Italy from the Alps to Mount Etna . lo,Altricis extra limen Apulia?,Ludo fatigatumque somno Fronde nova puerum palumbesTexere: &c. &c. On the slopes of the mountain lie the little lakes of Monticchio in the hollow of acrater, and a few villages niched amongf the rocks. The view from the summit remindsus of that from Monte Cavo, and a romantic monastery (San Michele) serves to increasethe resemblance. From Barletta you traverse the flat line of coast to Taranto, and from the latter placeyou behold all the swampy shores on which some of the most famous of the Grecian citiesonce stood. They all o
Italy from the Alps to Mount Etna . lo,Altricis extra limen Apulia?,Ludo fatigatumque somno Fronde nova puerum palumbesTexere: &c. &c. On the slopes of the mountain lie the little lakes of Monticchio in the hollow of acrater, and a few villages niched amongf the rocks. The view from the summit remindsus of that from Monte Cavo, and a romantic monastery (San Michele) serves to increasethe resemblance. From Barletta you traverse the flat line of coast to Taranto, and from the latter placeyou behold all the swampy shores on which some of the most famous of the Grecian citiesonce stood. They all owed their existence to the ruler of the seas, as did Taras, or 3 l 44? ITALY. Tarentum, founded by a son of Neptune, and Greeks were their first colonists. Tarentumhowever, was colonized by Dorians. The oldest of these cities was Heracleia, built onthe site of the venerable Ionian Siris. Heracleia was situated at the mouth of the Achiris,and became so flourishing, that it for a long time enjoyed the honour of being the city. TAVOLA DE PALADINI. where the congress of all Graecia Magna was held. The painter Zeuxis was born site of Heracleia is marked now by the village of Policoro half sunk in the marshes. To the north of it lay the mighty Metapontium. Nestor built it; or else Sinon, thecontriver of the Trojan horse. The Lucanians destroyed it. The Sybarites rebuilt andfortified it. The Romans subdued it in the war against Pyrrhus. Later it passed to theCarthaginians, and thenceforward disappears from history. A swamp occupies the siteof it. Farther to the south the names of Sybaris and Croton sound like a faint echo fromold times. Sybaris to which in that dim antiquity five-and-twenty important cities weresubject even as far as Poseidonia, which could bring three hundred thousand men into thefield, and was inhabited by a hundred thousand luxurious Greeks,—Sybaris is now amiserable village ; Palinore, and its marble palaces are buried in the swamp. Croton too LUCANIA,
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Keywords: ., bookauthorcavagnasangiulianidig, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870
