Vecchia, is better known under the name of Trajani Portus,, that emperor having caused a magnifiicent harbor to be con-structed there, which Pliny the younger has described in one of his epistles. Two immense piers formed the port, which was semicircular, while an island, constructed artificially, of immense masses of rock, brought there by vesselsand sunk in the sea, served as a breakwater in front, and sup-ported a pharos. The coast being very destitute of shelter for vessels of burden, this work of Trajan was of great national benefit. Centumcellæ having been destroyed by the Saracens, the inhabitants built another town some distance inland, but afterwards they re-occupied the old city, which from that circumstance obtained its present name. Castrum Novum, which follows next on the coast, must not be confounded with the Castrum Juni of Virgil. The latter place was certainly in Latium, and not Ardea; and proba bly the designation of Novum was added to the Etruscan city to distinguish it from its more ancient namesake. Castrum Novum appears to have been a Roman colony. The next place to be noticed on the coast is Tyrgi, whose name sufficiently attests its Grecian origin, had we not, besides the authority of Strabo on the subject; he informs us that this city had a temple erected and dedicated to Lucina, by the Pelasgi, which was once much celebrated for its riches, until it was plundered by Dyonissius, tyrant of Syracuse. This expedition which took place soon after the capture of Rome by the Gauls, or about 368, U. C., is related at some length by Diodorus Siculus, who informs us that Tyrgi was the harbor of the important town of Care, a fact also mentioned by Strabo. The inhabitants of this last place having come out to repel the invaders, were defeated by the Sicilians, who returned to Syracuse loaded with spoils, the produce of which exceeded five hundred talents. We may judge of the luxury of this place from the fact of its courtezans being noted by Lucilius. We now come to Care, or, as it always called by the Greek writers, Agylla, one of the most considerable cities of Etruria, and universaily acknowledged to have been founded by the Tyrrheni Pelasgi. The remains of Care are still to be traced about four miles from the sea, on a spot known to the people of the country by the name of Cerveteri. The last place to be pointed out on the coast is the Portus Augusti, at the mouth of the Tiber. We have yet to notice the few islands which lie off the coast of Etruria. That of Gargona, which is opposite to Leghorn, is no doubt the Urgo of Pliay and Mela. Near to it is the Maenaria of Pliny, now Melaria. The island of Elba, named Ethalia by the Greeks, and Ilva by the Latins, is distant about ten miles from Populonium, the nearest point of the Tuscan coast. Ilva was early celebrated for its rich iron mines; but by whom they wered and worked is uncertain, as they are said to exhibit the marks of labors carried on for an incalculable time. It even seems to have been a popular belief among the ancients, that the metallic substance was constantly renewed. It is probable that the Phoenicians were the first to make known the mineral riches of the island, and that it was from them the Tyrrheni learned to estimate its value; which may have held out to them no small inducement for settling on the coast, otherwise deficient in natural advantages. It is to the latter people that we would trace the name of Æthalia; since it appears that Lemnos, which they once inhabited, bore, according to the testimony of Polybius, the same appellation in ancient times. The Portus Argous, supposed to have derived its name from the expedition of the Aruonauts, is now Porto Furraio. Between Elba and Corsica the little island called Planasia by Varro, and Planaria, by Pliny, is now Pianosa. Tacitus relates, that Augustus was persecuted by Livia to banish his nephew. Agrippa, thither. The rock laid down in modern maps under the name of Monte Christo, is the Oglysa of Pliny. Caprania, a larger island than the two last, is now Capraia. Pliny informs us that it derived its name from the number of goats with which it was stocked, whence the Greeks called it Ægilon. Opposite the harbor of Cossa are two small islands, Igilium, now Giglia, and Arti mesium, now Gianuti. In order to describe what remains of the interior of Etruria we shall now proceed to the source of the Arno. Here we find Arezza, the ancient Arretium, a town of considerable celebrity, and generally considered as one of the principal states of Etruria. After an unsuccessful campaign, in which the Romans had carried their arms beyond the Cimian forest, and obtained a truce for thirty years; after an interval of fourteen years, war was again renewed by the Arretini, but with the same result, when, on their submission, a cessation of hostilities was granted them for forty years. From that time Arretium may be considered as subject to the Romans. As a defence against the incursions of the Cisalpine Gauls, it became a place of great importance. In relating the transactions which led to the battle of Jellamo it was stated, that a Roman general was stationed at Arretium; and some years after, we find the Consul Flaminius postod there to defend the entrance of Etruria against Hannibal. The city became a Roman colony probably, soon after the time of Scylla. Pliny distinguishes three colonies: the Arretini, properly so called; and those surnamed Fidentes; and Inlienses. Arretium was much celebrated for its terra cotta vases, which Pliny ranks with those of Samos and Laguntum. About fourteen miles south of Arretium, we find Cortona, a city whose claims to antiquity appear to be equalled by few other towns in Italy, and which to this day retains its name unchanged. Concerning its origin, we learn from Dionysius, of