Bergier, explaining the uses to which the Romans applied them. He has indeed mentioned posts, which afforded conveniency to a small number of persons; but has omitted many important particulars that still remain to be told. A critical examination of the ordinary journeys of travellers would afford important information concerning the private life of the Romans, and even throw light on geography and chronology. I am sensible that the differences of age, condition, and circumstances, must render our general conclusions uncertain; but as the means were universally the same, these uncertainties will be reduced within certain limits. Augustus travelled with an extraordinary slowness in the neighbourhood of Rome. A journey to Tibur (twenty Roman miles *), or to Præneste (twenty-five miles†), consumed two days, or rather two nights. But the situation of Augustus was as singular as his taste. The weakness of his health from his youth upwards, compelled him to the strictest regimen; and by his own temper he would be inclined to carry the dictates of prudence to an extreme. It appears from his faithful biographer that this prince was soon tired of debauchery; and that he always despised luxury, though much addicted to effeminacy. We may add to these circumstances, that he travelled in a litter carried by slaves; and proceeded with great slowness, that his attention might not be withdrawn a moment from his usual occupations. The gentle motion of his carriage allowed him to read, write, and attend to the same affairs which employed him in his cabinet. § From such an example, no general consequence can be deduced." The same may be said of those rapid and extraordinary journies of which the ancients sometimes make mention. How wide is the difference between the mode of travelling of Augustus and that of his son Tiberius, who accomplished a journey of two hundred miles in twenty-four hours, when he hastened to close the eyes of his brother Drusus; || or that of Cæsar the dictator, who posted one hundred miles a-day with hired carriages. Statius speaks of a rapidity as extraordinary, when he says that a traveller might set out from Rome in the morning, and sleep at Baiæ or Puteoli; an expeditious journey indeed, since the distance is one hundred and forty-one Roman,** or one hundred and twenty-seven English miles. Nil obstat cupidis: nihil moratur I know that the poet wished to celebrate the fine road which Domitian had made from Sinuessa to Cuma; which had fixed the sands of Liternum, and restrained the inundations of the Vulturnus. The thirty miles which he had passed, and which used to be the work of a day, now scarcely consumed two hours. Perhaps we * Itineraria Antiq. edit. Wesseling, p. 309. Sueton. in August. lxxviii. + Idem, p. 502. § Plin. Epist. iii. 5; Juvenal, Satir. iii. 239. Sueton. in Cæsar. lvii. Plin. Hist. Nat. vii. 20. ** Vetera Itiner. p. 107, 108, 122. ++ Stat. Sylvar. 14. Carm. iii. must make some allowance for the flattery of a poet, who wished to pay his court. Yet the possibility of the journey must be admitted, since falsehoods are not to be risked in matters so simple, public, and precise. We may perceive how much the Roman roads must have facilitated travelling, when we call to mind the journey of the courier, who brought to Rome the first news of the defeat of Perseus. The date of the battle is precisely fixed by an eclipse of the moon, which happened the day preceding the nones of September, that is, the 21st of June of the Julian year.* * The courier arrived in the Circus the second day of the Roman games, and the thirteenth after the defeat. These two circumstances show, that to get the thirteen days, we must reckon both the day of his departure and that of his arrival, which will bring us to the 16th of the calends of October, the 4th of July. We may therefore reckon twelve complete days; two of which might be employed in sailing from Dyrrachium to Brundusium, since the distance is one thousand three hundred stadia, or two hundred and twenty-five miles; § and Ptolemy estimates an ordinary ship's way at one thousand stadia each day. The ten remaining days were consumed in the journey from Pella to Dyrrachium, two hundred and fifty-three miles:¶ and in that from Brundusium to Rome, three hundred and sixty-eight miles; ** in all, six hundred and twenty-one; which gives no more than sixty miles a-day. We are to remember that this journey was performed by one courier, in the finest season of the year, and bringing the news of a great victory. He therefore anticipated, by several days, the deputies of the consul, although they likewise travelled with the greatest expedition. The Egnatian road was not yet made; the Appian extended no further than to Capua; and the Greeks never applied themselves to the making of highways.