of the localities. Thus the laborious, but often most | ditions, which, with the definite article el prefixed, inaccurate, compiler Forbiger, while taking on himself is as accurately represented by Lithrippa as the to correct Strabo's exact account, tells us that "the Greek alphabet would admit. "Medineh is situated river and lake (Strabo's harbour) have now entirely on the edge of the great Arabian desert, close to the vanished;" and yet, a few lines down, he refers to a chain of mountains which traverses that country passage of Beechey's work within a very few pages from north to south, and is a continuation of Libanon. of the place where the river itself is actually de- The great plain of Arabia in which it lies is conscribed! (Forbiger, Handbuch der alten Geographie, siderably elevated above the level of the sea. It is vol. ii. p. 828, note.) ten or eleven days distant from Mekka, and has been always considered the principal fortress of the Hedjaz, being surrounded with a stone wall. It is one of the best-built towns in the East, ranking in this respect next to Aleppo, though ruined houses and walls in all parts of the town indicate how far it has fallen from its ancient splendour. It is surrounded on three sides with gardens and plantations, which, on the east and south, extend to the distance of six or eight miles. Its population amounts to 16,000 or 20,000-10,000 or 12,000 in the town, the remainder in the suburbs." (Burckhardt, Arabia, 321-400; Ritter, Erdkunde, vol. i. p. 15, ii. pp. 149, &c.) [G. W.] The researches made in Beechey's expedition give the following results :-East of the headland on which stands the ruins of Hesperides or Berenice (now Bengazi) is a small lake, which communicates with the harbour of the city, and has its water of course salt. The water of the lake varies greatly in quantity, according to the season of the year; and is nearly dried up in summer. There are strong grounds to believe that its waters were more abundant, and its communication with the harbour more perfect, in ancient times than at present. On the margin of the lake is a spot of rising ground, nearly insulated in winter, on which are the remains of ancient buildings. East of this lake again, and only a few yards from its margin, there gushes forth an abundant spring of fresh water, which empties itfelf into the lake, "runring along a channel of inconsiderable breadth, bordered with reeds and rushes," and "might be mistaken by a common observer for an inroad of the lake into the sandy soil which bounds it." Moreover, this is the only stream which empties itself into the lake; and indeed the only one found on that part of the coast of Cyrenaica. Now, even without searching further, it is evident how well all this answers to the description of Strabo (xvii. p. 836):-"There is a promontory called Pseudopenias, on which Berenice is situated, beside a certain Lake of Tritonis (mapà Alμvny Tivà Tρitwviada), in which there is generally (udora) a little island, and a temple of Aphrodite upon it: but there is (or it is) also the Harbour of Hesperides, and the river Lathon falls into it." It is now evident how much the sense of the description would be impaired by reading Aluvn for Aluny in | the last clause; and it matters but little whether Strabo speaks of the river as falling into the harbour because it fell into the lake which communicated with the harbour, or whether he means that the lake, which he calls that of Tritonis, was actually the harbour (that is, an inner harbour) of the city. But the little stream which falls into the lake is not the only representative of the river Lathon. Further to the east, in one of the subterranean caves which abound in the neighbourhood of Bengazi, Beechy found a large body of fresh water, losing itself in the bowels of the earth; and the Bey of Bengazi affirmed that he had tracked its subterraneous course till he doubted the safety of proceeding further, and that he had found it as much as 30 feet deep. That the stream thus lost in the earth is the same which reappears in the spring on the margin of the lake, is extremely probable; but whether it be so in fact, or not, we can hardly doubt that the ancient Greeks would imagine the connection to exist. (Beechey, Proceedings, fc. pp. 326, foll.; Barth, Wanderungen, &c. p. 387. [P.S.] LATHRIPPA (Aɑ@piñяα), an inland town of Arabia Felix, mentioned by Ptolemy (vi. 7. § 31), which there is no dificulty in identifying with the ancient name of the renowned El-Medineh," the city," as it is called by emphasis among the disciples of the false prophet. Its ancient name, Yathrib, still exists in the native geographies and local tra