with the Sele, and between the two rivers, is the former Royal Hunting-ground of Persano, backed by the range of Monte Alburno. It is 12 m. in circumference, and contains a villa residence. After passing the Sele, prettily placed on the hills to the E. is seen Capaccio Vecchio. Its ancient Cathedral is almost the only building remaining. Higher up the hill is Capaccio Nuovo, a thriving village, where the inhabitants removed as a healthier spot. Soon after we discover the Temples. The plain extending from Battipaglia to Pæstum is tenanted by wild horses, buffalos, swine and sheep, guarded by fierce dogs. The Salso, which formerly flowed by the walls of the city, is now choked with sand and calcareous deposits, and it overflows the plain, forming stagnant pools, the resort of herds of buffalos. A good deal of cotton is grown hereabouts, and latterly cultivation has been creeping over the waste tract, owing chiefly to the inhab. of Capaccio Nuovo. f. PESTUM (Pesto). The origin of PESTUM, or POSEIDONIA as it was called previous to the Roman conquest, has been attributed by some antiquaries to the Phoenicians, and to the Etruscans by others; while many have endeavoured to assign to it a more remote origin still. Yet the only historical account we have of its origin from Strabo is, that it was founded by a colony from Sybaris, probably when that city was in its highest prosperity. Strabo adds that it was originally close to the shore, whence it was afterwards removed more inland. Its foundation must have taken place at least B.C. 600, for it was a flourishing colony when the Phocæans founded Velia in the reign of Cyrus, about 540 B.C., since Herodotus states that they employed a Poseidonian as the architect of their city. After the defeat of Pyrrhus, B.C. 273, Poseidonia shared the fate of all the possessions of the Lucanians, and became a Roman colony under the name of Pastum. Athenæus tells us that the Poseidonians, after the loss of their independence, and the abolition of their Greek customs, assembled annually at a solemn festival to revive the recollection, and weep in common over the loss, of their suppressed rites and language. Pæstum soon declined in importance as a Roman colony. It is indeed scarcely mentioned from this period to the era of the Latin poets. In the time of Strabo the atmosphere was already contaminated by malaria, and, as the population diminished, the cultivated plain gradually became converted into marsh-lands. The fall of the Roman empire hastened the ruin of the city. It was one of the first cities in S. Italy which embraced Christianity. The Saracens destroyed it in the 9th cent. The few remaining inhabitants, accompanied by their bishop, took refuge in the hills, and there founded the town of Capaccio Vecchio. Since that time the site has remained deserted. The ruins were despoiled by Robert Guiscard in the 11th cent., to construct the Cathedral of Salerno. There is a custodian appointed by the authorities (1 fr.). The ancient Walls of the city, built of large masses of travertine, are still erect throughout their entire circumference. They form an irregular pentagon, 2 m. in circuit, and are in many places 12 ft. high. Remains of 8 towers and 4 gateways may be traced; the E. gateway is almost perfect, and its arch, nearly 50 ft. high, is entire. Upon its keystones are the vestiges of two bas-reliefs, representing a syren and a dolphin; the style of sculpture in these reliefs, though much defaced, has given rise to many conjectures on their origin. Some remains of the Aqueduct from the neighbouring mountains may be seen outside this gateway, with some fragments of the pavement of the streets. From the construction of the walls, and especially of the gateway, it is evident that they are much more recent than the temples. In approaching Pæstum from Salerno, the area within its walls is entered by the N. gateway (3), outside which was a Necropolis, where several tombs containing Greek armour and vases have been discovered. One of the tombs had beautiful paintings on the walls, representing the departure of warriors, now in the Museum at Naples, but nothing else was found in it but the head of a spear. The Temples.-These magnificent ruins are, with the exception of those of Athens, the most striking existing records of the genius and taste which inspired the architects of Greece. It is remarkable that they are not even alluded to by any ancient writer, although they are doubtless the most venerable examples of classical architecture in Italy. The principal and most ancient of these temples is the central one of the three, known as the Temple of Neptune (10).