were suppressed. The building consists | waters or the blood of the victims. It of a quadrilateral atrium surrounded was entered by 4 flights of steps, facing with chambers, and a circular temple the 4 sides of the building; two of them in the centre. The court is 140 ft. have bronze rings, for the purpose, long and 122 wide; the main entrance it is supposed, of holding the animals is in the S.W. side, which is next the sea, used for the sacrifices. The paveby a doorway of a central and 2 lateralment inclined towards the centre, where passages, forming a sort of vestibule sup- there was a perforated stone for carryported by 6 pilasters. The court was ing off the blood. In this area was surrounded internally by a portico sup- found a rectangular altar, with a chanported by 48 columns, partly of marble nel in the side for the same purpose. and partly granite, beneath which were In front of the large columns of the 32 small chambers, of which 16 were pronaos were pedestals for statues, and entered from the court, and 16 from the smaller pedestals were placed between outside, without any apparent commu- the columns of the portico. The buildnication with the interior. The remains ing, in all essential points, has an idenof stairs prove that they had an upper tity of arrangement with the Iseon at story. The chambers in the angles of Pompeii, and with the Serapeon at the N.E. side are twice the size of the Alexandria, as it is described in the others; they have channels in their Historia Ecclesiastica of Rufinus. In walls for the passage of water, and are two inscriptions found on the pedessurrounded by marble seats supported tals in front of the central columns of by dolphins. When first discovered the pronaos, and relating to the restothey were lined with marble. Berations by Marcus Aurelius and Septitween the two large chambers the wall of the building is recessed, so as to form a semicircular niche. In front of this was a pronaos of 6 Corinthian columns and 2 pilasters, which appear, from the broken sculpture found near them, to have supported a richly deco-sacrum, Dusaris being the Phoenician rated frieze, and to have been the loftiest portion of the edifice. Three of these columns are still erect; they each are cut out of a single block of cipollino, 40 ft. 3 in. high; one of them is cracked nearly in the centre, the other two are entire. The three others lie fallen in fragments on the ground. The court itself was paved with marble. Beneath it, at the depth of 6 ft., a more ancient pavement of mosaic has been discovered, with a channel underneath it for carrying off the water of the springs. In the middle of the court was a circular temple, elevated 3 ft. above the floor of the court, and surrounded by a peristyle of 16 Corinthian columns of African marble, which were removed to decorate the theatre at the Palace of Caserta. Between the pedestals, which still remain, are small cylindrical vases, with spiral flutings, which are supposed to have been used to hold the lustral

mius Severus, the building is mentioned as the Edes of Serapis, a term which occurs also in the Iseon at Pompeii. Other inscriptions were seen by Martorelli and Paolini on the pilasters at the entrance, with the words Dusari

Bacchus, the Osiris or Serapis of the Egyptians. In the semicircular niche was found the statue of Serapis now in the Museum at Naples. The Greek inscriptions in which the Tyrian merchants refer to the expense of maintaining their "paternal worship in the Temples," supply authentic evidence that the worship of the Egyptian divinity existed here as late as the 2nd cent. In spite of these facts, and of the existence of the Iseon at Pompeii, some antiquaries have questioned whether the Egyptian worship was tolerated at this period, and have argued, from the channels for conveying water, that the building was a mere establishment of Baths, forgetting the statements of Apuleius and Arnobius, that water was as necessary as fire in the service of the Egyptian temples.

The Physical Changes of which the ruin presents so remarkable a me

After this event, the subsidence must have continued by successive movements until the lower part of the columns was submerged, for the watermarks belong evidently to different levels. In the 12th cent. the eruption of the Solfatara appears to have filled the court to the height of 12 ft. with

morial, have been the subject of even more disputes than the architectural character of the edifice. The three cipollino columns of the pronaos present a history of these changes in characters which every one may read, and which no controversy can alter. This history comprises two distinct epochs, one of subsidence and submer-scoriæ and other ejected matter, which, sion beneath the water of the sea, the other of elevation above its level. The lower portion of the columns, for about 12 ft. above the pedestals, has a smooth surface, but exhibiting at different heights distinct traces of ancient water marks. Above this portion, the columns for about 9 ft. are perforated with holes, drilled deep into their substance by the lithodomus (the Modiola lithophaga of Lamarck), a species of boring bivalve shell still existing in the neighbouring sea. The upper half of the columns is uninjured, except by exposure to the weather and by the action of the waves. These appear ances were at first attributed to an elevation of the sea above its present level, an hypothesis now known to be untenable, since all the changes on the shores of the Gulf of Naples have been proved to be local. There is no doubt that the coast of the Bay of Baie has undergone alternate changes of subsidence and elevation from the date of the foundation of this building. When the mosaic pavement we have mentioned as existing 6 ft. beneath the present floor of the court was first formed, it is obvious that it must have been some feet above the level of the sea, a fact of which the existence of a channel beneath it for carrying off the water of the springs is an evidence. A subsidence must then have taken place, which rendered it necessary to lay down the existing pavement at a higher level. The inscriptions we have noticed prove that the building was in use in the reign of Septimius Severus. In less than 100 years after the death of this emperor, the heathen temples were suppressed on the conversion of Constantine, and there is little doubt that it was then entirely abandoned.

