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Show 456 TEMPLE OF JUPITER SERAPIS. in the harbour of Penco was suddenly uplifted to the extraordinary elevation of twenty-four feet above its former level, the buildings of that town were thrown down; but we might still suppose that a great portion of them would have escaped, had the walls been supported on the exterior and interior with a deposit, like that which surrounded and filled to the height of ten or twelve feet the Temple of Serapis at Puzzuoli. The next subject of inquiry, is the era when these remarkable changes took place in the Bay of Baire. It appears, that in the Atrium of the Temple of Serapis, inscriptions were found in which Septimus Severus and Marcus Aurelius record their labours in adorning it with precious marbles*. We may, therefore, conclude, that it existed at least down to the third century of our era in its original position. On the other hand, we have evidence that the marine deposit forming the flat land called La Starza was still covered by the sea in the year 1530, or just eight years anterior to the tremendous explosion of. Monte N novo. Mr. Forbes t has lately pointed out the distinct testi.mony of an old Italian writer Loffredo, in confirmation of this important point. Writing in 1580, Loffredo declares that fifty years previously, the sea washed the base of the hills which rise from the flat land before alluded to, and at that time he expressly tells us that a person rniyht have fished from the site of those ruins which are now called the Stadium. (See wood cut, No. 30.) Hence it follows, that the subsidence of the ground on which the Temple stood, happe.ned at som: period between the third century and the begmmng of the sixteenth century. Now in this interval the only two events which are ~ecorded in the imperfect annals of the dark ages, are the erupt10n of the Solfatara in 1198, and an earthquake in 1488 by which Puzzuoli was ruined. It is at least highly probable, that earthquakes, which preceded the eruption of the Solfatara, w.hich is very near the'l'emple,(seewood cut,N~.30) caused a subsidence, and the pumice and other matters eJected from that volcano might have fallen in heavy showers into the sea, and would thus immediately have covered up the lower part of the columns. The action of the waves might afterwards have thrown down many pillars, and formed strata of broken fragments of the * Brieslak, Voy. dans la Campanie, tom. ii., P• 167. t ]!.d. Jollfn, of Science, new series, No. II., p.281. DATE OF ITS RE-ELEVATION, 457 building intermixed witl 1 . . . 1 · h d t · 1 vo came eJections, before the Litho- ;.~ml a nne ~o perforate the lower part of the columns. In 1 e l;an~er, I: ehsea acting on other submerged buildinO's, wou na ura y ave caused a similar stratum containi~ works of. art. and shells for sevei·al m1. 1e s a1 o nO' h ' g t e coast Now It Is pe~fectly evident from Loffredo's sta~ement, that the re-elevat10n of the low tract ca ll ed L a S tarza took place after ~he year 1530, and long before the yem· 1580 ; and from this alo~e we might confidently conclude that the change happened m the year 1538 when Mont e N uovo was formed. llut fortunately we are not left in the slightest doubt that such . was the date of this remarkable e t s· W'll' H '1 ven. Ir 1 Iam . ami ton 'Yr has given us two original letters describing the eruptiOn of 1538, the first of which by Falconi d t d 1.538, contains the following passages. '' It is now tw'o y:aers smce there have been frequent earthquakes at Puzzuol'1 N 1 d 1 . hb . , ap es, an t 1e ne1g ourmg parts. On the day and in the niO'ht before the eruption (of Monte Nuovo), above twenty sho~ks gre~t and small were felt.-The next morning (after the formatwn of Monte N uovo) the poor inhabitants of Puzzuoli quitted their habitations, &c., some with their children in their arms, some with sacks full of their goods, others carryinO' quantities of birds of various sorts that had fallen dead at th~ beginning of the e:uption, others again with fish which they had found, and winch were to be met with in plenty on the shore, the sea having left them dry for a considerable fime.-1 accompanied Signor Moramaldo to behold the wonderful effects of the eruption. The sea had retired on the side of Baire, abandoning a considerable t-ract, and the shore appeared almost entirely dry from the quantity of ashes and broken pumice-stones thrown up by the eruption. I saw two springs in the newly discovered ruins, one before the house that was the Queen's, of hot and salt-water, &c." So far Falconi-the other account is by Pietro Giacomo di ".foledo, which begins thus: " It is now two years since this province of Campagna has been afflicted with earthquakes, the country about Puzzuoli much more so than any other parts : but the ~7th and the ~8th of the month of September last, the earthquakes did not cease day or night in the town of Puzzuoli; • Campi Phlegr::ei1 p. 70, |