TERRACINA.

TWO-FOLD celebrity attaches to Terracina: it is the site of the ancient Anxur, a city of "shining stones," and it has been renowned since the days of Juvenal, as a nest of robbers and assassins.*

The modern town of Terracina consists of a few steep, narrow, and miserable streets, through which a path leads to the ruins of Anxur. In the cathedral are some remains of the ancient city; the most remarkable of these are the columns of the temple of Apollo. A portion of Terracina is as modern as the time of Pius VI. This pontiff gave celebrity to the town, and rendered his own name famous by his gigantic operations for draining the Pontine Marshes. The drainage of this swampy tract was first attempted by Appius Claudius, about three hundred years before the Christian era, when employed in carrying his celebrated road, the Appian Way, across the Marshes. Repeated attempts were afterwards made in consular, imperial, gothic, and papal times, but none of them were attended with more than partial success. In 1778, Pius commenced his labours, and continued to prosecute them with incredible ardour and vast expense for the period of ten years. To accomplish this one purpose of his mind, he sacrificed human life and apostolic treasures with equal indifference; and that his vigilant eye might be always near to scan the operations of his workmen, he fixed his residence at Terracina, and continually superintended the operations in person. Whilst the value of the undertaking cannot be questioned, the great vanity of the pontiff has detracted from the glory of the work. Pius set out with the determination of persevering in a straight line, despite of all obstacles that might threaten his progress. He designed to restore the Appian Way under the new appellation of the Line of Pius, and with this view he constructed his canal in a direct line from Cisterna to Terracina. The ambition of the pontiff militated against the utility of

* Anxur appears to have been founded by the Volscians, from whom it was taken by the Romans, in the year of the city 348. It occupied the summit of the eminence at the foot of which stands the modern town of Terracina. The ruins of the palace of Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, are still existing; and this edifice having probably been erected upon the substructions of the temple of Jupiter, the remains are regarded with great interest as relics superbi Anxuris-of proud Anxur. This city is frequently alluded to by ancient writers under one or other of its various names of Trachina, Tappasýra, Trachas, Tarracina, or Anxur; but it is by the latter appellation that we usually find mention of it in the poets. From the conspicuous and commanding site of his temple, Jupiter Anxurus was supposed to preside over all the circumjacent country, and to regulate the destiny of its inhabitants:

queis Jupiter Anxurus arvis

Præsidet.

Eneid. vii. 799.

The fields o'er which Anxurian Jove presides.

The poets apply the epithets superbus, splendidus and candidus, to the city of Anxur; the first to denote the proud eminence of its site, and the latter two to express the glittering whiteness not only of the city itself, but also of the lofty rock on which it was built. Polybius places this city amongst those in alliance with Rome when the first treaty was concluded between the Romans and Carthaginians. After it was taken from the Volscians, it became a station for supplying the Roman navy with sailors and stores; and subsequently when the imperial seat was contested by rival claimants, the possession of this port was sought with great eagerness.

his work: his line was carried through the middle of the Marsh, without depth enough to sluice off the water from the lower parts, and yet at an expense that was ruinous to the papal treasury; and, moreover, this undeviating course carried the workmen into the most unhealthy districts of the fens, where they died in hundreds. Pius, however, completed his undertaking, and the tiara and keys, and the pontifical title, claim equal distinction in the Pomptinæ Paludes, with the milestones of Trajan and the tablets of Theodoric. Where the Linea Pia terminates beneath the rock of Terracina, Pius erected the buildings which are seen in our view, consisting of a palace, public offices, wharfs, and granaries.

Nearly half-way up the rock which forms so remarkable an object in the view of Terracina, is seated a hermitage, stuck like a swallow's nest where it is apparently inaccessible. Below there is a deep excavation, near the gate towards Naples, which serves for the station of some persons employed by the government. The rock above, upon which rest the ruins of the palace of Theodoric, forms part of the range of mountains separated from the great chain of the Apennines, by the valley of Garigliano.

NAPLES.

APLES occupies the site of two ancient Greek cities, Palæpolis and Neapolis, though it inherits the name of the latter. Neapolis derived its appellation, which signifies the new city, from the Cumæans who settled in this locality, and probably rebuilt or enlarged the old city of Parthenope, so named from one of the Syrens who was said to have resided there. Livy relates, that Palæpolis and Neapolis joined the Samnites in a confederacy against Rome, and that after the space of two years the former city was taken by the Romans, at which time also the latter, which was then the more inconsiderable town of the two, probably shared the same fate. In little more than half a century from this period, Neapolis appears to have attached itself closely to the interests of Rome, and to have acquired under the protection of the republic no small degree of prosperity and importance. Its fidelity to Rome excited the resentment of Hannibal, who ravaged and laid waste the Neapolitan territory, but shrunk from the difficulties of an attack upon the city itself. For a long series of years after its gallant repulse of the Carthaginian, we find no mention of Neapolis; and it is probable that in the interval it enjoyed undisturbed tranquillity, and cultivated the advantages of its fertile soil and unrivalled situation. It was during this peaceful period, embracing the fall of the republic and the infancy of the empire, that its environs became the fashionable

*The Pontine Marches, so infamous for robbery and murder in the days of Juvenal, had lost none of their ancient fame in the early part of the present century. The situation of Terracina as a frontier town between Rome and Naples, rendered it the stronghold of banditti, who escaped pursuit by fleeing as circumstances required into either State. Scarcely twenty years have elapsed since organized bands of brigands pursued a fearful system of mutilation or murder to enforce ransom for those unfortunate people who fell into their hands. In 1826, so many forts and stations were established by the Austrians along the line of road near the frontier, that the brigands have since had no chance of successful attack or escape, and the scowling looks of the inhabitants upon the traveller, who now passes in safety, have, under such control, lost their terrors.