It terraneous grottos and passages of a great length. The foundations of Nero's port are still to be seen. was altogether artificial, and composed of huge moles running round it, in a kind of circular figure, except where the ships were to enter, and had about three quarters of a mile in its shortest diameter. Though the making of this port must have cost prodigious sums of money, we find no medal of it, and yet the same emperor has a medal struck in his own name for the port of Ostia, which, in reality, was a work of his predecessor Claudius. The last pope was at considerable charges to make a little kind of harbour in this place, and to convey fresh water to it, which was one of the artifices of the grand duke, to divert his holiness from his project of making Civita Vecchia a free port. There lies between Antium and Nettuno a cardinal's villa, which is one of the pleasantest for walks, fountains, shades, and prospects, that I ever saw. Antium was formerly famous for the Temple of Fortune that stood in it. All agree there were two Fortunes worshipped here, which Suetonius calls the Fortune Antiates, and Martial the Sorores Antii. Some are of opinion, that by these two goddesses were meant the two Nemeses, one of which rewarded good men, as the other punished the wicked. Fabretti, and others, are apt to believe, that by the two Fortunes. were only meant in general the goddesses who sent prosperity, or she who sent afflictions to mankind, and produce in their behalf an ancient monument found in this very place, and superscribed Fortuna Felici, which, indeed, may favour one opinion as well as the other, and shows, at least, they are not mistaken in the general sense of their division. I do not know whether any body has taken notice, that this double function of the goddess gives a considerable light and beauty to the ode which Horace has addressed to her. The whole poem is a prayer to Fortune, that she would prosper Cæsar's arms, and confound his enemies, so that each of the goddesses has her task assigned in the poet's prayer; and we may observe the invocation is divided between the two deities, the first line relating indifferently to either. That which I have marked speaks to the goddess of Prosperity, or, if you please, to the Nemesis of the good, and the other to the goddess of Adversity, or to the Nemesis of the wicked. O Diva gratum quæ regis Antium; Great goddess, Antium's guardian power, Or, with a wondrous fall, To bring the haughty lower, And turn proud triumphs to a funeral, &c. CREECH. If we take the first interpretation of the two Fortunes for the double Nemesis, the compliment to Cæsar is the greater, and the fifth stanza clearer than commentators usually make it, for the clavi trabales, cunei, uncus, liquidumque plumbum, were actually used in the punishment of criminals. ་ Our next stage brought us to the mouth of the Tiber, into which we entered with some danger, the sea being generally pretty rough in the parts where the river rushes into it. The season of the year, the muddiness of the stream, with the many green trees hanging over it, put me in mind of the delightful image that Virgil has given us, when Eneas took the first view of it. Atque hic Æneas ingentem ex æquore lucum En. lib.7. The Trojan from the main beheld a wood, Betwixt the trees the Tiber took its course, DRYDEN. It is impossible to learn from the ruins of the port of Ostia, what its figure was when it stood whole and entire. I shall, therefore, set down the medal, that I have before mentioned, which represents it as it was formerly. It is worth while to compare Juvenal's description of this port with the figure it makes on the coin. Tandem intrat positas inclusa per æquora moles, At last within the mighty mole she gets, Juv. sat. 12. DRYD. Juv. The seas may very properly be said to be inclosed (inclusa) between the two semicircular moles that almost surround them. The Colossus, with something like a lighted torch in its hand, is probably the Pharos in the second line. The two moles that we must suppose are joined to the land behind the Pharos, are very poetically described by the -Porrectaque brachia, rursus Qua pelago occurrunt medio, longèque relinquunt Italiam: as they retire from one another in the compass they make, till their two ends almost meet a second time in the midst of the waters, where the figure of Nep tune sits. The poet's reflection on the haven is very just, since there are few natural ports better landlocked, and closed on all sides, than this seems to have been. The figure of Neptune has a rudder by him, to mark the convenience of the harbour for navigation, as he is represented himself at the entrance of it, to show it stood in the sea. The dolphin distinguishes him from a river god, and figures out his dominion over the seas. He holds the same fish in his hand on other medals. What is meant we may learn from the Greek epigram on the figure of a Cupid that had a dolphin in one hand and a flower in the other. Οὐδὲ μάτην παλάμαις κατέχει δελφίνα καὶ ἄνθος, Τῆ καὶ γαρ γαῖαν τῆδε θάλαουαν ἔχει. A proper emblem graces either hand, In one he holds the sea, in one the land. Half a day more brought us to Rome, through a road that is commonly visited by travellers. ROME. It is generally observed, that modern Rome stands higher than the ancient; some have computed it about fourteen or fifteen feet, taking one place with another. The reason given for it is, that the present city stands upon the ruins of the former; and indeed I have often observed, that where any considerable pile of building stood anciently, one still finds a rising ground, or a little kind of hill, which was doubtless made up out of the fragments and rubbish of the ruined edifice. But besides this particular cause, we may assign another that has very much contributed to the raising the situation of several parts of Rome: it being certain the great quantities of earth, that have been washed off from the hills by the violence of showers, have had no small share in it. This any one may be sensible of who observes how far several buildings, that stand near the roots of mountains, are sunk deeper in the earth than those that have been on the tops of hills, or in open plains; for which reason the present face of Rome is much more even and level than it was formerly; the same cause that has raised the low grounds having contributed to sink those that were higher. b There are in Rome two sets of antiquities, the Christian and the Heathen. The former, though of a fresher date, are so embroiled with fable and legend, that one receives but little satisfaction from searching into them. The other give a great deal of pleasure to such as have met with them before in ancient authors; for a man who is in Rome can scarce see an object that does not call to mind a piece of a Latin poet or historian. Among the remains of old Rome, the grandeur of the commonwealth shows itself chiefly in works that were either necessary or convenient, such as temples, highways, aqueducts, walls, and bridges of the city. On the contrary, the magnificence of Rome, under the emperors, is seen principally in such works as were rather for ostentation or luxury, than any real usefulness or necessity, as in baths, amphitheatres, circuses, obelisks, triumphant pillars, arches and mausoleums; for what they added to the aqueducts was rather to supply their baths and naumachias, and to embellish the city with fountains, than out of any real necessity there was for them. These several remains have been so copiously described by abundance of travellers, and other writers, particularly by those concerned in the learned collection of Grævius, that it is very difficult to make any new discoveries on so beaten a subject. There is, however, so much to be observed in so spacious a field of antiquities, that it is almost impossible to survey them without taking new hints, and raising different reflections, according as a man's natural turn of thoughts, or the course of his studies, direct him. No part of the antiquities of Rome pleased me so much as the ancient statues, of which there is still an |