sent church of S. Silvestro, and which the inhabitants have a tradition was erected by the Emperor Adrian. In the church of Sta. Maria there is the following inscription: OB, PVDICITIAM IVNIAE QVAM IVNIVS SYRIARCHES CVM FILIIS EXORNAVIT DEDICAVITQVE; "The inhabitants of Atina in public assembly decreed a statue to Junia IVNIAE ARIAE RVFINAE.C.F. These two inscriptions are said to refer to two marble statues, which were removed to Naples, and are now in the Royal Museum. I could not be so near to the birthplace of the greatest of Roman orators without making a pilgrimage to Arpinum, and the banks of the Liris, along which Cicero must have often strolled in meditative mood. I resolved, therefore, to ascend as far as Sora, and then take the nearest route into the Papal States. The sun had set when I reached the small village of Arce, where I had some difficulty in procuring accommodation, and had to submit to the discomforts of a bed in the locanda. I have ceased to dwell on the fatigues of travelling through this country, as there is a disagreeable sameness in the want of cleanliness to which you fare subject. It is the same everywhere in these little villages, and no one need attempt to do what I have accomplished, unless his constitution be such as will withstand excessive heat and labours that never end. Arce lies on the slope of a hill on a beautiful situation, with a small castle, Rocca d'Arce, overhanging it. It is only interesting to us as the site of a villa of Quintus, brother of Cicero, which the orator describes very fully in a letter to his brother, on a visit which he made to it at the time it was being built. He talks of the great heat, "magni calores," and at this period of the year I can bear witness that the climate has in no way changed in that respect. He says (ad Q. F. iii. 1): "In Arcano A.D. III., Idus Sept. fui. ibi Messidium cum Philoxeno (the architect and contractor), aquamque, quam ii ducebant non longe a villâ, belle sane fluentem vidi, præsertim maximâ siccitate: balnearia et ambulationem et aviarium. Villa mihi valde placuit, propterea quod summam dignitatem pavimentata porticus habebat; quod mihi nunc denique apparuit, posteaquam et ipsa tota patet, et columnæ politæ sunt. Totum in eo est tectorium ut concinnum sit." "I was at Arcanum on the 11th September. There I saw Messidius with Philoxenus, and the water, which they were conveying not far from the villa, flowing most copiously, at least considering the excessive drought to which we have been lately The subject.... also the baths, piazza, and aviary. The villa has pleased me very much, as the paved portico looks particularly well now that it has been wholly exposed to view, and the pillars are polished. whole, however, depends on its being properly covered and plastered." The vicissitudes of two thousand years have left little of it; the water still remains to point where it stood, and Fontana buona is the name of the spot. Nothing can exceed the beauty of the road, leading along the banks of the river Liris towards the city Arpino. The river lies a little to the left as you ascend, and is seldom seen, being shrouded by trees. described by Horace (Od. i. 31, 8) as a peaceful and gentle stream: Non rura, quæ Liris quietâ Nor the rich fields that Liris laves It is but what I saw of it does not suit this description. It is a clear and rapid mountain river, and in its upper course could never have been anything else. Horace might possibly have seen it only near its mouth, where the Via Appia crosses it, and there it has been described as a " wide and noble river, winding under the shadow of poplars through a lovely vale and then gliding gently towards the sea." As you approach Arpino, you see it at some distance stretched along the slopes of the hills, with high ground behind. It contains eleven thousand inhabitants, and there is more appearance of commercial activity than is usually found in these cities. It possesses the most extensive paper manufactory in the kingdom of Naples, giving employment to upwards of two hundred persons. It is still famed for its woollen manufactures, as it was in ancient times. From the northern gate to the east the walls still remain in their original form, of large polygonal blocks of stone, one of the few specimens of Cyclopian structure which I have seen. They run along the brow of the hill as far as the ancient citadel now called Civita Vecchia, on its highest summit. This city is chiefly distinguished as having been the birthplace of two of the most illustrious men in Roman history, C. Marius, born B.C. 157, died B.C. 86; and M. Tullius Cicero, born B.C. 106, died B.C. 43. As I saw the house of Horace at Venusia, I expected to have the houses of Marius and Cicero pointed out to me here. former is on the hill called Civita Falconieri, and Cicero lived at what is called Torre alta di Cicerone. Cicero (ad Att. xi. 13) speaks