fwept the coaft of Africa; and Mr. Winckleman obferves, that being nearly on a level with the fea, the water must have been raised, and not the ground funk, as appears by the buildings ftill remaining in their original pofition. The cities that fuffered a common fate with Herculaneum, were Reĥina, or Retino, Pompeii, and Stabia.

It is his opinion, that Herculaneum was not buried under the lava, or a torrent of fire, produced by the liquefaction of tones of va rious kinds, but that it was firft covered with ashes, and then with water; that the ashes were fo hot as to burn the timber upon the ground into charcoal; and that the city being firft buried in these afhes, and afterwards flooded by an inundation, was at length covered by the lava, which formed a kind of cruft over all; which did not happen either to Pompeii or Stabia, to which the lava did not reach, and which are therefore covered only with a kind of light afhes, fuch as is found under the lava at Herculaneum.

As very few dead bodies have been found among the ruins, it is probable that the inhabitants had time to escape; and, as few move ables of value have been found, the whole confifting of fome gold medals, and engraved ftones, it is alfo probable that they had fufficient time to carry off their effects.

By the fubftances dug up at Pompeii it appears to have fuffered by former eruptions of the volcano; for the city that is buried by one eruption, feems to have been built upon the burnt earth and

fcoria thrown out by another; the streets alfo, as well as thofe of Herculaneum, are paved with large fragments of the lava.

It appears by the following infeription, that the Romans had dug into the ruins of Herculaneum :

SIGNA TRANSLATA EX ABDITIS
LOCIS AD CELEBRITATEM
THERMARVM SEVERIANARVM
AVDENTIVS SAEMILIANVS
V. C. CON.

CAMP. CONSTITVIT DEDICARI

QVE PRAECEPIT CURANTE T. ANNONIO CRYSANTIO V. P.

About the meaning of this infcription the learned are not agreed; fome think it relates to the baths of Septimus Severus, others of Alexander Severus; but however this be, it proves to a demonftration, that the Romans dug at Her culaneum, and that the excavations were afterwards forgotten.

The modern difcovery of Herculaneum was occafioned by the finking a well in the year 1706 for the prince d'Elbeuf, at a little distance from his houfe: the work having been carried on to the natural mould, they found, under the ashes of Vefuvins, three large ftatues of women covered with drapery, which were claimed by the Auftrian viceroy, and placed at Vienna, in the garden of prince Eugene. After his death, they were purchafed by the king of Poland. We are told that they were destroyed in the late

war.

The difcovery of thefe ftatues put a stop to the digging, which was not renewed for more than N 4 thirty

thirty years. After the king of Spain obtained the poffeffion of Naples, it was undertaken again, but, unfortunately, it was left to the care of an engineer, who knew nothing about antiquities.

In the process of the work, the labourers difcovered the theatre, and an infcription, by which it appeared to be at Herculaneum: they found also another public infcription, the letters of which were of bronze, and four palms high*; this they fhewed to the engineer, who, with a fupidity scarce to be paralleled, ordered the letters to be torn from the wall uncopied, and, throwing them all into a bafket, fent them in this confufion as a prefent to his majefty. His majefty, however, foon after thought fit to advance this incomparable engineer to an higher poft. But his advancement was fortunate for learning and the arts, because he was fucceeded by an intelligent man, one Charles Webber, a Swifs, to whom the world is indebted for all the difcoveries that have been made fince.

The fuccefs of the fearch for antiquities in the ruins of Herculaneum, produced fearches of the fame kind at Stabia and Pompeii; but Mr. Winckleman confines his account chiefly to the difcoveries at Herculaneum, the principal of which is the theatre.

This building had 18 rows of feats, each feat being four palms wide, and one palm high. Thefe feats are of earth, and a portico is raised above them, under which

there are three other rows of feats; between the lower feats there is a flight of feven fteps to accommodate the fpectators in getting to their places, and the lower feat defcribes a femicircle of fixty-two palms in diameter; whence it follows, that the theatre would contain thirty thousand five hundred perfons, exclufive of thofe in the

arena,

The pavement was of yellow antique marble, and the portico, with its cornice, of white marble: at the top of the theatre there was a car drawn by four horfes, of bronze, and a figure in the car, of bronze gilt. This was thrown down and broken by the earthquake; but as all the parts remained, it might eafily have been repaired. little care, however, was taken of this curious and valuable piece of antiquity, that they threw it, in fragments as they found it, into a cart, and fent it to Naples, where they fhot it, like rubbish, in a corner of the court before the caftle.