LATIUM ( Aarívn: Eth. and Adj. Latinus), was the name given by the Romans to a district or region of Central Italy, situated on the Tyrrhenian sea, between Etruria and Campania. I. NAME. There can be little doubt that Latium meant originally the land of the LATINI, and that in this, as in almost all other cases in ancient history, the name of the people preceded, instead of being derived from, that of the country. But the ancient Roman writers, with their usual infelicity in all matters of etymology, derived the name of the Latini from a king of the name of Latinus, while they sought for another origin for the name of Latium. The common etymology (to which they were obviously led by the quantity of the first syllable) was that which derived it from "lateo;" and the usual explanation was, that it was so called because Saturn had there lain hid from the pursuit of Jupiter. (Virg. Aen. viii. 322; Ovid, Fast. i. 238.) The more learned derivations proposed by Saufeius and Varro, from the inhabitants having lived hidden in caves (Saufeius, ap. Serv. ad Aen. i. 6), or because Latium itself was as it were hidden by the Apennines (Varr. ap. Serv. ad Aen. viii. 322), are certainly not more satisfactory. The form of the name of Latium would at first lead to the supposition that the ethnic Latini was derived from it; but the same remark applies to the case of Samnium and the Samnites, where we know that the people, being a race of foreign settlers, must have given their name to the country, and not the converse. Probably Latini is only a lengthened form of the name, which was originally Latii or Latvi; for the connection which has been generally recognised between Latini and Lavinium, Latinus and Lavinus, seems to point to the existence of an old form, Latvinus. (Donaldson, Varronianus, p. 6; Niebuhr, V.u. L. Kunde, p. 352.) Varro himself seems to regard the name of Latium as derived from that of Latinus (LL. v. § 32); and that it was generally regarded as equivalent to "the land of the Latins" is sufficiently proved by the fact that the Greeks always rendered it by Λατίνη, οἱ ἡ Λατίνων γῆ. The name of Λάτιον ἐ found only in Greek writers of a late period, who borrowed it directly from the Romans. (Appian, B. C. ii. 26; Herodian, i. 16.) From the same cause it must have proceeded that when the Latini ceased to have any national existence, the name of Latium is still not unfrequently used, as equivalent to "nomen Latinum," to designate the whole body of those who possessed the rights of Latins, and were therefore still called Latini, though no longer in a national sense. The suggestion of a modern writer (Abeken, Mittel Italien, p. 42) that Latium is derived from "latus," broad, and means the broad plain or expanse of the Campagna (like Campania from "Campus"), appears to be untenable, on account of the difference in the quantity of the first syllable, notwithstanding the analogy of Tλarùs, which has the first syllable short. II. EXTENT AND BOUNDARIES. The name of Latium was applied at different periods in a very different extent and signification. Originally, as already pointed out, it meant the land of the Latini; and as long as that people retained their independent national existence, the name of Latium could only be applied to the territory possessed by them, exclusive of that of the Hernici, Aequians, Volscians, &c., who were at that period independent and often hostile nations. It was not till these separate nationalities had been merged into the common condition of subjects and citizens of Rome that the name of Latium came to be extended to all the territory which they had previously occupied; and was thus applied, first in common parlance, and afterwards in official usage, to the whole region from the borders of Etruria to those of Campania, or from the Tiber to the Liris. Hence we must carefully distinguish between Latium in the original sense of the name, in which alone it occurs throughout the early Roman history, and Latium in this later or geographical sense; and it will be necessary here to treat of the two quite separately. The period at which the latter usage of the name came into vogue we have no means of determining: we know only that it was fully established before the time of Augustus, and is recognised by all the geographers. (Strab. v. pp. 228, 231; Plin. iii. 5. s. 9; Ptol. iii. 1. §§ 5, 6.) Pliny designates the original Latium, or Latium properly so called, as Latium Antiquum, to which he opposes the newly added portions, as Latium Adjectum. It may, however, be doubted whether these appellations were ever adopted in common use, though convenient as geographical distinctions. 