LETTER XXIV. 
THAT you fhould recoiled no claflicaf 
information concerning the city of 
Poeftum, is not very furprizing, as I believe 
that in the ancient authors you have read, 
there are but two paflages in which it oc- 
curs? one in the Georgia* 
Forfitan et pinguis horfos qua cur a colendi 
Qrnarety canerem^ biferique rofaria Pafti. 
The other in the Metamorphofes, 
Leucojiamque petit, tepidique rofaria "Pcefli. 
The original name of this city was Pofi- 
donia, from naareifuv, Neptunus, to whom it 
was dedicated. When, and why, the Ro- 
mans changed its name to Pceftum, I do 
not know. It is fituated in the gulph of 
Salermo, on the weftern coaft of Italy, 
about 60 miles fouth of Naples. Whether 
it was built by the Sybarites or by the Do- 
rians, is matter of difpute; it is certainly 
however of very remote antiquity, if it be 
true, as the Sicilian Diodorus tells us, that 
Hercules in his travels refted on a rock in 
the 
