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 sigua 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 Formia, which is thirty-two miles from Feronia. In Mamurrarum lassi deinde urbe manemus, Murenâ præbente domum, Capitone culinam. The fourth day, Mecanas and his suite arrive early at Sinuessa, eighteen miles from Formiæ. Postera lux oritur multo gratissima: namque Occurrunt. The commentators have themselves observed that our travellers only dined at Sinuessa, and then proceeded to the bridge of Campania, Pons Campanius, on the Savo, eighteen miles from Sinuessa, and sixteen from Capua.† The whole journey is described in the fifth Satire of the first book of Horace. + Cluvier. Ital. Antiq. L. iv. c. v. p. 1077. Itiner. Hierosolytanum. Edit. Wessel. p. 611. Proxima Proxima Campano ponti quæ villula tectum Præbuit; et parochi quæ debent ligna salemque. The fifth day, the mules brought them early to Capua. Hinc muli Capuæ clitellas tempore ponunt. The poets went to sleep, while Mecanas diverted himself at tennis; which shews that it was the time fo 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 twentyone miles, to sup and sleep at the house of Cocceius, one of the company, which was situate on the heights of Caudium. Hinc nos Cocceii recipit plenissima villa, Prorsus jucunde cœnam produximus illam. 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 z 3 divide by four days and an 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 Præcinctis unum. Minùs est gravis Appia tardis. The ambassadors were embarrassed with a more numerous suite, but they travelled with more conveniencies and greater expedition. Yet we ought to be better informed than we are of the object of their negociation, 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 an half to which I would reduce the journey of Horace from Rome to Beneventum will give 361 Roman, near S3 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-appear 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 Horace de Sanadon, tom. v. p. 138. must 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' journies 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. Quos Nunquam erepsemus; nisi nos vicina Trivici The eighth, our travellers proceeded twentyfour miles, and slept at a small village, whose grotesque name could not enter into a verse. Mansuri oppidulo quod versu dicere non est. The inth day I find them at Canusium, but I imagine they proceeded to Rubi; at least they arrived the much fatigued with a long journey. z 4 This This appellation could not have been given to twenty-three miles. Inde Rubos fessi pervenimus, utpote longum Carpentes iter.. 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 Berg. Grands Chemins, 1. ii. c. 26. p. 226 style. |