1. LATIUM ANTIQUUM, or Latium in the original and historical sense, was a country of small extent, bounded by the Tiber on the N., by the Apennines on the E., and by the Tyrrhenian sea on the W.; while on the S. its limits were not defined by any natural boundaries, and appear to have fluctuated considerably at different periods. Pliny defines it as extending from the mouth of the Tiber to the Circeian promontory, a statement confirmed by Strabo (Plin. iii. 5. s. 9; Strab. v. p. 231); and we have other authority also for the fact that at an early period all the tract of marshy plain, known as the Pontine Marshes or 66 Pomptinus Ager," extending from Velitrae and Antium to Circeii, was inhabited by Latins, and regarded as a part of Latium. (Cato, ap. Priscian. v. p. 668.) Even of the adjoining mountain tract, subsequently occupied by the Volscians, a part at least must have been originally Latin, for Cora, Norba, and Setia were all of them Latin cities (Dionys. v. 61), though, at a somewhat later period, not only had these towns, as well as the plain beneath, fallen into the hands of the Volscians, but that people had made themselves masters of Antium and Velitrae, which are in consequence repeatedly called Volscian cities. The manner in which the early Roman history has been distorted by poetical legends and the exaggerations of national vanity renders it very difficult to trace the course of these changes, and the alterations in the frontiers consequent upon the alternate progress of the Volscian and the Roman arms. But there seems no reason to doubt the fact that such changes repeatedly took place, and that we may thus explain the apparent inconsistency of ancient historians in calling the same places at one time Volscian, at another Latin, cities. We may also clearly discern two different periods, during the first of which the Volscian arins were gradually gaining upon those of the Latins, and extending their dominion over cities of Latin origin; while, in the second, the Volscians were in their turn giving way before the preponderating power of Rome. The Gaulish invasion (B.c. 390) may be taken, approximately at least, as the turning point between the two periods. The case appears to have been somewhat similar, though to a less degree, on the northern frontier, where the Latins adjoined the Sabines. Here, also. we find the same places at different times, and by different authors, termed sometimes Latin and sometimes Sabine, cities; and though in some of these cases the discrepancy may have arisen from mere inadvertence or error, it is probable that in some instances both statements are equally correct, but refer to different periods. The circumstance that the Anio was fixed by Augustus as the boundary of the First Region seems to have soon led to the notion that it was the northern limit of Latium also; and hence all the towns beyond it were regarded as Sabine, though several of them were, according to the general tradition of earlier times, originally Latin cities. Such was the confusion resulting from this cause that Piny in one passage enumerates Nomentum, Fidenae, and even Tibur among the Sabine towns, while he elsewhere mentions the two formier as Latin cities, and the Latin origin of Tibur is too well established to adinit of a doubt. (Plin. iii. 5. s. 9, 12. s. 17.) In the absence of natural boundaries it is only by means of the names of the towns that we can trace the extent of Latium; and here fortunately the lists that have been transmitted to us by Dionysius and Pliny, as well as those of the colonies of Alba, afford us material assistance. The latter, indeed, cannot be regarded as of historical value, but they were unquestionably meant to represent the fact, with which their authors were probably well acquainted, that the places there enumerated were properly Latin cities, and not of Sabine or Volscian origin. Taking these authorities for our guides, we may trace the limits of ancient Latium as follows:-1. From the mouth of the Tiber to the confluence of the Anio, the former river constituted the boundary between Latium and Etruria. The Romans, indeed, from an early period, extended their territory beyond the Tiber, and held the Janiculum and Campus Vaticanus on its right bank, as well as the so-called Septem Pagi, which they wrested from the Veientes; and it is probable that the Etruscans, on the other hand, had at one period extended their power over a part of the district on the left bank of the Tiber, but that river nevertheless constituted the generally recognised geographical limit between Etruria and Latium. 