So

They perceived, however, at length, that fome perfons thought thefe fragments of value, because they were frequently ftolen: they then determined to do honour to what remained, in which they act ed with equal taste and propriety: they melted down the greater part of it, and caft two bufts of the king and queen.

If it were true, as has been fuppofed, that at the time of the erup tion which buried this city, the theatre was filled with fpectators, fome remains of them would have

been

been found there. Nevertheless, it was at Stabia only that the bodies of three women were difcovered, one of whom, who was certainly the fervant of the others, was carrying, molt probably, a fmall wooden box, which was found by the fide of her, and which, as foon as it was touched, crumbled into powder. The two others had gold bracelets and ear-rings, which may be feen in the king's cabinet. Befides thefe, there have been difcovered only fome gold medals, fome engraved ftones, and a very few valuable marbles. Herculaneum, it is certain, was a large city. An infcription makes it probable that there were goo taverns in it. Petronius calls it Herculaneum, Herculis Porticum; whence its modern pame Portici.

Near the theatre was a temple, which is fuppofed to haye been dedicated to Hercules: the walls of it were entirely covered with paintings, from which prints have been taken, and are to be found in the firft volume of the paintings of Herculaneum.

This temple and the theatre food in the public fquare, where the equeftrian ftatues of the elder and younger Nonius Balbus were alfo difcovered: at a small diftance from this place was a villa, or country feat, in which were found many manufcripts, paintings, buils in bronze, and a fine pavement of African marble.

At this villa was difcovered, among others, a fmall room de

tached from the houfe, which admitted no light, where was found a picture reprefenting ferpents. He conjectures that this place was defigned for the Eleusinian myfteries; and what ferves to confirm this conjecture is, that there was found in the fame room a very beautiful tripod of copper gilt.

Mr. Winckleman fpeaks alfo of a fmall temple difcovered at Pompeii, in which there were feveral paintings; and of a villa that was difcovered at Stabia or Greganno. He proceeds to give an account of feveral curiofities, which are preferved in the cabinet at Portici, and which he divides into two claffes.

The first confits of utenfls, paintings, and fculptures; the fecond of manufcripts.

He reckons up more than a thoufand paintings, fome large and fome fmall. Thefe paintings are not, properly fpeaking, in water colours, but in diffemper, the first being mixed up with gum, whereas the other is mixed up with fize and water, and thereby fitted for large works As it was thought at firit that they were all in frafco, they were imprudently varnished, fo that it is no longer poffible to diftinguish the manner and the methods that the ancient artists employed in executing them. The fineft of thefe repre fents female dancers, and the centaurs on a dark ground; they are,' fays our elegant author, as light as thought, and as beautiful as if they had been sketched by the hand of the Graces.' He has al

most

moft as high an opinion of two other pieces, a young fatyr attempting to kifs a nymph, and an old faun enamoured of an herma phrodite. By his account, nothing can be conceived more voluptuous, or painted with more art. As to the fruit and flower-pieces, he thinks, that in that way nothing was ever more finished. But if fuch beautiful paintings were found on the walls of the houfe, what muft have been the pictures? Four of thefe choice pictures were found at Stabia, leaning against the wall of an apartment, two and two, which were moft evidently brought from fome other place, perhaps from Greece, in order to be hung up in that room, if the eruption of Vesuvius had not happened. This important difcovery was made about the end of 1761. Thefe four pictures are thought fuperior to any thing that has been hitherto produced: the abbé Winckleman has defcribed them in his History of the Art among the Greeks, a tranflation of which (into French) is impatiently expected.