as the ground sunk lower beneath the sea, preserved that portion of the columns from the action of the lithodomi. The subsidence continued until the columns were submerged to the height of 9 ft. above this volcanic deposit, and in that state they must have remained exposed to the action of the sea-water for nearly three centuries and a half, while the upper half of the columns projected above the water. This is proved by the immense number, the large size, and the depth of the perforations bored by the lithodomi, the shells of which are still to be found at the bottom of many of the cavities, together with others of existing species (chiefly a species of arca), which have concealed themselves in the same hollows. The Canonico Jorio has shown, by the evidence of municipal charters, that an elevation had commenced on the shores of Pozzuoli early in the 16th cent. This change appears to have been local, for Ferrante Loffredo, in his 'Antichità di Pozzuolo,' published in 1580, asserts that in 1530 a person could fish from the site now called the Circus or Stadium. From this statement, as Professor Forbes has shown, we may infer that, immediately before the appearance of Monte Nuovo, the sea washed the ancient cliffs which are now inland, on both sides of Pozzuoli, from the Punta di Coroglio to the Lucrine Lake. We may therefore assign the date of the elevation which upheaved this building and the low tract of submarine deposit on the west of Pozzuoli, called La Starza, to the earthquakes which preceded and accompanied the formation of Monte Nuovo in 1538. From the middle of the last cent., or at least from 1780, the building has been again slowly sinking. Niccolini,

of the skin. The cold springs, called the Acqua de' Lipposi, and the Acqua Media, contain very nearly the same materials as the Acqua dell' Antro, with carbonic acid gas; but in consequence of their lower temperature, they are not so much used. The Acqua de' Lipposi is used in affections of the eyes. The Acqua Media has some analogy with that of Seltzer.

in his 'Rapporto,' states that in 1807, | advantage in dyspepsia, gout, and visthe pavement was perfectly dry in calm ceral obstructions; externally, in rheuweather, and was never overflowed ex-matic affections, scrofula, and diseases cept during the prevalence of a strong gale from the south; in 1822 it was covered twice a-day by the slight tides which exist in the Gulf of Naples; in 1838 the depth of water at high tide had increased 4 inches; on the 9th of April, 1858, at high-water mark, and with scarcely a ripple on the surface of the sea without, it rose to the height of 23 inches, a depth that has gone on gradually increasing. From observations, carefully made during a period The Mole of Pozzuoli, called by Seneca of 16 years, Niccolini calculated that Pila, and by Suetonius Moles Puteolana, the ground had been sinking at the is an interesting example of a pier built rate of about a quarter of an inch an- on what was called the Greek principle, nually. On the whole, therefore, there -a series of piles of massive masonry, is little doubt that the ground has sunk connected by arches which sufficed to upwards of 2 ft. during the last half cent. break the force of the waves, while they This gradual subsidence confirnis Mr. prevented the accumulation of sand inBabbage's conclusions-drawn from the side. It is supposed that there were oricalcareous incrustations formed by the ginally 25 piles, sustaining 24 arches, hot springs on the walls of the build- with a lighthouse at the extremity. ing, and from the ancient lines of the Only 13 piles are now above water; water-level at the base of the three 3 others are visible beneath it. They columns, that the original subsidence are built of brick faced with stone, and was not sudden, but slow and by suc- are firmly held together by a cement cessive movements. Sir Charles Lyell partly composed of volcanic sand, considers that when the mosaic pave- extolled by Vitruvius and by Strabo ment was constructed, the floor of the for its power of hardening under water, building must have stood about 12 ft. and known under the modern name of above the level of 1838 (or about 11 ft. pozzolana. The date of the construcabove the level of the sea), and that it tion of this mole is not known, but it had sunk about 19 ft. below that level was certainly anterior to the 2nd cent., before it was elevated by the eruption as an inscription fished up from the of Monte Nuovo. The Mineral Waters, sea in 1575, and preserved over the city which we have mentioned, are sup- gate, records its restoration by Antoniposed to have their sources in the Sol- nus Pius, in accordance with a promise fatara. They are three in number; made by Hadrian. This mole is called one of them is hot, the others cold. the Ponte di Caligola, from an erroThe hot spring is called the Acqua dell' neous impression that it was conAntro, because it issues from a small nected with the bridge of boats, atcavern. It is a bright, clear, and co- tached, as Suetonius expresses it, ad pious stream. The temperature is Puteolanas Moles, for the purpose about 106° Fahr.; it varies slightly with of forming a continuation of the Via the season. It contains carbonates of Puteolana across the bay to Baiæ, or soda, lime, magnesia, and iron, sul-as Dion Cassius asserts, to Bauli. To phates of soda and lime, and muriates of soda, lime, magnesia, and alumina; carbonate of soda is in excess. It is in great repute, both for internal and external maladies. Internally it is used with

construct this bridge Caligula seized every vessel he could find in all the ports of Italy, so that the peninsula was thereby reduced to a state of famine for want of ships to import