2. North of the Anio the Latin territory comprised Fidenae, Crustumerium, and Nomentum, all of which are clearly established as Latin towns, while Eretum, only 3 miles from Nomentum, is equally well made out to be of Sabine origin. This line of demarcation is confirmed by Strabo, who speaks of the Sabines as extending from the Tiber and Nomentum to the Vestini. (Strab. v. p. 228.) From Nomentum to Tibur the frontier cannot be traced with accuracy, from our uncertainty as to the position of several of the towns in this part of Latium-Corniculum, Medullia, Cameria, and Ameriola; but we may feel assured that it comprised the outlying group of the Montes Corniculani (Mte. S. Angelo and Monticelli), and from thence stretched across to the foot of Monte Gennaro (Mons Lucretilis), around the lower slopes of which are the ruins or sites of more than one ancient city. Probably the whole of this face of the mountains, fronting the plain of the Campagna, was always regarded as belonging to Latium, though the inner valleys and reverse of the same range were inhabited by the Sabines. Tibur itself was unquestionably Latin, though how far its territory extended into the interior of the mountains is difficult to determine. But if Empulum and Sassula (two of its dependent towns) be correctly placed at Ampiglione and near Siciliano, it must have comprised a considerable tract of the mountain country on the left bank of the Anio. Varia, on the other hand, and the valley of the Digentia, were unquestionably Sabine. 3. Returning to the Anio at Tibur, the whole of the W. front of the range of the Apennines from thence to Praeneste (Palestrina) was certainly Latin; but the limits which separated the Latins from the Aequians are very difficult to determine. We know that Bola, Pedum, Tolerium, and Vitellia, all of which were situated in this neighbourhood, were Latin cities; though, from their proximity to the frontier, several of them fell at one time or other into the hands of the Aequians; in like manner we cannot doubt that the whole group of the Alban Hills, including the range of Mount Algidus, was included in the original Latium, though the Aequians at one time were able to occupy the heights of Algidus at the opening of almost every campaign. Valmontone, whether it represent Tolerium or Vitellia, must have been about the most advanced point of the Latin frontier on this side. 4. The Volscian frontier, as already observed, appears to have undergone much fluctuation. On the one hand, we find, in the list of the cities forming the Latin League, as given by Dionysius (v. 61), not only Velitrae, which at a later period is called a Volscian city, but Cora, Norba, and Setia, all of which were situated on the western front of the range of mountains which formed in later times the stronghold of the Volscian nation; but looking on the Pontine Marshes. Even as late as the outbreak of the great Latin War, B. C. 340, we find L. Annius of Setia, and L. Numicius of Circeii, holding the chief magistracy among the Latins, from whom at the same time Livy expressly distinguishes the Volscians (Liv. viii. 3). These statements, combined with those of Pliny and Strabo already cited, seem to leave no doubt that Latium was properly regarded as extending as far as Circeii and the promontory of the same name, and comprising the whole plain of the Pontine Marshes, as well as the towns of Cora, Norba, and Setia, on the E. side of that plain. On the other hand, Tarracina (or Anxur) and Privernum were certainly Volscian cities; and there can be no doubt that during the period of the Volscian power they had wrested a great part of the tract just described from the dominion of the Latins. Antium, which for some reason or other did not form a member of the Latin League, was from an early period a Volscian city, and became one of the chief strongholds of that people during the fifth century B. C. The extent of Latium Antiquum, as thus limited, was far from considerable; the coast-line, from the mouth of the Tiber to the Circeian promontory, does not exceed 52 geographical or 65 Roman miles (Pliny erroneously calls it only 50 Roman miles); while the greatest length, from the Circeian promontory to the Sabine frontier, near Eretum, is little more than 70 Roman miles; and its breadth, from the mouth of the Tiber to the Sabine frontier, is just about 30 Roman miles, or 240 stadia, as correctly stated by Dionysius on the authority of Cato. (Dionys. ii. 49.) 