54 Approach to Naples. his head yet, this unhappy clemency was requited, when he was again all-powerful, by deluging Rome with blood. Here too was worshipped the Nymph Marica; while near to Minturna flow the two ancient rivers, the "peaceful" Liris, and the "rapid, rough" Vulturnus, now the Garigliano, and Vulturno. Suessa Aurunca was the next ancient site passed, but not explored; and the modern town of St. Agata in the immediate neighbourhood of Falernus, whose luscious wine, and that of Cæcubum, not far remote, the immortal poets delighted to quaff. Proceeding onward rapidly through the luxuriant, and happy, plains of Campania, we arrived at Naples at four o'clock in the afternoon, and alighted at the Albergo Reale. Naples. 55 CHAPTER XXVII. NAPLES HISTORIC SKETCH-ORIGIN THE SIRENS-CONNEC TION, AND FALL, WITH ROME-POSSESSION BY LOMBARDS, SARACENS, NORMANS-BY THE HOUSES OF ARRAGON, AND ANJOU-QUEENS JOAN I. AND II.—POSSESSION BY FRANCE, AND SPAIN-ACCESSION OF THE PRESENT FERDINAND-REVOLU TION OF MASSANIELLO-ORIGIN-INCREASING TUMULTS, AND DESTRUCTIONS-PROMISE OF THE DEMANDED CHARTER, AND UNEXPECTED TUMULT-BOUNDLESS POWER OF MASSANIELLO-FINAL CONCESSION TO THE PEOPLE-FALL OF MASSANIELLO-DELIRIUM-ASSASSINATION-BURIALREVOLUTIONS OF NAPLES SINCE 1797-FLIGHT OF FERDINAND IN 1799, AND RETURN-FLIGHT IN 1806-JOSEPH BONAPARTE KING-EFFORTS OF THE ENGLISH-MURAT KING-FALL OF NAPOLEON, AND MURAT-THIRD RETURN OF FERDINAND. NAPLES, the Paradise of Italy; "that piece of earth which tumbled down from heaven;" (a Neapolitan proverb) the inspiration of poets; the favored retreat of emperors, philosophers, or voluptuaries; the land which respires beauty, luxuriance, pleasure, indulgence-but, a truce to such reflections for the present, and let us waive them for some prefatory historical sketch, in which I purpose rather a summary of the many revolutions of this kingdom than any freedom of political disquisitions, and invectives. Its origin is lost in the clouds and mist of the remotest antiquity, yet poesy lays claim to it, for from the Syren Parthenope, perhaps, it derived its first name; who, unable to detain to his ruin the wandering Ulysses by her exquisite voice, threw herself in despair from the precipice, and perished. Next, where the Sirens dwell, you plough the seas; * The three Sirens, Parthenope, Ligeia, and Leucosia, were daughters of the river Achelous, either by the Muse Melpomene, Terpsichore, or Calliope. Their habitation was near to Sicily, and their form was that of a bird in the lower half of the body, and of a beautiful female from the waist upwards. It was Ceres that thus deformed them because they had not aided her daughter Proserpine in resisting her rape by Pluto. They challenged the Muses to a musical contest, but being adjudged inferior the latter made for themselves crowns of the feathers which they plucked from the Sirens' wings. Yet so exquisite was their melody that all who heard them listened, and listened, rapt with such heavenly strains, till, forgetting all things, even to take food, thus they pined away to death.-Many had been their victims, and the Oracle declared they should live till the day when a mortal man could pass them without staying to listen. Ulysses, warned by Circe, first stopped up the ears of his sailors with wax, and then firmly lashed himself to the mast. When on passing the coast, their melody penetrated to his soul, he implored, he threatened, he entreated, to be loosened, and to Ancient Naples. 57 Diodorus Siculus has asserted that Naples was founded by Hercules; others say by the Phocæans; or by Phalaris, tyrant of Sicily; or by Parthenope, daughter of a king of Thessaly, who led to it a colony from the Isle of Euboea: while Strabo affirms that it was founded by the Rhodians before the Olympic Games: but the most probable supposition will ascribe its foundation to the Greeks, since its modern dialect is interspersed with many Greek phrases, and many of the manuscripts discovered at Herculaneum are also in that tongue. It is to be remembered that Parthenope, now Naples, occupies the site of the ancient Neapolis, and its neighbouring town, Palæopolis. According to Livy, the Neapolitans were, at one period, about 300 years before Christ, leagued with the Samnites in a confederacy against Rome (B. 8. sec. 22); but in the time of Annibal, and about the epoch of the fatal battle of Cannæ, they were then strictly allied with, and most faithful to, their more powerful neighbours. The liberal offer of 40 golden patera (goblets or sacrificial dishes) which they made to Rome for the service of the state; and the terror that An stop, but his deaf companions obeyed his first and better commands and sailed away. The Sirens instantly precipitated themselves into the sea, and perished. (Odyssey, b. 12. Ovid. Metam. b. 5.) 58 History of Naples. nibal himself felt to attack their city will be found detailed in Livy, b. 22, sec. 32, and b. 23, sec. 1. In the flourishing days of Rome, and latterly at the period of her decadence, the heavenly climate, the fertile produce, the stupendous wonders of volcanic nature, and the luxuries of Naples, made it the favoured retreat, and abode of all classes. Here did the Roman Emperors retire to revel in licentiousness, and voluptuousness, where the fragrant breath of heaven seemed to subdue the sterner energies of the soul, and to respire only indulgence; and here did the poets come for purer inspirations in a country which they termed "La Campagna Felice," and where they placed their Elysian Fields. The fall of Rome naturally involved Naples in the common ruin; it was possessed by the Goths in the fifth century, Belisarius regained it in 537, and Totila had it in 543. Afterwards the Lombards held it till their empire was destroyed by Charlemagne in 774, then alternately possessed by Saracens, and Normans, which latter line was continued till their kingdom was subdued by Henry VI, Emperor of Germany. After many civil contests, arising partly from the feudal government of the day, and from the exorbitant powers of the barons and nobles, who hardly cared what sovereign ruled provided he encroached not upon their over |