A Scale of Feet.

Nor can a provision for washing or bathing in this temple seem strange to any one, who reflects, how high a rank this mode of purification held among the religious ceremonies of almost all nations of the world. As for the Romans, with whom we are principally concerned in the present inquiry, the subsistence of this usage among them might be abundantly shewn by the testimonies of their writers; and also by the accommodations provided for it in other buildings of the same character with that before us. Some of these still remain within the neighbourhood of Pozzuolo, viz. the magnificent temple near the lake of Avernus ascribed to Apollo, which has an apartment adjoining to it indisputably intended for the purpose intimated above. For it is furnished with several stone cisterns, whose inward dimensions are proportioned to the ordinary size of an human body; and near them is a spring, out of which the water was taken up, and poured into a bason hollowed out in the side of the wall: from thence it ran along in a groove or channel cut in the ends of the cisterns, to be let out upon the persons bathing in them, according to their pleasure, or as occasion should require. So likewise in the temple of Venus (as it is commonly called) near Baiæ, there is a large chamber containing several stone seats for washing, with little cells contiguous to it for undressing before, and anointing the body and dressing afterwards.

I have but one more particular to add concerning the apartment in the north-west angle of the temple, viz. that, when it was cleared of its rubbish, there was found in a niche in one of its sides a male and female figure naked, and in the most flagrant act of natural lewdness. It is now (as we were informed) in a private room in the palace at Portici, nor can be seen without the King's special permission. In the same place, probably, may stand the statue of a satyr in an unnatural action with a goat, which was found at Herculaneum, and is, they say, of exquisite sculpture, but concealed in the palace above-mentioned with the same strict care as the former.

Having thus viewed the several chambers in the exterior parts of the building, it is requisite (in order to a regular prosecution of our design) to return to the grand entrance. And here, passing thro' the corridor above described, we come to a square court or atrium paved with large slabs of white marble streaked with blue or greyish veins. At the distance of 25 feet further, in the center of the said court, stood the temple properly so called, containing a circular area of 54 feet diameter, and elevated above the level of the pavement, so as to admit an ascent to it of five steps[64], in four different parts answering to the four sides of the corridor. This area is surrounded with sixteen pedestals, on which formerly were columns to support a rotundo or dome. Against each of these columns, on the outside, there seems to have been placed a statue, and, in the intermediate spaces, vases for incense, or lavers for washing, upon low stands on the floor. In the middle of the temple was erected the grand altar, the traces of which still remain, with a sink or drain near it to receive and carry off the blood of the victims, &c.

Northward of the temple, and at the distance of 25 feet, being the same space, that was between it and the corridor at the entrance, was once another stately vestibule or pavilion, supported by four columns four feet and an half in diameter, and of the Corinthian order, as appears by three of them, which still subsist standing in a line with the outer face of the corridor. This pavilion (if we may judge by analogy from what we find in other temples) led to an inner recess or sacrarium terminating, probably, in the segment of a circle: but of this we had no certain proof, as the rubbish was not yet removed from this part of the building.

I beg leave further to mention a remarkable appearance in some of the columns of this temple, viz. that that part of them, which was lowermost, as well as that, which was nearest the capitals, is well preserved and pretty entire; while part of the intermediate space for two or three feet together is discoloured, as if it had suffered by burning; and also excavated in such a manner[65], as to contain multitudes of little shell-fish, which appear, like the pholades in some stones, almost totally inclosed within their cells, so as not to be got out without breaking. I know no way to account for this so probable; as by supposing, that the lower parts of these columns were secured by the mass of rubbish, that inclosed them, as the uppermost were by their elevated situation, from being perforated either by the corrosive quality of the sea, which (according to tradition) formerly covered the site of this temple; or by the animalcula, which are bred in that element; while the middle parts standing in the water were (perhaps for ages) exposed to the injuries mentioned above. I had no opportunity of taking the height of the uppermost line, where the above-mentioned alteration in the columns ended, from the level of the sea in the bay; which would have shewn how high the water must have risen formerly above its present mark, to produce the effect ascribed to it on this hypothesis. But, however that may be, the nature of the situation of this place[66] being considered, the innovation supposed to have happened in it will not, I presume, be thought improbable; especially in a country so plentifully stored with combustible matter in its interior parts, and consequently so liable to changes in its outward form, as this is, and has been for many ages. For an extraordinary instance of this we need go but a little way from this place, viz. to Il Monte Nuovo, a hill about four miles in compass, which in 1538 was cast up in one night's time by an eruption, whereby the greatest part of the Lucrine lake was filled up, and the town of Tripergola, with a church, convent, hospital, and other buildings, intirely buried.

I shall conclude with acquainting you, that at the corner of the court of this temple, near the present entrance, there lie some large bases of marble, which (as we were informed) were taken out of the sea at about a mile's distance from Pozzuolo, and are inscribed DVSARI SACRUM. What was the original situation of these monuments, it may not be possible now to ascertain. As for DVSARES mentioned in the inscription upon them, G. Vossius[67] (upon the authority of Tertullian, and Stephanus Byzantius) makes him to have been an Arabian deity, the same as Bacchus or Sol according to the Roman theology. That learned man is likewise inclined to think, that the name DVSARES is compounded of two Hebrew words; one of which signifies joy, and the other, the earth, i. e. mortals, who inhabit it. This etymology properly expresses the genial effects of the sun, which makes glad the heart of man by ripening the fruits of the earth, especially the grape: Whence Virgil calls wine,