2. LATIUM NOVUM. The boundaries of Latium in the enlarged or geographical sense of the name are much more easily determined. The term, as thus employed, comprehended, besides the original territory of the Latins, that of the Aequians, the Hernicans, the Volscians, and the Auruncans or Ausoniahs. Its northern frontiers thus remained unchanged, while on the E. and S. it was extended so as to border on the Marsi, the Samnites, and Campania. Some confusion is nevertheless created by the new line of demarcation established by Augustus, who, while he constituted the first division of Italy out of Latium in this wider sense together with Campania, excluded from it the part of the old Latin territory N. of the Anio, adjoining the Sabines, as well as a part of that of the Aequians or Aequiculani, including Carseoli and the valley of the Turano. The upper valley of the Anio about Subiaco, on the other hand, together with the mountainous district extending from thence to the valley of the Sacco, constituting the chief abode of the Aequi during their wars with Rome, was wholly comprised in the newly extended Latium. To this was added the mountain district of the Hernici, extending nearly to the valley of the Liris, as well as that of the Volsci, who occupied the country for a considerable extent on both sides of the Liris, including the mountain district around Arpinum and Atina, where they bordered on the territory of the Samnites. The limits of Latium towards the S., where its frontiers adjoined those of Campania, are clearly marked by Strabo, who tells us that Casinum was the last Latin city on the line of the Via Latina,--Teanum being already in Campania; while on the line of the Via Appia, near the sea-coast, Sinuessa was the frontier town of Latium. (Strab. v. pp. 231, 233, 237 ; Plin. iii. 5. s. 9.) Pliny, in one passage, appears to speak of the Liris as constituting the boundary of this enlarged Latium (Ib. § 56), while shortly after (§ 59) he terms Sinuessa "oppidum extremum in adjecto Latio," whence it has been supposed that the boundary of Latium was at first extended only to the Liris, and subsequently carried a step further so as to include Sinuessa and its territory. (Cramer's Italy, vol. ii. p. 11.) But we have no evidence of any such successive stages. Pliny in all probability uses the term "adjectum Latium" only as contradistinguished from "Latium antiquum;" and the expression in the previous passage, "unde nomen Latii processit ad Lirim amnem," need not be construed too strictly. It is certain, at least, that, in the days of Strabo, as well as those of Pliny, Si nuessa was already regarded as included in Latium; | tains, commonly known as the Monti Lepini, or and the former author nowhere alludes to the Liris as the boundary. III. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. The land of the Latins, or Latium in its original sense, formed the southern part of the great basin through which the Tiber flows to the sea, and which is bounded by the Ciminian Hills, and other ranges of volcanic hills connected with them, towards the N., by the Apennines on the E., and by the Alban Hills on the S. The latter, however, do not form a continuous barrier, being in fact an isolated group of volcanic origin, separated by a considerable gap from the Apennines on the one side, while on the other they leave a broad strip of low plain between their lowest slopes and the sea, which is continued on in the broad expanse of level and marshy ground, commonly known as the Pontine Marshes, extending in a broad band between the Volscian mountains and the sea, until it is suddenly and abruptly terminated by the isolated mass of the Circeian promontory. The great basin-like tract thus bounded is divided into two portions by the Tiber, of which the one on the N. of that river belongs to Southern Etruria, and is not comprised in our present subject. [ETRURIA.] The southern part, now known as the Campagna di Roma, may be regarded as a broad expanse of undulatory plain, extending from the seacoast to the foot of the Apennines, which rise from it abruptly like a gigantic wall to a height of from 3000 to 4000 feet, their highest summits even exceeding the latter elevation. The Monte Gennaro, (4285 English feet in height) is one of the loftiest summits of this range, and, from the boldness with which it rises from the subjacent plain, and its advanced position, appears, when viewed from the Campagna, the most elevated of all; but, according to Sir W. Gell, it is exceeded in actual height both by the Monte Pennecchio, a little to the NE. of it, and by the Monte di Guadagnolo, the central peak of the group of mountains which rise immediately above Praeneste or Palestrina. The citadel of Praeneste itself occupies a very elevated position, forming a kind of outwork or advanced post of the chain of Apennines, which here trends away suddenly to the eastward, sweeping round by Genazzano, Olevano, and Rojate, till it