of Syracufe, though D'Orville thinks it was a tomb. It confifts of a pedeftal, nine feet fquare, built with feven, courfes of ftones. It has the zocle entire, and faint traces of the cornice. Upon this was placed a round building, of which eight courfes of the ftone-work remain, but much shaken.

After four miles riding from the Agulia, the travellers came to a ridge of high rocks that stretch from east to west, and entirely fhut up the plain. On the fummit are the ruins of the walls with which the ancient city of Syracufe was furrounded. An afcent is cut through the rock, at a place called Scala Greca, where the tower that was surprised by the Romans is fuppofed to have stood.

From this ftation the traveller had a full view of Syracuse and its environs. The ancient city was of a triangular form, and its circuit, according to Strabo, amounted to a hundred and eighty ftadia, or twenty-two English miles, and four furlongs. Our author at first suspected this account to be exaggerated, but, after spending two days in tracing the ruins, and making reasonable allowances for the encroachments of the fea, he was convinced of the exactness of the meafurement. About eighteen thousand inhabitants are now contained in it. In respect of the dwellings, they are far from being proportioned to the architecture or opulence of ancient Syracufe. The cathedral, now dedicated to our Lady of the Pillar, was the temple of Minerva, on the fummit of which was fixed her ftatue, holding a broad refulgent fhield. The church is made out of the old building; the walls of the cella are thrown down, and only as much left in pillars as is neceffary to fupport the roof. This temple is built in the old Doric proportions; its exterior dimenfions are a hundred and eighty-five feet in length, and seventy-five in breadth. The columns taper, have twenty flutings, and measure at the bafe fix feet five inches; their height, including the capital, and a small focle inftead of base, is thirty-two feet nine inches. There are alfo fome remains of Diana's temple, but not remarkable.

Near the quay is a large pool of water, defended from the fea by a wall, and almost hidden by houses on every other fide. The water is not falt, but brackish, and fit for no purpofe but washing linen. This is the celebrated fountain of Arethufa, the paramour of the faithful Alpheus.

One of the memorials of ancient Syracufe is the catacombs. At ftated distances our author came to large circular rooms lined with stucco, and pierced at top to admit light and air. On each fide of the walls are receffes cut into the rock, and in the Aloor of thofe cavities coffins of all fizes have been hollowed Vol. LX. Ca. 1785. T

cut,

out, fome even fo fmall as to be fit for nothing but the recep tion of a cat or a lap-dog. In fome places there are twenty troughs, one behind another; fkeletons have often been found in them, with a piece of money in their mouths. Mr. Swinburne informs us that he faw a gold can of the time of Icates, that was just taken out of the jaws of a body found in one of the tombs.

The traveller now afcended the hill to a convent of Capuchin friars, the gardens belonging to which are remarkable. They are in fome measure fubterraneous, being contained in the areas of immenfe excavations, made by cutting stone for the ancient city.

In the part of Syracufe anciently called Tycha, the outermoft wall, erected by Dionyfius the Elder, is vifible, without interruption, for fome miles, following all the finuofities of the hill from Scala Græca, through which the traveller entered this ancient inclosure. At a fmall diftance he came to a fecond gate, of which a great part yet remains. He thence traced a street by the marks of wheels deeply worn in the rock, and by the holes in the middle where the beafts that drew the carriages placed their feet. This indicates, fays Mr. Swinburne, that vehicles in common ufe were drawn by horfes yoked one before, another.' Upon the fuppofition that more than one horfe was employed in the vehicles, the inference is doubtless conclufive.

At the promontory of Epipola our author discovered the traces of a high road. Here, he thinks, ftood that part of the wall that had fix doors in it, and was called Hexapylum. A little farther the hill grows contracted, and almost covered with the ruins of a fortrefs, probably Eurialus. On the south fide of the city, parallel with its ruins, runs a ftream brought from Monte Crimiti in fubterraneous channels. It was thus kept out of fight till it entered the walls, left an enemy fhould difcover it, and cut off the fupply.

