DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.846#0090
The Lake of the Palici, 87
A little further on is the little city of Menoe, built on the
ruins and with the relics of the ancient city, which, according
to Diodorus, was founded by Ducetius, King of Sicily. All
the antiquities worthy of remark are the walls and fortresses of
the city. There may also be seen a valuable curiosity, in
the shape of the relics of St. Agrippina, a virgin and a martyr,
which were conveyed hither by three other Roman virgins, at
a time when Rome still possessed virgins and martyrs.
The Lake of the Palici.
The little interest which its ruins possess would leave this
city nothing but a great name and glorious recollections, were
it not for a little lake in its environs, known by the name of the
Lake of Thalia, and two springs consecrated to the Dii Palici,
springs from which have flowed numberless conjectures and
philosophical quarrels.
These gods, or rather this double god, were a great fortune
to the priests of that day. Then, as now, the church leaned
against the throne, and the throne shouldered the church, and
both levied contributions on the piety of the faithful, to build
one of the most beautiful temples and one of the most magnifi-
cent cities under the name of Palici. I shall not describe the
city, because it no longer exists ; and I shall not speak of the
temple, because the temple and its double god happen, to be
buried twenty feet under ground. The lake is remarkable for
an insupportable smell of sulphurated hydrogen gas.
The temple was formerly a place of asylum where slaves
who had been maltreated by their masters were sure of finding
protection, until the latter undertook, under the sanction of an
oath, to forget their delinquencies and to treat them with less
rigour. The churches of Italy and Sicily have inherited the
same privilege, with this difference only, that those asylums
are daily opened to the most infamous robbers and assassins,
and that the christian slave, maltreated by his master, is ex-
cluded from them by the christian code.
I now arrived at the gates of one of the pleasantest cities in
the interior of the country.
Plutea, or Chiazza.
There are few cities that have changed their names so fre-
quently as this. It has been called by various nations Plutea,
Plutia, Platea, Piazza, and Chiazza. The fertility of its soil
still justifies the derivation of its two former names from the
Greek plutos, signifying riches, or abundance. Without hav-
ing any thing very remarkable to boast of, the modern city is
not without a certain air of opulence and property which one
rarely meets with in the interior towns of this country, and the
A little further on is the little city of Menoe, built on the
ruins and with the relics of the ancient city, which, according
to Diodorus, was founded by Ducetius, King of Sicily. All
the antiquities worthy of remark are the walls and fortresses of
the city. There may also be seen a valuable curiosity, in
the shape of the relics of St. Agrippina, a virgin and a martyr,
which were conveyed hither by three other Roman virgins, at
a time when Rome still possessed virgins and martyrs.
The Lake of the Palici.
The little interest which its ruins possess would leave this
city nothing but a great name and glorious recollections, were
it not for a little lake in its environs, known by the name of the
Lake of Thalia, and two springs consecrated to the Dii Palici,
springs from which have flowed numberless conjectures and
philosophical quarrels.
These gods, or rather this double god, were a great fortune
to the priests of that day. Then, as now, the church leaned
against the throne, and the throne shouldered the church, and
both levied contributions on the piety of the faithful, to build
one of the most beautiful temples and one of the most magnifi-
cent cities under the name of Palici. I shall not describe the
city, because it no longer exists ; and I shall not speak of the
temple, because the temple and its double god happen, to be
buried twenty feet under ground. The lake is remarkable for
an insupportable smell of sulphurated hydrogen gas.
The temple was formerly a place of asylum where slaves
who had been maltreated by their masters were sure of finding
protection, until the latter undertook, under the sanction of an
oath, to forget their delinquencies and to treat them with less
rigour. The churches of Italy and Sicily have inherited the
same privilege, with this difference only, that those asylums
are daily opened to the most infamous robbers and assassins,
and that the christian slave, maltreated by his master, is ex-
cluded from them by the christian code.
I now arrived at the gates of one of the pleasantest cities in
the interior of the country.
Plutea, or Chiazza.
There are few cities that have changed their names so fre-
quently as this. It has been called by various nations Plutea,
Plutia, Platea, Piazza, and Chiazza. The fertility of its soil
still justifies the derivation of its two former names from the
Greek plutos, signifying riches, or abundance. Without hav-
ing any thing very remarkable to boast of, the modern city is
not without a certain air of opulence and property which one
rarely meets with in the interior towns of this country, and the