Halicarnassus, who quotes from an author somewhat anterior to Herodotus, that the Pelasgi who had landed at Spina, on the Po, subsequently advanced into the interior of Italy, and occupied Cortona which they fortified; and from thence formed other settlements in Tyrrhenia. On this account it is that we find Cortona styled the metropolis of that province. A few miles to the south of Cortona, is the Lacus Trasimenus, a name which naturally recalls the celebrated battle fought on its shores. The description of the disastrous overthrow of the Romans, is so familiar to every reader, and it is so clearly and accurately given by the original historians, that it is needless to dwell upon it here, except so far as it may serve to illustrate the local features of the country in which the contending armies moved and fought. Hannibal, having on entering Etruria, given his troops that repose which their late fatigues so much required, and during that time having thoroughly made himself acquainted with the character of the general opposed to him, and the nature of the country in which he was about to carry on the war, again moved forward, and crossing the Arno, near Florence, advanced by the stations Aquileia, Fines, Biturgia, and Graecos, leaving Arretium and the Roman army on his left. He then crossed the Palus Clusina, now Val di Chiana, and having passed Coztona, entered the defile formed by the mountains, in the midst of which that city is placed, on the left, and by the Lake Thrasimene on the right. This movement of Hannibal is well described by Strabo, when mentioning this lake, but he has not been generally well understood. The geographer means to say, there were two ways of moving to the south, either by the Arimiuum and Umbria, or by the defile just mentioned. The Carthagenian general succeeded by the latter, though it was more difficult. Beyond this narrow passage, and at the end of the lake, along whose margin the road is necessarily carried, is a valley of some extent, shut up by a steep hill, while it is flanked by others, which rise to a considerable elavation. Here Hannibal laid that snare for the Roman consul, which proved so fatal to him and his army. Flaminius, fired with indignation, at having been out-manoenvred by the Carthaginian general, who was ravaging within sight of his camp, the fertile plains of Etruria, pursued the foe with rash haste, and fell into the toils so artfully laid for him. The scene of this catastrophe is easily traced at the present day. The valley before described is that which is now occupied by the village of Passignano. Monte Gualandro closes upon the lake, and forms the defile by which the two armies successively entered. A little stream, which crosses the valley and falls into the lake, by its name of Sanguinetto, seems, together with the hamlet called Ossaia, to bear record of that bloody day. But we cannot proceed any farther at present; although we have to omit some of the most conclusive evidences of the advanced state of Etruscan civilization. IX.-NOTICES AND CRITICISMS. BELLES-LETTRES. The New England Tragedies. By HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. I. John Endicott; II. Giles Corey of the Salem Farms. 16mo, pp. 179. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 1868. There is not one of our poets whom we prefer, upon the whole, to Mr. Longfellow; nor is there any English poet of the present day whom we rank far above him. Yet we find it impossible to admire his recent productions. We thought "The Song of Hiawatha" exhibited a considerable falling off from "Evangeline;" we could not help regarding it as greatly inferior even to "The Courtship of Miles Standish." It certainly afforded us no pleasure to find fault with Mr. Longfellow's translation of Dante. Not one of his friends looked forward to the completion of that work with a stronger predilection in its favor, but never did any similar performance disappoint us more. We were very unwilling to call it a failure; but that it was such is now pretty generally admitted; and yet it is a work that is worthy of a place in every library, especially in the elegant form in which the first edition of it was got up by the translator's American publishers. It was our opinion that his version of the Divina Commedia would add nothing to the reputation of Mr. Longfellow as a poet; we were sorry he had not chosen some subject "racy of the soil," having little doubt that had he done so he would have done himself vastly more credit. Now it seems that we were wrong in this, for the performances before us have really very little merit. We have seldom had the patience to read two fiveact tragedies in a poetical form in which there is so little poetry; but there is truth enough in each, such as it is a very grim sort. If the genius of Mr. Longfellow happens to be somewhat clouded just now, so that he cannot charm us, he has at least the manliness to present us facts, the bare recital of which is sufficiently tragical. If he has not succeeded in giving us two tragic dramas worthy of comparison with those of dramatists of acknowledged eminence, he has at least drawn as repulsive and gloomy portraitures of fanaticism as there is to be found in any literature. And yet who can accuse him of exaggeration? For the sake of humanity, not to mention religion, and for the sake of the present generation of New Englanders, we confess we should be glad to sustain that charge against the poet. But it is impossible; we must admit that if he has deviated at all from the substantial truth of history, he has done so in favor of the cruel and relentless persecutors. Well might the worst enemy of Christianity say of such scenes as Mr. Longfellow describes : "Il vient; le fanatisme est son horrible nom; Armé pour la défendre, il cherche à la détruire |