been tracing out, is in realhy, it is said, the 

 remains of the canal which Nero is known to have commenced 

 with the intention of carrying it through the Pontine marshes as 

 far as Ostia. 



From Mare Morte, or rather from the beach called Miliscola — 

 corrupted from Militis schola, an ancient military parade-ground 

 ■ — we take the ferry and cross a narrow strait of two miles to the 

 island of Procida, and from thence, over two miles mere, of sea, 

 to Ischia. These two pyramidal masses — so impressed on the 

 memory of the visitor to Naples, and so celebrated in song and 

 history — are stated by those who have scientifically examined 

 them, to be parts of one great volcanic mountain. Here, prior 

 to the awakening of Vesuvius in a.d. 79, was the principal safety 



valve of this fiery region. — Homer, Pindar, Virgil, and Ovid cele- 

 brate the eruptions of Mount Epomaeus in t]iis identical Ischia; 

 and here Typhoeus was fabled to be buried. Once only since 

 the Christian era, has it exhibited activity. In 1302 great dam- 

 age was done by an eruption of lava. 



We now make the trajet back from Ischia to the mainland 

 again. We pass the conspicuous promontory ofMisenum — re- 

 taining, in accordance with the poet's prediction, " aeternum per 

 saecula nomen." On the left we coast along by the once volup- 

 tuous and still beautifully situated Baife — the favorite watering- 

 place of southern Italyin its old palmy days. As you gaze now 

 into the sea two hundred yards from the shore, you see the 

 sunken substructions of villas, temples, and baths — the former 

 haunts of luxurious emperors, patricians, poets, and orators. This 

 coast, too, has known the presence of Hannibal, Alaric, Genseric, 

 and Totila. — You have Pozzuoli — the old Puteoli before you — 

 covering the flanks and summit of a bold hill jutting out into the 

 sea; the dark masses which you observe at regular distances 

 above the sunny surface of the calm water, are the piers of its 

 ancient mole, once surmounted by a light. We land on the 

 west side of the hill. We are conducted at once to the Serapeon 

 which stands near — a temple of the Egyptian Serapis — a ruin 

 which has become memorable among physical observers- — as 

 proving to the eye, by the perforations of the marine borers 

 called Lithodomi in its still erect columns, that the land, subse- 

 quently to the erection of the building, must have gently sunk 

 and remained submerged for many years, and then that it must 

 as gently again have been raised. The perforations on the co- 

 lumns are now seen at a height of twelve feet; they cover a space 

 of nine feet; and then above them comes an uninjured space of 

 twenty feet, which must have been the portion of the columns 

 appearing above the surface of the sea, when the stratum on 

 which they stand had sunk down to the lowest point. The shore is 

 supposed to be again descending. In order to approach the pil- 

 lars for close examination, you have to walk through an inch or 

 two of salt water. The edifice has been large. Its exterior co- 

 lonade was 140. feet long, 122 feet wide. Here was found the 

 remarkable sitting figure of Serapis, having his hand on a three- 

 headed dog, now to be seen in the Museum at Naples. 



We must not delay in Puteoli, though its associations tempt 

 one to do so. As the southern terminus of the Appian way — a 

 high road to Rome — it was, before Naples existed, the principal 

 focus of the Italian trade with the East. The Greek colonists 

 from Cumre called the place Dicaearchia; but the Romans pre- 

 ferred the appellation "Puteoli," as having, in sound at least, 

 an allusion to trie hot sulphureous " wells," which abound in (his 

 volcanic locality. — Here we tread in the foot-prints of St. Paul; 

 and standing on the now solitary beach, we can perhaps more 

 vividly realize the interesting fact than we do when surrounded 

 by the mosaics and marbles which encrust his shrines in Rome. 

 The Aposlle, as we know from Acts xxvii. 13, landed at Puteoli 

 a prisoner in chains, and after his perilous voyage was allowed to 

 rest here for seven days. — On a neighbouring rising ground you 

 may be conducted over a remarkably perfect amphitheatre [480 

 by 382 feet], where, in a.d. 66, Nero contended publicly with 

 wild animals, and where, in the time of Diocletian, Januarius, 

 the supposed patron of Naples, with other Christians, suffered 

 martyrdom. Here you may also be conducted over no incon- 

 siderable remains of the Villa Puteolana of Cicero — familiar to 

 the reader of his letters to Atticus, and distinguished as the spot 

 where he wrote his Qv&stiones Acadcmicce and his work De 

 Futo; and also as the place where the Emperor Hadrian died. 



