ST It is worth while to compare Juvenal's defcription of this port with the figure it makes on the coin. Tandem intrat pofitas inclufa per æquora moles, Juv. Sat. xii. v. 75. At laft within the mighty mole fhe gets, Dryden. The feas may very properly be faid to be inclofed (Inclufa)between the two femicircular moles that almost surround them. The Coloffus, with fomething like a lighted torch in its hand, is probably the Pharos in the second line. The two moles, moles, that we must suppose are joined to the land behind the Pharos, are very poetically described by the Porrectaque brachia, rurfus Qua pelago occurrunt medto, longeque relinquunt Italiam as they retire from one another in the compass they make, till their two ends almost meet a second time in the midft of the waters, where the figure of Neptune fits. The poet's reflection on the haven is very juft, fince there are few natural ports better land-locked, and closed on all fides than this feems 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 fhew it stood in the fea. The dolphin diftinguishes him from a river-god, and figures out his dominion over the feas. He holds the same fish in his hand on other medals. What it means 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, A proper emblem graces either hand, Half a day more brought us to Rome, through a road that is commonly visited by travellers. ROM E. ROM E. T is generally observed, that modern Rome IT ftands higher than the ancient; fome have computed it about fourteen or fifteen feet, taking one place with another. The reason given for it is, that the prefent city ftands upon the ruins of the former; and indeed I have often observed, that where any confiderable pile of building stood anciently, one ftill finds a rifing ground, or a little kind of hill, which was doubtlefs made up out of the fragments and rubbish of the ruined edifice. But befides this particular caufe, we may affign another that has very much contributed to the raifing the fituation of several parts of Rome; it being certain the great quantities of earth that have been washed off the hills by the violence of fhowers, had no fmall fhare in it. This any one may be fenfible of, who obferves how far feveral buildings, that ftand near the roots of the mountains, are funk 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 fame cause, that has raised the low grounds, having contributed to fink those that were higher. There are in Rome two fets of antiquities, the Chriftian and the Heathen. The former, though of a fresher date, are so embroiled with fable and le gend, gend, that one receives but little fatisfa&tion from fearching into them. The other give a great deal of pleasure to fuch as have met with them before in ancient authors; for a man who is in Rome can fcarce fee an object that does not call to mind a piece of a Latin Poet or hiftorian. Among the remains of old Rome, the grandeur of the commonwealth fhews itself chiefly in works that were either necessary or convenient, fuch as temples, highways, aqueducts, walls, and bridges of the city. On the contrary, the magnificence of Rome, under the Emperors, was rather for oftentation or luxury, than any real usefulness or neceffity, as in baths, amphitheatres, circus's, 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 neceffity there was. for them. These several remains have been fo 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 obferved in fo fpacious a field of antiquities, that it is almost impoffible to furvey them without taking new hints, and raising different reflexions, according as a man's natural turn of thoughts, or the course of his studies dire& him. No part of the antiquities of Rome pleased me fo much as the ancient ftatues, of which there is ftill an incredible variety. The workmanship is often the most exquifite of any thing in its kind. A man would wonder how it were poffible for fo much life to enter into marble, as may be difcovered in fome of the beft of them; and even in the the meanest one has the fatisfaction of feeing the faces, poftures, airs and dress of those that have lived fo many ages before us. There is a strange resemblance between the figures of the feveral heathen deities, and the defcriptions that the Latin Poets have given us of them; but as the firft may be looked upon as the ancienter of the two, I question not but the Roman Poets were the copiers of the Greek ftatuaries. Tho' on other occafions we often find the ftatuaries took their subjects from the Poets. The Laocoon is too known an instance, among many others that are to be met with at Rome. In the Villa Aldobrandina are the figures of an old and young man, engaged together at the Cæftus, who are probably the Dares and Entellus of Virgil; where by the way one may obferve the make of the ancient Cæftus, that it only confifted of many large thongs about the hand, without any thing like a piece of lead at the end of them, as fome writers of antiquities have falfly imagined.. I queftion not but many paffages in the old Poets hint at feveral parts offculpture, that were in vogue in the authors time, though they are now never thought of, and that therefore fuch passages lose much of their beauty in the eye of a modern reader, who does not look upon them in the fame light with the author's Cotemporaries. I fhall only mention two or three out of Juvenal, that his commentators have not taken notice of: The first runs thus ; Multa pudicitiæ veteris veftigia forfan, Aut aliqua extiterint, et fub Jove, fed Jove nondum Sat. vi. v. 14. Barbato. Some |