or POSIDONIA, an ancient city of Grecia Magna, now part of the kingdom of Naples. It was founded by one of those colonies from Greece which in the early ages established themselves in Italy; and it flourished before the foundation of Rome itself. It was destroyed by the Goths on the decline of the Roman empire, who in their barbarous zeal for the Christian religion overturned every place of Pagan worship which was exposed to their ravages. Since that time it has been in ruins; and these ruins were unknown till they were discovered in the following manner: "In the year 1755 (says the author of the Antiquities, History, and Views of Poetum), an apprentice to a painter at Naples, who was on a visit to his friends at Capaccio, by accident took a walk to the mountains which surround the territory of Poetum. The only habitation he perceived was the cottage of a farmer, who cultivated the best part of the ground, and reserved the rest for pasture. The ruins of the ancient city made a part of this view, and particularly struck the eyes of the young painter; who, approaching nearer, saw with astonishment walls, towers, gates, and temples. Upon his return to Capaccio, he consulted the neighbouring people about the origin of these monuments of antiquity. He could only learn, that this part of the country had been uncultivated and abandoned during their memory; that about ten years before, the farmer, whose habitation he had noticed, established himself there; and that having dug in many places and searched among the ruins that lay round him, he had found treasures sufficient to enable him to purchase the whole. At the painter's return to Naples, he informed his master of these particulars, whose curiosity was so greatly excited by the description, that he took a journey to the place, and made drawings of the principal views. These were shown to the king of Naples, who ordered the ruins to be cleared, and Poetum arose from the obscurity in which it had remained for upwards of 700 years, as little known to the neighbouring inhabitants as to travellers."

Our author gives the following description of it in its present state. It is, says he, of an oblong figure, about two miles and a half in circumference. It has four gates, which are opposite to each other. On the key-stone of the arch of the north gate, on the outside, is the figure of Neptune in bas-relief, and within a hippocampus. The walls which still remain are composed of very large cubical stones, and are extremely thick, in some parts 18 feet. That the walls have remained unto this time is owing to the very exact manner in which the stones are fitted to one another (a circumstance observed universally in the masonry of the ancients), and perhaps in some measure to a stalagmatic concretion which has grown over them. On the walls here and there are placed towers of different heights; those near the gates being much higher and larger than the others, and evidently of modern workmanship. He observes, that, from its situation among marshes, bituminous and sulphurous springs, Poetum must have been unwholesome; a circumstance mentioned by Strabo, Morbofam cam facit fluvius in paludes diffusas. In such a situation the water must have been bad. Hence the inhabitants were obliged to convey that necessary of life from purer springs by means of aqueducts, of which many vestiges still remain.

The principal monuments of antiquity are a theatre, an amphitheatre, and three temples. The theatre and amphitheatre are much ruined. The first temple is hexastylos, and amphiprostyle. At one end, the pilasters and two columns which divided the cella from the pronaos are still remaining. Within the cella are two rows of smaller columns, with an architrave, which support the second order. This temple our author takes to be of that kind called by Vitruvius hypthebros, and supports his opinion by a quotation from that author. The second temple is also amphiprostyle; it has nine columns in front and 18 in flank, and seems to be of that kind called by Vitruvius pseudopipteros. The third is likewise amphiprostyle. It has six columns in front and 13 in flank. Vitruvius calls this kind of temple peripteros.

"The columns of these temples (says our author) are of that kind of Doric order which we find employed in works of the greatest antiquity. They are hardly five diameters in height. They are without bases, which also has been urged as a proof of their antiquity; but we do not find that the ancients ever used bases to this order, at least till very late. Vitruvius makes no mention of bases for this order: and the only instance we have of it is in the first order of the coliseum at Rome, which was built by Vespasian. The pillars of these temples are fluted with very shallow flutings in the manner described by Vitruvius. The columns diminish from the bottom, which was the most ancient method almost universally in all the orders. The columns have astragals of a very singular form; which shows the error of those who imagine that this member was first invented with the Ionic order, to which the Greeks gave an astragal, and that the Romans were the first who applied it to the Doric. The echinus of the capitol is of the same form with that of the temple of Corinth described by Le Roy." See Swinburne's Travels in the Two Sicilies, vol. ii. p. 131—140.