of the Iflarid of Ponza. 369 
According to Suetonius, Claudius employed thirty thou- 
fand men eleven years on this great work, intended to convey 
the fuperfluous water of the lake into the bed of the river Liris, 
now called Garigliano ; and I make no doubt, but that if it 
was cleared and repaired, it would again anfwer that purpofe. 
In its prefent ftate it is a molt magnificent monument of 
antiquity. 
The whole country from Arpino, the native place of Ma- 
rius^, by Ifola, Sora, Civitella, and Capiftrello, to the lake 
of Celano, is, in my opinion, infinitely more beautiful and 
piilurefque than any fpot I have yet feen on the Alps, in Savoy, 
Switzerland, or the Tyrol. The road is not paflable for ? car- 
riages, and indeed is fcarcely fo, even in fummer, for horfes or 
mules, and is often infefted with banditti ; a party of which, 
confifting of twenty-two, had quartered themfelves in a village 
which I pafled through, and left it but a week before my 
arrival. There are many wolves and fome bears ill the adja- 
cent mountains, which alfo commit their depredations in the 
winter. The tyger-cat, gatto pardo , or lynx, is fometimes 
found in the woods of this part of Abruzzo. 
The road follows the windings of the Garigliano, which is 
here a beautiful clear trout ftream, with a great variety of 
cafcades and water- falls, particularly a double one at Ifola, 
near which place Cicero had a villa, and there are ftill fome 
remains of it, though converted to a chapel. The valley is 
extenfive, and rich with fruit trees, corn, vines, and olives. 
Large trails of land are here and there covered with woods of 
* Marius had a large villa, about twelve miles diflant from Arpino. I 
went to vilit the fpot, oil which now Hands the only convent of the auflere 
order of La Trappe in Italy, It is in the Pope’s Hate, and has been evidently 
built of the ruins of Marius’s hoarfe, and its prefent name is Cafa Mari % 
oak 
