Next to the distant isle his sight he turns,
That o'er the thunderstruck Tiphæus burns:
Enrag'd, his wide-extended jaws expire,
In angry whirlwinds, blasphemies and fire,
Threat'ning, if loosen'd from his dire abodes,
Again to challenge Jove, and fight the gods.
On Mount Vesuvio next he fix'd his eyes,
And saw the smoking tops confus'dly rise;
(A hideous ruin!) that with earthquakes rent
A second Ætna to the view present.
Miseno's cape and Bauli last he view'd,
That on the sea's extremest borders stood.

Silius Italicus here takes notice, that the poisonous vapours which arose from the lake Averno in Hannibal's time, were quite dispersed at the time when he wrote his poem; because Agrippa, who lived between Hannibal and Silius, had cut down the woods that inclosed the lake, and hindered these noxious steams from dissipating, which were immediately scattered as soon as the winds and fresh air were let in among them.

THE ISLE OF CAPREA.

Having stayed longer at Naples than I at first designed, I could not dispense with myself from making a little voyage to the Isle of Caprea, as being very desirous to see a place which had been the retirement of Augustus for some time, and the residence of Tiberius for several years. The island lies four miles in length from east to west, and about one in breadth. The western part, for about two miles in length, is a continued rock, vastly high, and inaccessible on the sea side: it has, however, the greatest town in the island, that goes under the name of Ano-Caprea, and is in several places covered with a very fruitful soil. The eastern end of the isle rises up in precipices very near as high, though not quite so long, as the western. Between these eastern and western mountains lies a slip of lower ground, which runs across the island, and

It is hid

is one of the pleasantest spots I have seen. with vines, figs, oranges, almonds, olives, myrtles, and fields of corn, which look extremely fresh and beautiful, and make up the most delightful little landscape imaginable, when they are surveyed from the tops of the neighbouring mountains. Here stands the town of Caprea, the bishop's palace and two or three convents. In the midst of this fruitful tract of land rises a hill, that was probably covered with buildings in Tiberius's time. There are still several ruins on the side of it, and about the top are found two or three dark galleries, low built, and covered with masons' work, though, at present, they appear over-grown with grass. I entered one of them that is a hundred paces in length. I observed, as some of the countrymen were digging into the sides of this mountain, that what I took for solid earth, was only heaps of brick, stone, and other rubbish, skinned over with a covering of vegetables. But the most considerable ruin is that which stands on the very extremity of the eastern promontory, where are still some apartments left, very high and arched at top: I have not, indeed, seen the remains of any ancient Roman buildings, that have not been roofed with either vaults or arches. The rooms, I am mentioning, stand deep in the earth, and have nothing like windows or chimneys, which makes me think they were formerly either bathing places or reservoirs of water. An old hermit lives at present among the ruins of this palace, who lost his companion a few years ago by a fall from the precipice. He told me they had often found medals and pipes of lead, as they dug among the rubbish, and that not many years ago they discovered a paved road running under ground, from the top of the mountain to the sea side, which was afterwards confirmed to me by a gentleman of the island. There is a very noble prospect from this place. On the one side lies a vast extent of seas, that runs abroad further than the eye can reach. Just opposite stands the green promontory of Surrentum, and on the other

Iside the whole circuit of the bay of Naples. This prospect, according to Tacitus, was more agreeable before the burning of Vesuvio; that mountain probably, which, after the first eruption, looked like a great pile of ashes, was, in Tiberius's time, shaded with woods and vineyards; for I think Martial's epigram may here serve as a comment to Tacitus.

·Hic est pampineis viridis Vésuvius umbris,

Presserat hic madidos nobilis uva lacus.

Hac juga quàm Nisa colles plus Bacchus amavit:
Hoc nuper Satyri monte dedere choros.
Hæc Veneris sedes, Lacedæmone gratior illi;

Hic locus Herculeo nomine clarus erat.
Cuncta jacent flammis et tristi mersa favillâ :
Nec superi vellent hoc licuisse sibi.

Vesuvio cover'd with the fruitful vine,

Lib. 2. ep. 105.

10

Here flourish'd once, and ran with floods of wine, a

Here Bacchus oft to the cool shades retir'd,

And his own native Nisa less admir'd;

Oft to the mountain's airy tops advanc'd,

The frisking Satyrs on the summitst danc'd ; (732
Alcides here, here Venus grac'd the shore,
Nor lov'd her fav'rite Lacedæmon more.