resumes its general SE. direction, and is continued on by the lofty ranges of the Hernican mountains, which bound the valley of the Sacco on the E. and continue unbroken to the valley of the Liris. Volscian mountains. This group, which forms an outlying mass of the Apennines, separated from the main chain of those mountains by the broad valley of the Trerus or Sacco, rises in a bold and imposing mass from the level of the Pontine Marshes, which it borders throughout their whole extent, until it reaches the sea at Tarracina, and from that place to the mouth of the Liris sends down a succession of mountain headlands to the sea, constituting a great natural barrier between the plains of Latiuin and those of Campania. The highest summits of this group, which consists, like the more central Apennines, wholly of limestone, attain an elevation of nearly 5000 feet above the sea: the whole mass fills up almost the entire space between the valley of the Trerus and the Pontine Marshes, a breadth of from 12 to 16 miles; with a length of near 40 miles from Monte Fortino at its N. extremity to the sea at Terracina: but the whole distance, from Monte Fortino to the end of the mountain chain near the mouth of the Liris, exceeds 60 miles. The greater part of this rugged mountain tract belonged from a very early period to the Volscians, but the Latins, as already mentioned, possessed several towns, as Signia, Cora, Norba, &c., which were built on projecting points or underfalls of the main chain. But though the plains of Latium are thus strongly characterised, when compared with the groups of mountains just described, it must not be supposed that they constitute an unbroken plain, still less a level alluvial tract like those of Northern Italy. The Campagna of Rome, as it is called at the present day, is a country of wholly different character from the ancient Campania. It is a broad undulating tract, never rising into considerable elevations, but presenting much more variety of ground than would be suspected from the general uniformity of its appearance, and irregularly intersected in all directions by numerous streams, which have cut for themselves deep channels or ravines through the soft volcanic tufo of which the soil is composed, leaving on each side steep and often precipitous banks. The height of these, and the depth of the valleys or ravines which are bounded by them, vary greatly in different parts of the Campagna; but besides these local and irregular fluctuations, there is a general rise (though so gradual as to be imperceptible to the eye) in the level of the plain towards the E. and SE.; so that, as it approaches Praeneste, it really attains to a considerable elevation, and the river courses which intersect the plain in nearly parallel lines between that city and the Anio become deep and narrow ravines of the most formidable description. Even in the lower and more level parts of the Campagna the sites of ancient cities will be generally found to occupy spaces bounded to a considerable extentfrequently on three sides out of four-by steep banks of tufo rock, affording natural means of defence, which could be easily strengthened by the simple expedient of cutting away the face of the rocky bank, so as to render it altogether inaccessible. The peculiar configuration of the Campagna resulting from these causes is well represented on Sir W. Gell's map, the only one which gives at all a faithful idea of the physical geography of Latium. Opposite to Praeneste, and separated from it by a breadth of nearly 5 miles of intervening plain, rises the isolated group of the Alban mountains, the form of which at once proves its volcanic origin. [ALBANUS MONS.] It is a nearly circular mass, of about 40 miles in circumference; and may be conceived as forming a great crater, the outer ridge of which has been broken up into numerous more or less detached summits, several of which were crowned in ancient times by towns or fortresses, such as Tusculum, Corbio, &c.; while at a lower level it throws out detached offshoots, or outlying ridges, affording advantageous sites for towns, and which were accordingly occupied by those of Velitrae, Lanuvium, Alba Longa, &c. The group of the Alban mountains is wholly detached on all sides: on the S. a strip of The volcanic origin of the greater part of Latium plain, of much the same breadth as that which sepa- has a material influence upon its physical character rated it from the Apennines of Praeneste, divides it and condition. The Alban mountains, as already from the subordinate, but very lofty mass of moun-mentioned, are unquestionably a great volcanic mass and constituting a barren tract, still