BALE, an ancient village of Campania in Italy, between the promontory of Misenum and Puteoli, on the Sinus Baianus; famous for its natural hot baths, which served the wealthier Romans for the purposes both of medicine and pleasure. The variety of those baths, the softness of its climate, and the beauty of its landscape, captivated the minds of opulent nobles, whose passion for bathing knew no bounds. Abundance of linen, and diverse of ointments, render the practice less necessary in modern life: but the ancients performed no exercise, engaged in no study, without previous ablutions, which at Rome required an enormous expence in aqueducts, stoves, and attendants: a place therefore, where waters naturally heated to every degree of warmth bubble spontaneously out of the ground, in the pleasantest of all situations, was such a treasure as could not be overlooked. Balia was this place in the highest perfection; its easy communication with Rome was also a point of great weight. Hither at first retired for a temporary relaxation the mighty rulers of the world, to string anew their nerves and revive their spirits, fatigued with bloody campaigns and civil contests. Their habitations were small and modest; but soon increasing luxury added palace to palace with such expedition and sumptuosity, that ground was wanting for the vast demand: enterprising architects, supported by infinite wealth, carried their foundations into the sea, and drove that element back from its ancient limits: it has since taken ample revenge, and recovered much more than it ever lost. From being a place of resort for a season, Balia now grew up to a permanent city: whoever found himself disqualified by age, or infirmity, for sustaining any longer an active part on the political theatre; whoever, from an indolent disposition, sought a place where the pleasures of a town were combined with the sweets of a rural life; whoever wished to withdraw from the dangerous neighbourhood of a court, and the baneful eye of informers, flocked hither to enjoy life untainted with fear and trouble. Such affluence of wealthy inhabitants rendered Balia as much a miracle of art as it was before of nature; its splendour may be inferred from its innumerable ruins, heaps of marbles, mosaics, stucco, and other precious fragments of taste.—It flourished in full glory down to the days of Theodoric the Goth; but the destruction of these enchanted palaces followed quickly upon the irruption of the northern conquerors, who overturned the Roman system, sacked and burnt all before them, and destroyed or dispersed the whole race of nobility. Lots of fortune left the Romans neither the means, nor indeed the thought, of supporting such expensive establishments, which can only be enjoyed in perfection during peace and prosperity. No sooner had opulence withdrawn her hand, than the unbridled sea rushed back upon its old domain; moles and buttresses were torn asunder and washed away; whole promontories, with the proud towers that once crowned their brows, were undermined and tumbled headlong into the deep, where, many feet below the surface, pavements of streets, foundations of houses, and masses of walls, may still be descried. Internal commotions of the earth contributed also largely to this general devastation; mephitic vapours and stagnated waters have converted this favourite seat of health into the den of pestilence, at least during the eflual heats: yet Balia, in its ruined state, and stripped of all its ornaments, still presents many beautiful and striking subjects for the pencil. E. Long. 14. 45. N. Lat. 41. 6.