-(Length of upper step of stylobate, 195 ft. 4 in.; breadth, 78 ft. 10 in.; height of columns, including capitals, 28 ft. 11 in.; diameter of columns at base, 6 ft. 10 in.; number of flutings, 24; entablature, 12 ft. 2 in. Cella: length, 90 ft.; breadth, 43 ft. 4 in. Columns of the cella: height, including capitals, 19 ft. 9 in.; diameter at base, 4 ft. 8 in.; number of flutings, lower range, 20; upper range, 16.) This temple, which is coeval with the earliest period of the Grecian emigration to the South of Italy, "possesses," says Mr. Wilkins, "all the grand characteristics of that pre-eminent style of architecture. Solidity, combined with simplicity and grace, distinguish it from the other buildings. Low columns with a great diminution of the shafts, bold projecting capitals, a massive entablature, and triglyphs placed at the angles of the zoophorus, are strong presumptive proofs of its great antiquity; the shafts of the columns diminish in a straight line from the base to the top, although at first sight they have the appearance of swelling in the middle." This deception is caused by the decay of the stone in the lower part of the shafts. The temple of Neptune was hypethral, or constructed with a cella open to the sky; not a single column is wanting, and the entablature and pediments are nearly entire. The building consists of two peristyles, separated by a wall; the outer peristyle has 6 columns in each front, and 12 in each flank exclusive of those at the angles; upon these 36 columns rest an architrave and frieze. The stylobate is a parallelogram of 3 steps; 5 other steps gave access to the cella, the floor of which is nearly 5 feet above the level of that of the peristyles. Part of the wall of the pronaos, in which the staircase was inserted, is still traceable in the S.E. angle of the cella, which was separated into three divisions by stories of smaller columns divided by a simple architrave; all the columns of the lower file, 14 on each side, still remain, and 8 of the upper-5 on the S. and 3 on the N. side. The stone of which the temple is constructed is Travertine, a calcareous deposit, which forms the surface of the plain: it is similar to the stone so generally used at Rome in the Coliseum, St. Peter's, &c., and is full of petrified reeds and other aquatic plants. From the appearance of several columns, the entire edifice was covered with stucco, and painted, by which the cavities of the stone were concealed. The Basilica (12), nearer to the S. gate and to the Silarus. (Length of upper step of stylobate, 179 ft. 9 in.; breadth, 80 ft.; height of columns, including capitals, 21 ft.; diameter at base, 4 ft. 9 in.; number of flutings, 20.)—The second temple in point of size and importance is generally called the Basilica, although it by no means corresponds with the usual construction of such an edifice. It is pseudo-dipteral (wanting the interior range of columns), and differs from every other building known, by having 9 columns in each front. Mr. Wilkins considers that this building is coeval with the Temple of Ceres; and that both exhibit a departure from the simple style of ancient architecture. The temple has a peristyle of 50 columns, having 9 in the fronts, and 16 in the flanks. The interior is divided into two parts by a range of columns parallel to the sides, of which only 3 remain; the 66 first of these is supported by steps, peristyle in the number of their flutwhich have been considered conclusive ings, and by having circular bases; but evidence of the existence of a cella. Of nothing remains of them beyond the the entablature, the architrave alone bases of 4, and a small portion of the remains, with some small fragments of shafts. The walls of the cella are de the frieze; the pediments have alto-stroyed. gether disappeared. Among the peculiarities of this edifice it may be mentioned that the shafts of the columns diminish from base to top in a curve; the capitals differ from those of any known temple, both in the form of the ovolo and the necking below it; the lower part of the ovolo is generally ornamented with sculpture, and the antæ of the pronaos diminish like the columns, and have a singular projecting capital. The existence of a cella, and the division of the building into two parts, are regarded as satisfactory proofs that this edifice was neither a basilica nor an atrium, but a temple, dedicated probably to two divinities. This edifice is also built of travertine. Temple of Vesta (4), sometimes called the Temple of Ceres. (Length of the upper step of stylobate, 107 ft. 10 in.; breadth, 47 ft. 7 in.; height of columns, including capitals, 20 ft. 4 in.; diameter at base, 4 ft. 2 in.; number of flutings, 20; number of flutings in columns of pronaos, 24; supposed width of cella, 25 ft.) This is the smallest temple, and the nearest to the Salerno gate. It is hexastyle peripteral; the peristyle is composed of 34 columns, of which 6 are in the fronts and 11 in the flanks, exclusive of the angles. Of the entablature, the architrave alone is