On the fkirts of Neapolis, a part of ancient Syracuse, is the extraordinary fpot known by the name of the large Latomia, which our author thus describes.

It confifts of a very fpacious court, or area, round which runs a wall of rock of great height, fo artfully cut as to caufe the upper part to project very vifibly out of the perpendicular line, and thereby defeat every attempt to climb up. Near the fummit of the rock is a channel which conveys part of the waters of the aqueduct to the city, and can with cafe at any time be ftopped and turned into the latomia. In the centre of the court is a huge infulated ftone, and upon it the ruins of a guard-house; vaft caverns penetrate into the heart of the rocks,

and

and ferve for faltpetre works and roperies; but the excavation that appears moft worthy of our notice, and gives name to the whole place, is that in the north-well corner, called the Ear of Dionyfius. It is eighteen feet wide and fifty-eight high, and runs into the heart of the hill, in the form of a capital S; the fides are chiffeled very fmooth, and the roof coved, gradually narrowing almost to as fharp a point as a Gothic arch; along this point runs a groove, or channel, which ferved, as is fuppofed, to collect the founds that rofe from the speakers below, and convey them to a pipe in a small double cell above, where they were heard with the greateft diftinctnefs; but this hearingplace having been too much opened and altered has loft its virtue, as those who have been let down from the top by a rope have found. There is a recefs like a chamber about the middle of the cave, and the bottom of the grotto is rounded off. It is impoffible, after an attentive furvey of this place, to enter tain a doubt of its having been conftructed intentionally for a prifon, and a listening place. Rings are cut out of the angles of the walls, where no doubt the more obnoxious criminals were fastened: the eccho at the mouth of the grotto is very loud; the tearing of a piece of paper made as great a noise as a fmart blow of a cudgel on a board would have done; a gun gave a report like thunder that vibrated for fome feconds, but, farther in, thefe extraordinary effects ceased. I have read in a Sicilian author of the last century, that an eminent musician compofed a canon for two voices, which when fung in this cavern, appeared to be performed by four.'

The diocefe of Syracuse produces above forty different forts of wine. The honey of the hills is as clear as amber, and of a moft delicious flavour. Vegetables are admirable in their kinds, especially broccoli, which grows to a prodigious fize.

From Syracufe the traveller directed his route by Catania to Mount Etna. After afcending to a great height, his guide pronounced all farther progrefs impracticable, as certain rocks were then hidden beneath the fnow. Mr. Swinburne was therefore obliged to content himself with a diftant furvey of the awful fcene. Defcending the mountain he vifited the celebrated chefaut-tree, called from its aftonishing fize Caftagno dicento cavalli, as fuppofing it capable of sheltering a hundred horfe under its boughs. This wonderful production confifts of a trunk, now fplit to the furface of the earth; but, as Mr. Swinburne found, by digging all round, united into one body at a very small depth below. Of this trunk are formed five divifions, each of which fends forth enormous branches.

At the town of Taormina, the ancient Tauromenium, are the remains of a theatre placed between two high rocks. The arcades are all compofed of brick, the rest of the walls of pebbles, and covered with marble cafings. The whole range

of the vomitoria and galleries that encircled the feats is yet standing as high from the ground as the bottom of the fecond order. The profcenium, which formed the chord of the arch, is almost entire.

* Were I to name a place, fays Mr. Swinburne, that poffeffes every grand and beauteous qualification for the forming of a picture; a place on which I fhould wish to employ the powers of a Salvator or a Pouffin, Taormina fhould be the object of my choice. Every thing belonging to it is drawn in a large fublime style; the mountains tower to the very clouds, the caftles and ruins rife on mighty maffes of perpendicular rock, and feem to defy the attacks of mortal enemies; Etna, with all its fnowy and woody fweeps, fills half the horizon; the sea is ftretched out upon an immenfe fcale, and occupies the remainder of the profpect.'

