rivulets, amid the warbling of birds, and where perennial spring was said to reign: three times each year the earth teemed with produce, and from these happy seats, all cares, jealousies, pains, and infirmities were everlastingly excluded.

The lake that appears in the illustration, is the Mare Morto, a double pool, the outer opens to the sea, and the inner is occasionally dammed up for the purpose of fishing: a tongue of land divides it from the channel of Procida, and at the extremity rises the lone promontory of Miseno. Here are the ruins of an ancient city, besides the seats and some marble cornices belonging to an amphitheatre, which was adorned in the richest luxuriance, and after the Composite order. In this solitary spot a violated sepulchre is shown, in which the ashes of Caius Marius once were laid, but from which they were taken, by Sylla's orders, and given to the winds.

The second triumvirate, feeling the want of a maritime force, built two powerful fleets; the one, Classis Misenensis, of which Miseno was the station, to overawe the Mare Inferum; and a second at Ravenna, to guard the Superum, or Adriatic. This project was nearly annihilated in its infancy by Sextus Pompey, who defeated and destroyed the fleet of Augustus off Cape Miseno. But it was perhaps the noblest quality in the Roman character, that defeat always sharpened their keen desire of conquest, by adding a burning wish to blot out disgrace; and, redoubling his efforts, Augustus built a still larger fleet, converted the sepulchral caves at Miseno into magazines for naval stores, and conducted wholesome waters to the arsenal with incredible labour: a capacious reservoir of that age, called the Piscina mirabile, still survives, similar in design to the cistern of "the thousand and one columns" which is beneath Constantinople.

Miseno was not only the site of Marius's sepulchre, but also of a splendid villa which the warrior built for himself, with such a degree of elegance as offended the more austere amongst his countrymen, to whom such a home appeared ill suited to the character of a rough soldier. Lucullus, from the spoils of the Eastern world, raised on the ruins of the soldier's villa one still more costly; but even this gorgeous palace was eclipsed by the magnitude and magnificence of the domes that rose on the same spot, under the hands of the emperors, and in which Tiberius Cæsar breathed out his gloomy soul. All traces, however, of royalty are obliterated; a pauper's cottage occupies the site of the imperial halls; the gardens, that resembled the fabled fields of happiness, are covered with wild vines; the channel in which Agrippa moored his fleet, is navigated by a crazy bark, such as old Charon once pushed along upon these waters, and employed for a similar purpose, namely, to convey passengers to the shores of Elysium. If classic recollections have not sufficiently crowded the little records of Miseno, it may still be added, that the way that leads to Capua (fatal name!) is seen ascending from the lakeside, and winding along between two rows of monumental buildings, no longer tenanted by the silent dead, but echoing to the laughter of the hardy peasant. It was a belief amongst the ancient Hesperians, that the soul remained chained down to earth until some benevolent friend should raise a monument to its memory, and through the dark

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THE NEW HARBOUR AT RHODES.

tomb allow egress from this world to the other. To this superstition are to be attributed the countless cenotaphs that are to be seen at Miseno. Hither Homer brought Ulysses; here the Stygian topography is realized: the Mare-morto was his Acheron; and the now vine-clad plains adjoining, supplied an Elysium, to which the dead were wafted in the frail boat of Charon. Of all such as died in the vicinity of Misenum, the poet's description is literally true.

THE NEW HARBOUR AT RHODES.

"There huge colosses rose, with trophies crown'd,

And Runic characters were graved around." POPE.

RHODES, the country of roses, has been from early ages involved in the military history of Europe. Dedicated to the sun, and celebrated for its serene sky, genial climate, fertile soil, and delicious fruits, it could not have failed to become an object of every conqueror's ambition. Under the patronage of the Delian oracle, Phalerus with the Thessalians obtained an entrance here, and having exterminated the serpents that infested the island, was ranked, at his death, amongst the demigods: this wise conqueror was succeeded by Tlepolemus, the son of Hercules, who made himself king of Rhodes shortly after the siege of Troy. Xerxes introduced the republican form of government that was established here, and the islanders in his time were celebrated for maritime prowess. Their happiness and independence excited the envy of Mausolus, king of Caria, who at his death committed the future conduct of the isle to his affectionate queen Artemisia. Following the example of many other nations, the Rhodians made a quick submission to the fortunes of Alexander, and were rewarded for their allegiance to that conqueror by peculiar and valuable immunities. Upon the dissolution of his empire, the Rhodians asserted their independence, acted with the strictest neutrality between the claimants to the imperial succession, and made so strenuous a resistance to the assaults of the Macedonians under Antigonus, who endeavoured to compel them to make an election between Greece and Egypt, that they repulsed the enemy, and retained their freedom. It was in commemoration of this achievement, and from respect to their Egyptian ally, Ptolemy Soter, that they resolved upon erecting a brazen statue of their tutelar deity, of enormous size. Charles, the scholar of Lysippus, furnished the design, and commenced the work; but finding that he had exhausted the whole amount of money placed at his disposal, without making much