++ Among the ordinary journeys of the Romans, who travelled neither like invalids nor couriers, there are two which we know with some degree of accuracy: the journey of Horace to Brundusium, by the way of Canusium; and that of Cicero to the same place, by the way of Venusia and Tarentum: I shall speak of both: beginning with that of Horace. 1. Horace's aim was not to inform, but to amuse us: his day's journeys are described confusedly, and we rather guess at, than ascertain them. He dwells on the places in his route, in proportion to the objects which they presented to his fancy, rather than to the time during which he remained in them. Commentators would persuade us that Horace was fifteen or seventeen days on the road; but the foundation of this opinion, namely, that the poet slept at all the places of which he makes mention, appears to me to ++ *Isac. Bulliad. Epist. ad Calcem. tom. iii.; Tit. Liv. ex edit. Gronov. § Itineraria, p. 317, et Not. Wesseling. Plin. Hist. Nat. iii. 2. Ptolemæi Geog. cap. ix. ** Itineraria Ant. p. 307, iii. 117. ¶ Itineraria, p. 319. ++ Strabon. Geog. v. p. 162. ‡‡ Horat. lib. i. Sat. 5. v. 134. edit. ad usum Delphini. be an exceedingly weak one. Our conjectures will be more natural, if we attend to the characteristic circumstances of the evening, morning, the hour of repast, &c.; circumstances which are scattered through the satire. The following is the journal, with which this consideration will furnish us. The first day Horace left Rome, with the rhetorician Heliodorus, to take up his night's abode at Aricia, sixteen miles distant. Egressum magnâ me accepit Aricia Româ, The second day he arrived at the Forum Appii, towards the evening; twenty-seven miles. Jam nox inducere terris Umbras, et cœlo diffundere signa parabat. He sailed along the canal in the night, and landed at the fourth hour (ten o'clock A. M. of the third day). After a light breakfast at Feronia, he travelled three miles towards Terracina, which is eighteen miles distant from the Forum Appii. I do not perceive that he halted either at Terracina or at Fundi; so that he was much fatigued when he arrived at Formæ, which is thirty-two miles from Feronia. In Mamurrarum lassi deinde urbe manemus, The fourth day, Mecenas and his suite arrive early at Sinuessa, eighteen miles from Formæ. Postera lux oritur multò gratissima: namque The commentators have themselves observed that our travellers only dined at Sinuessa, and then proceded to the bridge of Campania, Pons Campanius, on the Savo, eighteen miles from Sinuessa, and sixteen from Capua.† Proxima Campano ponti quæ villula tectum The fifth day the mules brought them early to Capua. The poets went to sleep, while Mecænas diverted himself at tennis; which shows that it was the time for exercise, which ended before two o'clock P. M. Horace says nothing of the bath and supper which commonly followed. I conclude therefore, that instead of sitting down to table, they again entered into their carriage, and proceeded twenty-one miles, to sup and sleep at the house of Cocceius, one of the company, which was situate on the heights of Caudium. The whole journey is described in the fifth Satire of the first book of Horace. + Cluver. Ital. Antiq. lib. iv. cap. v. p. 1077. Itiner. Hierosolytanum, edit. Wessel. p. 611. The sixth day, they performed only a very short journey from the castle of Cocceius to Beneventum: it was no more than eight miles. It is probable that the gaiety and good cheer of the house of Cocceius made them sit up late, and that he did not allow them to depart next day till after dinner; for which reason I shall reckon this but half a day's journey. In the whole, therefore, we have 164 Roman miles to divide by five days and a half, which gives 30 Roman, or 27 English miles, a day. But I am of opinion that we ought to divide by four days and a half. Horace travelled with the laziness of a man of letters, until he met the ambassadors at Terracina. He employed two days between Rome and the Forum Appii; but he confesses that more expeditious travellers would have performed that journey in one day. Hoc iter ignavi divisimus, altius ac nos Minùs est gravis Appia tardis. The ambassadors were embarrassed with a more numerous suite, but they travelled with more conveniences and greater expedition. Yet we ought to be better informed than we are of the object of their negotiation, to determine whether they were bent on reaching Brundusium with all possible haste. An ambassador wishes to accelerate or retard his journey as the business of his mission may require. These four days and a half, to which I would reduce the journey of Horace from Rome to Beneventum, will give 363 Roman, near 33 English miles, for the progress of each day. While we travel to Beneventum, we traverse a well-known country. But, after quitting this city, Horace is lost among the mountains of Apulia, until he re-appears at Canusium. We meet with little but obscurity in this part of his route; and the glimmerings of light are so well fitted to deceive us, that Father Sanadon suspects Horace of having lost his way among his native mountains.