One Guerra, a Venetian painter, of no great abilities, painted a great number of pieces, which he fraudulently pretended to have been dug up at this place, at Pompeii and Herculaneum, and fold them to fome connoiffeurs, at a very high price; and, if we believe our author, imposed on the count de Caylus himfelf; but the tranflator of the abbé's letter into French, by referring to the count's Collection of Antiquities, vol. iv. proves, that that noble connoiffeur was the first who exclaimed against the cheats of Guerra. Guerra is finçe dead,

Befides the ftatues that have been mentioned already, there is one of the mother of Nonius Balbus; there is a Pallas, fupposed to be a Grecian antique, an Etrufcan Diana, and a fatyr.

These curiofities, which are placed in the vaults of the caftle, are not to be feen without an order from the king. The largest ftatues in bronze reprefent empe rors and empreffes; the reft are figures of women and divini. ties.

Among the bufts of marble there is an Archimedes, and a very fine Agrippina the elder; fome of them are known by the names written under them, particularly an Epicurus, an Hermachus, a Zeno, and two Demofthenes, and there are multitudes of pieces lefs confiderable.

Mr. Winckleman, after giving an account of feveral infcriptions, mentions fome bread that was found in thefe fubterraneous cities, vases of wine, tripods, lamps, balances, which are all of the feel-yard kind, hinges for doors, and many other utenfils. The great variety of things, that have been difcovered by digging in these ruins, proves, that the ancients made no utenfil or convenience in the form which we give them at present.

The author gives a very particular account of the manufcripts; he defcribes the manner and fitua tion in which they were discovered, the fubjects on which they are written, their form, and state of prefervation, the fhape and fize of the characters, and the method taken to unroll them.

When these manufcripts were firft difcovered, they were taken for pieces of wood burnt to a coal;

many

many were broken to pieces, and thrown among the rubbish; but, at last, the order in which they were placed excited a more parti cular attention, and then the characters were discovered. They were found in a fmall apartment of the villa at Herculaneum, rolled up, inclofed in cabinets, and wrapped up in a paper of a thicker and stronger fort than that which was written on. On being collected together, they were found to amount to one thousand, the greatest part of which are preferved in the cabinet of Portici, The number that was broken to pieces and thrown among the ruins, is confiderable.

Mr. Winckleman, in his account of these manufcripts, which are written on the Papyrus, or Reed of Egypt, takes occafion to make obfervations upon that plant.

The leaves of the Papyrus, or Egyptian Reed, on which thefe MSS. are written, are fingle, thinner than thofe of a poppy, laid one upon the other, and rolled either upon themselves, or round a tube. It was that, no doubt, which the ancients called Umbilicus, the navel of a book, either because this tube was in the centre of the roll, as the navel is in the middle of the belly; or becaufe that which appeared on the outfide refembled it. For this reason, ad umbilicum ducere, was ufed to fignify a writing ready to be rolled up; and ad umbilicum pervenire, the having finished the reading of a book. One of thefe rolls may be feen in the 2d plate of the 2d vol. of the paintings of Herculaneum, where it is in the hands of the Mufe Clio.

Moft of the MSS, are about a

palm high, but fome are two, and others three; they are rolled up, and many of them are about four fingers thick. They form cylin ders, therefore, four fingers diameter, and from one to three palms long. The greater part of them are dry and fhrivelled. They confift of many leaves, very thin, join ed together at the ends, and are furnished with a fmall roller, on which they were rolled off as they were read. They are written but on one fide, and in columns about four fingers wide, each column con taining from 20 to 40 lines: There is a white space between each column, about a finger's breadth wide, and the columns have been divided by red lines. They have as yet. opened only four of thefe rolls, which, by a very extraordinary chance, have happened to be works of the fame author: This author is Philodemus of Gadara in Syria, an Epicurean, and contemporary with Cicero. The first MS. is a differtation on mufic, in which the author endeavours to prove that it is hurtful to the morals of the ftate: the fecond is a treatise on Rhetoric, in which he confiders the influence of eloquence in the administration of government, and takes occafion, to examine the political principles of Epicurus and Hermachus: the third contains the first book of Rhetoric as a science; and the fourth is a treatise on Vice and Virtue.

The firft MS. confifts of four colums, and it is 30 palms long; the fecond is in 70 columns, and is long in proportion. The outward leaf of each MS. is lost, but fortunately the title, which ought to be at the beginning, is repeated at the end. All the words are

written