DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61894#0346
316
CLASSICAL TOUR
Ch. IX.
This city is four miles from the sea; the space
between was covered by the sacred groves of the
nymph Marica, sometimes called the Latian
Venus, the mother of Latinus; and by the well-
known marshes, which, though they infected the
air with noxious exhalations, have acquired some
celebrity from the adventure of Marius. Hap-
py had it been for Rome and for humanity if the
swamp had swallowed up for ever the withered
carcase and vengeful heart of that ruthless chief.
These marshes have lost somethino' of their an-
O
cient malignity, and are become a rich cultivated
plain. A tower stands on the bank to defend
the passage over the river ; its first story or lower
part is ancient, and built with great solidity and
beautiful proportion. The Liris forms the
southern border of Latium, and separates it from
Campania ; as we glided slowly over its surface
we endeavoured in vain to conjecture the origin
of its modern name*. May it not possibly be
* The reader who delights in classical appellations will
learn with pleasure, that this river still bears its ancient
name till it passes the city of Sora. That the Fibrenus (stil
so called) falls into it a little below that city, and continues
to encircle the little island in which Cicero lays the scene of
the second dialogue De Legibus, and which he describes
with so much eloquence. I must add, that Arpinum also,
CLASSICAL TOUR
Ch. IX.
This city is four miles from the sea; the space
between was covered by the sacred groves of the
nymph Marica, sometimes called the Latian
Venus, the mother of Latinus; and by the well-
known marshes, which, though they infected the
air with noxious exhalations, have acquired some
celebrity from the adventure of Marius. Hap-
py had it been for Rome and for humanity if the
swamp had swallowed up for ever the withered
carcase and vengeful heart of that ruthless chief.
These marshes have lost somethino' of their an-
O
cient malignity, and are become a rich cultivated
plain. A tower stands on the bank to defend
the passage over the river ; its first story or lower
part is ancient, and built with great solidity and
beautiful proportion. The Liris forms the
southern border of Latium, and separates it from
Campania ; as we glided slowly over its surface
we endeavoured in vain to conjecture the origin
of its modern name*. May it not possibly be
* The reader who delights in classical appellations will
learn with pleasure, that this river still bears its ancient
name till it passes the city of Sora. That the Fibrenus (stil
so called) falls into it a little below that city, and continues
to encircle the little island in which Cicero lays the scene of
the second dialogue De Legibus, and which he describes
with so much eloquence. I must add, that Arpinum also,