Now piles of ashes, spreading all around,

In undistinguish'd heaps deform the ground,
The gods themselves the ruin'd seats bemoan,

And blame the mischiefs that themselves have done.

f

This view must still have been more pleasant, when the whole bay was encompassed with so long a range of buildings, that it appeared to those, who looked on it at a distance, but as one continued city. On both the shores of that fruitful bottom, which I have before mentioned, are still to be seen the marks of ancient edifices; particularly on that which looks towards the south there is a little kind of mole, which seems to have been the foundation of a palace; unless we may suppose that the Pharos of Caprea stood there, which Statius takes notice of in his poem that invites his wife to Naples, and is, I think, the most natural among the Silvæ.

Nec desunt varia circùm oblectamina vitæ,
Sive vaporiferas, blandissima littora, Bajas,
Enthea fatidica seu visere tecta Sibyllæ,
Dulce sit, iliacoque jugum memorabile remo:
Seu tibi Bacchei vineta madentia Gauri,
Teleboumque domos, trepidis ubi dulcia nautis
Lumina noctivaga tollit Pharus æmula lunæ,
Caraque non molli juga Surrentina Lyao.

The blissful seats with endless pleasures flow,
Whether to Baja's sunny shores you go,
And view the sulphur to the baths convey'd,
Or the dark grot of the prophetic maid,
Or steep Miseno from the Trojan nam'd,
Or Gaurus for its flowing vintage fam'd,
Or Caprea, where the lanthorn fix'd on high
Shines like a moon through the benighted sky,
While by its beams the wary sailor steers,

Or where Surrentum, clad in vines, appears.

Lib. 3.

They found in Ano-Caprea, some years ago, a statue and a rich pavement under ground, as they had occasion to turn up the earth that lay upon them. One still sees, on the bendings of these mountains, the marks of several ancient scales of stairs, by which they used to ascend them. The whole island is so unequal that there were but few diversions to be found in it without doors; but what recommended it most to Tiberius, was its wholesome air, which is warm in winter and cool in summer, and its inaccessible coasts, which are generally so very steep, that a handful of men might defend them against a powerful army.

We need not doubt but Tiberius had his different residences, according as the seasons of the year, and his different sets of pleasure required. Suetonius says, Duodecim villas totidem nominibus ornavit. The whole island was probably cut into several easy ascents, planted with variety of palaces, and adorned with as great a multitude of groves and gardens as the situation of the place would suffer. The works under ground were, however, more extraordinary than those above it; for the rocks were all undermined with highways, grottos, galleries, bagnios, and several subterra

neous retirements, that suited with the brutal pleasures of the emperor. One would, indeed, very much wonder to see such small appearances of the many works of art, that were formerly to be met with in this island, were we not told that the Romans, after the death, of Tiberius, sent hither an army of pioneers on purpose to demolish the buildings, and deface the beauties of the island.

In sailing round Caprea we were entertained with many rude prospects of rocks and precipices, that rise in several places half a mile high in perpendicular. At the bottom of them are caves and grottos, formed by the continual breaking of the waves upon them: I entered one which the inhabitants call Grotto Obscuro, and after the light of the sun was a little worn off my eyes, could see all the parts of it distinctly, by a glimmering reflection that played upon them from the surface of the water. The mouth is low and narrow, but, after having entered pretty far in, the grotto opens itself on both sides in an oval figure of a hundred yards from one extremity to the other, as we were told, for it would not have been safe measuring of it. The roof is vaulted, and distils fresh water from every part of it, which fell upon us as fast as the first droppings of a shower. The inhabitants and Neapolitans who have heard of Tiberius's grottos, will have this to be one of them, but there are several reasons that show it to be natural. For besides the little use we can conceive of such a dark cavern of salt waters, there are no where any marks of the chissel; the sides are of a soft mouldering stone, and one sees many of the like hollow spaces worn in the bottoms of the rocks, as they are more or less able to resist the impressions of the water that beats against them.

Not far from this grotto lie the Sirenum Scopuli, which Virgil and Ovid mention in Eneas's voyage; they are two or three sharp rocks that stand about a stone's throw from the south-side of the island, and are generally beaten by waves and tempests, which are