covered, as it was in ancient times, almost wholly with wood. This broad belt of forest region extends without interruption from the mouth of the Tiber near Ostia to the promontory of Antium. The parts of it nearest the sea are rendered marshy by the stagnation of the streams that flow through it, the outlets of which to the sea are blocked up by the accumulations of sand. The headland of Antium is formed by a mass of limestone rock, forming a remarkable break in the otherwise uniform line of the coast, though itself of small elevation. A bay of about point or promontory of Astura: beyond which commences the far more extensive bay that stretches from the latter point to the mountain headland of Circeii. The whole of this line of coast from Astura to Circeii is bordered by a narrow strip of sand-hills, within which the waters accumulate into stagnant pools or lagoors. Beyond this again is a broad sandy tract, covered with dense forest and brushwood, but almost perfectly level, and in many places marshy; which must at a distant period have been the centre of volcanic outbursts on a great scale. Besides the central or principal crater of this group, there are several minor craters, or crater-shaped hollows, at a much lower level around its ridges, which were in all probability at different periods centres of eruption. Some of these have been filled with water, and thus constitute the beautiful basin-shaped lakes of Albano and Nemi, while others have been drained at periods more or less remote. Such is the case with the Vallis Aricina, which appears to have at one time constituted a lake [ARICIA], as well as with the now dry basin of Cornufelle, below Tus-8 miles across separates this headland from the low culum, supposed, with good reason, to be the ancient Lake Regillus, and with the somewhat more considerable Lago di Castiglione, adjoining the ancient Gabii, which has been of late years either wholly or partially drained. Besides these distinct foci of volcanic action, there remain in several parts of the Campagna spots where sulphureous and other vapours are still evolved in considerable quantities, so as to constitute deposits of sulphur available for economic purposes. Such are the Lago di Sol-while from thence to the foot of the Volscian mounfalara near Tivoli (the Aquae Albulae of the Romans), and the Solfatara on the road to Ardea, supposed to be the site of the ancient Oracle of Faunus. Numerous allusions to these sulphureous and mephitic exhalations are found in the ancient writers, and there is reason to suppose that they were in ancient times more numerous than at present. But the evidences of volcanic action are not confined to these local phenomena; the whole plain of the Campagna itself, as well as the portion of Southern Etruria which adjoins it, is a deposit of volcanic origin, consisting of the peculiar substance called by Italian geologists tufo,- -an aggregate of volcanic materials, sand, small stones, and scoriae or cinders, together with pumice, varying in consistency from an almost incoherent sand to a stone sufficiently hard to be well adapted for building purposes. The hardest varieties are those now called peperino, to which belong the Lapis Gabinus and Lapis Albanus of the ancients. But even the common tufo was in many cases quarried for building purposes, as at the Lapidicinae Rubrae, a few miles from the city near the bank of the Tiber, and many other spots in the immediate neighbourhood of Rome. (Vitruv. ii. 7.) Beds of true lava are rare, but by no means wanting the most considerable are two streams which have flowed from the foot of the Alban Mount; the one in the direction of Ardea, the other on the line of the Appian Way (which runs along the ridge of it for many miles) extending as far as a spot called Capo di Bove, little more than two miles from the gates of Rome. It was extensively quarried by the Romans, who derived from thence their principal supplies of the hard basaltic lava (called by them silex) with which they paved their high roads. Smaller beds of the same material occur near the Lago di Castiglione, and at other spots in the Campagna. (Concerning the geological phenomena of Latium see Daubeny On Volcanoes, pp. 162-173; and an Essay by Hoffmann in the Beschreibung der Stadt Rom. vol. i. pp. 45-81.) : The strip of country immediately adjoining the sca-coast of Latium differs materially from the rest of the district. Between the borders of the volcanic deposit just described and the sea there intervenes a broad strip of sandy plain, evidently formed merely by successive accumulations of sand from the sea, tains extends a tract of a still more marshy cha- |