1804] 
tion not very eafy to determine. The 
beautiful equeftrian ftatue, now to be feen 
at Portici, in the quarter of La Garde 
Royale, feems to atteft, that under the 
reign of Adrian, Herculaneum was ftill a 
flourifhing city; and that even then it was 
decorated with new monuments of art. 
The charaéters of the infcription, legible 
oo the bafe of that flatue, accord perfe@ly 
with the age of Adrian: —M. Nonwnio: 
M. F. Batso. P.R. Procos HER- 
CULANENSES. 
In that portion of the fatirical romance 
attributed to Petronius Arbiter, which 
has been folely preferved in the manufcript 
of Trau, mention is made of gardens fitu- 
ated, if not at Pompeii itfelf, at leaft ad- 
joining that city, and which had been 
for abuut a year the acquifition of Trim- 
alchion. On a fuppohiion that this piece 
be confidered as authentic, we mutt take 
it for granted, that it could not have been 
compcfed before the reign of the la& An- 
tonines. According to this fynchronifm, 
the paflage in quettion would feem to in- 
dicate that in the courfe of the third cen- 
tury, Pompeii ftill figured amongit the 
cities of Campania. Inthe Table or Chart 
that bears the name of Peutinger, Her- 
culaneum and Pompeiiare noticed as cities 
then in exiftence. Herculaneum is there 
placed at the diftance of eleven miles from 
Naples. This is an error—we fhould read 
fix miles. A litera,y monument, the cre. 
dit of which on this point is not to be 
fufpected, authorizes this correCtion. But 
in the Itinerary of Antoninus, Hercula- 
neum and Pompeii are no longer to be 
found, Thus according to ftrong appear- 
ances, it muft have been in the interval 
that elapfed between the epoch at which 
the Table of Peutinger was confructed, and 
the time when the Itinerary of Anioninus 
was compiled, that the two cities muft 
have totally difappeared from the furface 
of the earth. 
The Table of Peutinger is evidenily of 
a date pofterior to the reign of Con.tan- 
tine the Great. Thus Herculaneum, Pom. 
peii and their territory, wniverfitas agro- 
rum intra fines cujufque civitatis were yet 
fubfifting at the epoch when that prince 
transferred the feat of empire to Byzan- 
tium, that is to fay, in the year 330. 
Theodoric reigned, it is well known, from 
the year 493 till 526. It is likewife afecr- 
tained'that in the Jife-time of that prince, 
there was an eruption of Vefuvius which 
occafioned dreadful ravages in Campania ; 
this appears from a letter of Caflicdorus. 
Withing to remedy the misfortunes that 
had happened on that occafion, the king 
Deftruéiion of Herculaneum and Pompeii. 
-event. 
O47 
ordered the prefect of the pretorthip, Fauf- 
tus, to fend into the territories of Naples 
and Nola, a perfon of acknowledged pro- 
bity, to examine and afcertain the damages 
that every citizen might have fuftained, 
and to difcharge the perfons that were lia- 
ble, from the burthen of the impofts, in 
proportion to what they might have fuf- 
fered. When itis obferved, that on this 
occafion, the prince makes no mention 
either of Herculaneum or of Pompeii, nor 
of the territory of thofe two cities, and 
that, neverthelefs, they ought naturally 
to have fuffered the mof; we are inclined, 
we are even authorifed to believe that they 
had already difappeared anterior to that 
There are therefore, the frongeft 
appearances from which to infer, 1. That 
they had, before that period, ceafed to 
be inhabited. 2. That thofe of the citi- 
zens who had -efcaped the difafter, after 
having taken refuge, fome at Naples, 
others at Nola, had eftablifhed themfeives 
in thofe twocities ; and 3. That by confe- 
quence, the diftri€t of Pompeii had been 
united to that of Nola, and the difri& 
of Herculaneum to that of Naples. But - 
at what precife epoch did this event take 
place? It is no vain conjecture to place 
it about the year 471. In that year, 
Count Marcellinus makes mention of a 
dreadful eruption which covered the whole 
face of Europe with afhes: thefe are his 
terms: ‘* Vefuvius mons Campania, tor- 
ridus inteftinis ignibus exefiuans exufia vo- 
muit vifcera, nociurnifg; in die tenebris 
omnem Europea factem minuto contexit pul- 
vere.” He adds, that at Conftantinople, 
commemoration was annually made of that 
event on the 8th of the ides of November, 
‘* Hujus metuendi memoriam cineris Byzan- 
tit annué celebrant vii. idus Novembris. 
This eruption of the voleano which took 
place in 471, muit have been the moft fa- 
talof all. It totally changed the confor- 
mation of Veluvius. Antiently that 
moun: rofe in the manner of a peak, hav- 
ing but a fingle fummir, which could be 
only afcended on one fide, and that with 
gieat difficulty. Its cimex or top, pre- 
jented a fort of plat-form, almott every 
where leve!, as Strabo informs us (page 
257). And laftly, we learn from Dion 
Cafius, that the flamcs iflued from the 
middle of the cimex, and that the flanks or 
the outfide of the mountain reprefeated, 
in fome meafure, a vaft amphitheatre. 
At prefent, there only remains a fmol] 
portion of this cone that looks towards the 
north, and is feparated from the aétual 
crater. It was therefore, according to all 
appearance, at the above epoch that the 
4 B2 change 
