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

92

CLASSICAL TOUR

Ch. III.

Posetan or Postan, which in Phenician signifies
Neptune, to whom it was dedicated. It was af-
terwards invaded and its primitive inhabitants
expelled by the Sybarites. This event is sup-
posed to have taken place about five hundred
years before the Christian era. Under its new
masters Pcestum assumed the Greek appellation
Posidonia, of the same import as its Phenician
name, because a place of great opulence and
magnitude, and is supposed to have extended
from the present ruin southward to the hill, on
which stands the little town still called from its
ancient destination Acropoli. The Lucanians
afterwards expelled the Sybarites, and checked
the prosperity of Posidonia, which was in its
turn deserted, and left to moulder away imper-
ceptibly ; vestiges of it are still visible all over
the plain of Spinazzo or Saracino. The origi-
nal city then recovered its first name, and not
long after was taken, and at length colonized by
the Romans*
From this period Pee stum is mentioned almost
solely by the poets, who, from Virgil to Clau-
dian, seem all to expatiate with delight amid its
gardens, and grace their composition with the

* U. C. 480,