Eustace, John Cretwode: A classical tour through Italy An. MDCCCII (Vol. 3): 3. ed., rev. and enl (London: J. Mawman, 1815)

Ch. I. THROUGH ITALY. 29
ever neither disfigured its form nor checked its
fertility ; and it is represented as a scene of
beauty and abundance, covered with villas and
enlivened by population* *, when the eruption
burst forth with more suddenness and more fury
than any similar catastrophe on record. The
darkness, the flames, the agitation, the uproar,
that accompanied this explosion, and extended
its devastation and its terror so widely, might na-
turally excite among many of the degenerate
and epicurean Romans that frequented the Cam-
panian coasts, the opinion that the period of uni-

tion, seems to have been induced by the previous appear-
ances of Vesuvius to indulge himself in a poetical fiction,
and represent it as portending the carnage of* Connie by a
tremendous explosion-
Altneos quoqtie contorquens e cautibus ignes
Vesbius intonuit, scopulisque in nubila jactis
Phlegraeus tetigit trepidantia sidera vertex. Lib. viii.
* Hie est pampineis viridis modo Vesvius umbris:
Presserat hie madidos nobilis uva lacus.
Hzee juga, quam Nysae colles plus Bacchus amavit,
Hoc nuper Satyri monte dedere choros.
Hase Veneris sedes, Lacedaemone gratior illi:
Hie locus Herculeo nomine clarus erat.
Cuncta jacent flammis et tristi mersa flavillA :
Nee Superi vellent hoc licuisse sibi 1
Mart. Lib. iv.