* Yet why should we suppose that the villa Trivici must mean Trivicum, or that Equotutium must be the name of the place that cannot be introduced into an hexameter verse? These conjectures are inconsistent with geography. Why should we persist in fixing with accuracy the situation of a country-house, and of a village (oppidulum), belonging to the most desert and least known district of all Italy? Let us be contented with knowing that these two undiscovered places stood on the high road from Beneventum to Canusium; and all difficulties will be removed. Yet this general knowledge will not allow us to ascertain the days' journeys as above. Our poet, however, though he speak in obscure terms of the places, is exact with respect to time. We may continue, therefore, his journal, and then compare it with the well known distance between Beneventum and Brundusium. The. seventh day he left Beneventum, clambered with difficulty over the mountains which separate the territory of the Hirpini from Apulia, and rested in the castle of Trivicus, *Horace de Sanadon, tom. v. p. 138. Quos Nunquam erepsemus; nisi nos vicina Trivici Villa recepisset, lacrymoso non sine fumo. The eighth our travellers proceeded twenty-four miles, and slept at a small village, whose grotesque name could not enter into a verse. Mansuri oppidulo quod versu dicere non est. The ninth day, I find them at Canusium, but I imagine they proceeded to Rubi; at least they arrived there much fatigued with a long journey. This appellation could not have been given to twentythree miles. Inde Rubos fessi pervenimus, utpote longum The tenth day, they proceeded to Bari; the eleventh to Gnatia ; and the twelfth at length brought them to Brundusium. It is true that these three last days are not accurately distinguished, but it is certain there were no more; and without obliging our travellers to make one day's journey of sixty miles, it is impossible to reduce their number. From Beneventum to Brundusium we have 205 miles; which gives the rate of 34 Roman, nearly 31 English, each day. They travelled faster the first days, not being then retarded by the Apulian mountains, and by roads bad in themselves, and then rendered worse by the rain. Their repeated complaints on this subject give reason for suspecting that the Appian Way then reached only to Capua, and that it was not Julius Cæsar that carried it to Brundusium. Raised causeways, formed of three layers of materials, and paved with flint stones, have resisted the impressions of time. Is it credible, that in twenty years after they were made, they should have been spoiled by a shower of rain? With the eyes of a commentator, I should see nothing but excellence in this satire, and call it, with Father Sanadon, a model of the narrative style. It is true that I observe in it with pleasure two well-applied strokes of satire; one against the stupid pride of -the prætor of Fundi, and another against the more stupid superstition of the people of Gnatia; but I would not hesitate to pronounce that the almost unknown journey of Rutilius is superior to that of Horace in point of description, poetry, and especially in the choice of incidents. The gross language of a boatinan, and the ribaldry of two buffoons, surely belong only to the lowest species of comedy. They might divert travellers in a humour to be pleased with every thing; but how could a man of taste reflect on them the day after? They are less offensive, however, than the infirmities of the poet, which occur more than once; the plasters which he applies to his eyes, and the nasty accident which befel him in the night. The maxim that every thing in great men is interesting, applies only to their minds, and ought not to be extended to their bodies. What unworthy objects for the attention of Horace, when the face of the country and the manners of its inhabitants in vain offered to him a field of instruction and pleasure! Perhaps this Berg. Grands Chemins, lib. ii. cap. xxvi. p. 226. Horace de Sanadon, tom. v. p. 119. Paris, 1756. |