of coheirs of a Fufidius of Arpinum, and a farm was purchased by him for Q. Cicero (ad Q. F. iii. 1). It is interesting to find the family handed down by various inscriptions to the present time. Thus, in the wall of the church of S. Antonio are the following: The In the church of Sta. Maria there are several mutilated inscriptions; none of any interest, except one with the name Tullius, reminding us of the great orator. The words are crowded together, and some of the letters nearly illegible. It seems to be the following: VMSACRVM. RIMERCVRIOLAN CILIXTVLLIVS TEMARRECIAE One Leaving Arpino in the afternoon I rode down three miles to Isola, a village situated in a small island, formed by the waters of the Liris, which is interesting from being near to the site of the paternal villa of Cicero, and for the beautiful views that numerous waterfalls present. The village contains about three thousand inhabitants, chiefly occupied in woollen manufactures, but it is visited chiefly for its cataracts. of the best views is got from the bridge Serella, where the stream divides into two branches, forming another small island, but the finest point of view is from the top of Monte San Giovenale, where both cascades are presented to the eye at once, with the royal palace rising in front. sides these two cataracts, the river presents much fine scenery along its banks, particularly a group of five small cascades, one above the other, at Remorice, with a fringe of poplars and other trees on both sides. It is an excellent fishing stream, and supplies trout to both Naples and Rome. The position of the paternal villa of Cicero has been much disputed; this has, in my opinion, arisen from omitting to take into account that the orator, during his successful career, had added house to house, and that, too, in his own province. If we take this point into consideration it will clear away many of the difficulties that surround the question. We find him in a letter (ad Att. viii. 9), which was evidently written towards the end of his career, writing thus: "Ego Arpini volo esse pridie Kal. deinde circum villulas nostras errare, quas visurum esse me postea desperavi." "I am anxious to be at Arpinum the day before the calends, and then to saunter about my country houses, which I despaired of ever again seeing." This clearly shows that he had more than one villa in this quarter, and now let us see the description of the position of one of them, which he has given very beautifully in the second book De Legibus (c. ii. 1): Atticus. Sed visne, quoniam et satis jam ambulatum est, et tibi aliud dicendi initium sumendum est, locum mutemus, et in insula, quæ est in Fibreno, (nam opinor illi alteri flumini nomen esse) sermoni reliquo demus operam, sedentes? Marcus. Sane quidem. Nam illo loco libentissime soleo uti, sive quid aut scribo, aut lego. Ego vero, quum licet plures dies abesse, præsertim hoc tempore anni, et amoenitatem hanc et salubritatem sequor, raro autem licet. Sed nimirum me alia quoque causa delectat, quæ te non attingit ita. Atticus. Quæ tandem ista causa est? Marcus. Quia, si verum dicimus, hæc est mea, et hujus fratris mei germana patria: hinc enim orti stirpe antiquissimâ: hic sacra, hic gens, hic majorum multa vestigia. Quid plura? hanc vides villam, ut nunc quidem est, lautius ædificatam patris nostri studio: qui cum esset infirmâ valitudine, hic fere ætatem egit in litteris. Sed hoc ipso in loco cum avus viveret, et antiquo more parva esset villa, ut illa Curiana in Sabinis, me scito esse natum. Atticus. Sed ventum in Insulam est, hâc verò nihil est amœnius, ut enim hoc quasi rostro finditur Fibrenus, et divisus æqualiter in duas partes; latera hæc alluit, rapideque dilapsus cito in unum confluit, et tantum complectitur quod satis modica palestræ, loci: quo effecto, tamquam id habuerit operis ac muneris, ut hanc nobis efficeret sedem ad disputandum, statim præcipitat in Lirem, et quasi in familiam patriciam venerit, amittit nomen obscurius, Liremque multo gelidiorem facit: nec enim ullum hoc frigidius flumen attigi, cum ad multa accesserim, ut vix pede tentare id possim. "Atticus. But, now, do you feel inclined, since we have had enough of walking for the present, and you are going to enter on a fresh branch of the subject, to change our situation? If so, let us pursue the rest of our conversation reclining at ease in the island formed by the Fibrenus, for such, I believe, is the name of the other river. "Marcus. It is exactly what I should like, for that is the very spot which I generally select when I wish to meditate undisturbed, and to read or write without interruption. For when I am able to get a few days' absence from business, especially at this season of the year, I am in the habit of coming here to enjoy the beauty of the landscape, and to inhale fresh air; but it is, alas! seldom in my power to do so. There is, however, another reason