Having visited Meffina, Mr. Swinburne took his departure for Italy, where in a fhort time he reached Naples, after completing a tour by fea and land of nine huudred and fourteen computed miles. Fatiguing as this excurfion must often have been to the traveller, we can fay with truth that we have never received greater entertainment from any work of the kind than in the account delivered of it by this agreeable writer. Mr. Swinburne has profecuted his fubject on a plan the moft happily adapted for affording both profit and delight. By the union of hiftory with defcription, and the frequent addition, likewife, of pleafing anecdotes, as well as of political remarks, he has prefented the public with a work not lefs diftinguished for useful information than for the attractive qualifications of fentiment and tafte, confpicuous through the whole of his narrative..

A

Archæologia. Vol. VII. (Concluded, from Page 187.)

Rticle XXI. contains Observations on a Crystal Vase in the Poffeffion of the Earl of Belborough. By Thomas Pownall, Efq.- Previous to the account of this curious piece of antiquity, Mr. Pownall ftates fome of the customs obferved by the ancients at their convivial entertainments, particularly that of libation; and he likewise attempts to afcertain the deities to whom this ceremony was ufually performed.

With respect to the convivial libations of the ancients, it is generally admitted, that the mafter of the feast took a patera, or grace-cup, filled with wine; that he poured a little of the liquor on the table, in the fame manner as the priest did upon the altar; and that after tafting the cup, he delivered it to the perfon next him upon his right hand, who, having fol

lowed

lowed his example, it was regularly tranfmitted round the guests.

Though antiquarian writers are commonly agreed, that the ancients, at their banquets, had three veffels placed on the fideboard, or fet upon the table, to make the three libations to the three objects of their devotion, after the eatables were removed, there fubfifts among them a difference of opinion, relative not only to the deities thus honoured, but to the stated order in which the feveral libations were performed. According to the teftimony adduced from Virgil, in defcribing the entertainment given by Dido, thofe deities were Jupiter Zevios, Bacchus Lætitiæ Dator, and Bona Juno. We are informed, however, by Athenæus, that among the Greeks the first libation was made Αγάθω Δαίμονι, with a cup of pure undiluted wine; and that afterwards "one was made to Jupiter Soter, with a cup of diluted wine. Others fay that the first cup was confecrated to Mercury, the fecond to the Graces, and the third to Jupiter Soter. But antiquarians differ chiefly about the third; fome afcribing it Alaba Aaipovi, fome to Juno or Dea Bona, and others to Mercury.

Amidst all thefe various and differing opinions, fays Mr. Pownall, I will venture to interpofe my own, in which they may all meet; which is, that thefe Trina Numina were the oÌ Muxia, the Dei Penetrales, or Penates, the Dii Præftites, or Præfides Hofpitii, Menfæ, & Cubilis. The two Lares, and Mercury their father, were thefe Trina Numinia. This word Lares, as well as the words Genius and Aaiuw, were all general terms; and were therefore applicable to the numen of any deity, to whom, as to the Dii Præftites, or Penates, this or that city, or houfe, was more particularly devoted. Under thefe general ideas Ovid defcribes them,

Mille Lares, Geniumque ducis qui tradidit illos
Urbs habet; et vici Numina Trina colunt."

Ovid Faft. lib. V. 145.

Thefe Lares might have a thousand different names in different parts; but they, with the "Genius ducis qui tradidit illos," always made the Trina Numina. The Lares were only two. They were alfo generally understood to be male and female, the Deus and Dea. Whence Virgil, speaking of an ill-fated perfon, and defcribing him as having no Lares, fays,

"Nec Deus hunc mensâ, Dea nec dignata cubili eft."

With the Egyptians thefe Trina Numina were Mercury and Ofiris and Ifis; at Ilium, the Dii Penates were faid to be Apollo and Neptune and Vefta. At Carthage they were what the Romans called Jupiter Hofpitalis, Bacchus, and Bona Juno. At Athens, Athena was one. Caftor and Pollux were alfo faid to be the Gamelli Dei. In fhort, they were fo different in different countries, according to the different manifeftations

T 3