entire; the W. pediment remains, and part of the E., with a fragment of the frieze. Within the peristyle it seems to have contained an open vestibule, a cella, and a sanctuary. The shafts of the columns of the peristyle diminish in a straight line; the intervals are little more than a diameter; the mouldings of the upper part, and the triglyphs, with one exception in the centre of the E. front, have all disappeared in consequence of the scaling of the sandstone of which they are built. The columns of the vestibule differ from those of the Approaching these temples from the solitary beach," says the author of Notes on Naples,' "their huge dusky masses standing alone amidst their mountain wilderness, without a vestige nigh of any power that could have reared them, they look absolutely supernatural. Their grandeur, their gloom, their majesty-there is nothing like the scene on the wide earth. . . . And thus are preserved, for transmission to after generations, relics of the art and refinement and civilisation of bygone times, as sublime as Homer's verse: and fitly they stand amidst Homeric scenes. The Tyrrhene waters wash their classic shores, and, blue and misty through the morning haze, lies the Syren isle of Leucosia off the Poseidian point. Minerva's foreland is athwart the sea; and, if Oscan tales are sooth, the Trojan hero landed here at the Poseidonian port." The Amphitheatre, &c.-Between the Temples of Neptune and Vesta, there are traces of three buildings: the eastern was an Amphitheatre (6), as its form indicates; the second is a pile of ruins, with a broken entablature, capitals, and pilasters, supposed to be the remains of a Circus or Theatre. A little W. of the Amphitheatre, marked by the inequality of the ground, are the ruins of another edifice, discovered in 1830, and supposed to be those of a Roman building, to which the name of Temple of Peace (7) has been given. Pæstum was celebrated by the Latin poets for the beauty and fragrance of its roses, which flowered twice in the year: Atque equidem, extremo ni jam sub fine laborum Vela traham, et terris festinem advertere Forsitan et, pingues hortos quæ cura colendi around them. Temple erected in honour of Juno Argiva, by Jason and the Argonauts its situation is placed by Strabo on the 1. bank of the river, and on the rt. by Pliny; the best topographers coincide in the position assigned to it by Strabo. g. THE LUCANIAN COAST. The excursion may be continued to Vallo, and along the Lucanian coast, but the country is not attractive, and contains nothing of great interest. A public conveyance runs between Salerno and Vallo, passing through Pæstum. This road leaves Pæstum, and proceeds inland to the village of Prignano (1590 Inhab.). Beyond it is Torchiara (1514 Inhab.), where a horse-path diverges from the main road to Agropoli (2217 Inhab.), a fishing town picturesquely situated in one of the inlets of the Gulf of Salerno. It was the retreat of the Saracens after they were defeated on the banks of the Garigliano. 10 m. S. of it, beyond Castellabate (4396 Inhab.), is the Punta di Licosa, the S. promontory of the Gulf of Salerno, the Promontorium Posidium of the ancients, on which the Romans had several villas. The island off this point still retains nearly in the name of Licosa its ancient name Leucosia, so called from one Torchiara and Vallo is thickly interof the Syrens. The country between It has been frequently stated that the ruins of Pæstum remained unknown until late in the last cent. The absurdity of such a story may be estimated by the fact that the town of Capaccio, where the bishop and his clergy resided, looks down upon the Temples; and that the only road afford-spersed with villages, and clothed with ing a communication between Salerno and the town of Vallo and the district of the Cilento, always passed by Pæstum and close to the ruins. The best idea of the imposing grandeur of the ruins will be gained from the town walls, along the top of which a walk should be taken, from the Porta Justitia (13) or S. gate, to the Porta Aurea (3) or N. gate, the one by which you enter from Salerno. The finest view of the temples is obtained from the 1st tower of the wall E. of the Porta Justitia. Near the Portus Alburnus, at the mouth of the Silarus, was the celebrated woods of oaks and chestnut-trees. The road, after leaving Torchiara, passes over the Montes Petilini, to where Spartacus retreated after his defeat by Crassus, B.C. 71, through the village of Rolino, and crosses the Alento, the ancient Heies, called a nobilis amnis by Cicero; it follows its 1. bank for a short distance, and passes below Sala di Gioi. Near this is the Monte della Stella, supposed to mark the site of Petilia, the capital of Lucania: on the summit is a small chapel and some ruins are still visible. Mercato will be the nearest point to ascend from. |