why I am so fond of Arpinum, which does not apply to you. "Atticus. What, pray, is that? "Marcus. Because, to say the truth, this is the native place of myself and my brother here, for here, descended from a very ancient race, we first saw the light of day; here is our altar, here are our ancestors, and here still remain many traces of our family. Why need I say more? This villa here, which you see, was improved and enlarged at considerable expense by my father, who in the infirmities of age spent much of his time here in the pursuits of literature; but on this very spot, when my grandfather was still living, and when the villa was, according to the custom of the olden time, of small dimensions, like that of Curius, in the Sabine country, know that I myself was born there. "Atticus. But here we are, arrived in your favourite island. How beautiful it looks! How bravely it stems the waters of the Fibrenus, while they separate and lave both its banks, soon rejoining their rapid current! The river just encloses enough of ground for a moderate walk, and having done this much, and secured us an arena for our disputation, it immediately dashes into the Liris, and then, like those who ally themselves to patrician families, loses its more obscure name, and gives the waters of the Liris a greater degree of coolness. For I have never found water cooler than this, though I have seen a great number of rivers, and I can hardly bear my foot in it." You have here the description of Cicero; and now for the appearance of the river and its islands at the present moment. I may, in the first place, say that the walk from Isola towards the river Fibrenus is most picturesque, the hills rising in the distance one above the other fringed with wood, while the banks of the Liris are covered with the poplar and oak. There were few of the oaks that were aged; but they were, no doubt, the descendants of the Marian oak, of which Cicero (De Leg. i. 1) speaks so eloquently: "You may say that if you please, but as long as the Latin language shall be spoken, an oak, which will be called Marius's oak, will never be wanting in this place; and as Scævola said of my brother's poem on Marius, it will Extend its hoary age through countless years." There are two islands formed by the river Fibrenus, which has a course only of eight miles, one, where it joins the Liris, being somewhere about thirty-two acres-what they call forty moggia-and the other about a mile higher up, called Carnella, not more than five moggia-a little more than four acres. This little island, surrounded entirely by the waters of the Fibrenus, exactly as Cicero describes it, is, in my opinion, that to which he alludes in the quotation which I have given. It is now desecrated by a not very picturesque mill; in other respects, it exactly suits. The stream, confined within a narrow course on both sides, runs with great rapidity (rapide dilapsus), and joins again at a short distance (cito in unum confluit). The ruins of ancient buildings are said to have been found here, but at present nothing of the kind is to be seen. might be made, with a little expense and taste, to be very much in the same state as Cicero left it. I have no doubt that this small islandCarnella-is that which Cicero and Atticus sauntered towards when the disputation on the laws took place, and that here stood the paternal villa of Cicero. It The large island to which I have alluded, as situated at the mouth of the Fibrenus, where it falls into the Liris, cannot be said to be surrounded by the waters of the Fibrenus, as they do not unite again, the lower part of the island being washed by the Liris. Here, however, I have little doubt that Cicero had another villa on the island, opposite to the church of St. Domenico, where many ancient remains have been found. In the walls of the church are bas-reliefs, representing consular insignia, and there is a bust, which is called Cicerone. Here, too, there was once a sepulchral urn, which has been transferred to Naples. One cannot muse on such a spot-which no doubt retains the same features that it did two thousand years ago, when Cicero and his great compeers so often discussed those mighty themes which still engage the mind of the thoughtful-without feeling warmed to enthusiasm. We feel the truth of these words of the orator (De Fin. v. 1): Naturâne nobis hoc, inquit, datum dicam, an errore quodam: ut, cum ea loca videamus, in quibus memoriâ dignos viros acceperimus multum esse versatos, magis moveamur, quam siquando eorum ipsorum aut facta audiamus, aut scriptum aliquod legamus? "Whether it be the natural disposition of man or some inherent weakness, yet true it is that we are much more affected with the sight of those places where the great and famous have lived, than either by hearing of their deeds or reading their works." This property of Cicero came into the possession of the poet Silius |