The Rhode-Island Republican. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1809-1841, 1836-07-06
BROOKS LETTERS.


ut Naples in November last, we make the
following interesting extracts -
We left Rome at an early hour IN
the morning, & in short time were upon
what was the Via Appia, the great work
of Appius CIaudius, in the year OF Rome
44I. Soon after we left the walls OF
Rome. we were upon the wide desert Of
the Campagna, and but little was TO be
.cen. save the ruined monuments that
aank the sides of the Queen of Ways,
Regina Viarum, as the poet called it. }
As the Romans were forbidden to bury
their dead within the walls, they built up
splendid monuments all along the Appian
Way, which was in fact their Westmin-
ster Abbey, whose aisle, however, was as
long as the road itself, and whose arch
ing was the sky over it. Siste Vidtor,
tho motto which we so often quote for
our tombstoncs--stop, trdreHer,--once
stood here on the monuments and mauso-
leums of the Romans, that thickly border
ed this most magnificent of the ReRan
roads-but monuments and mausoleuns
are now tumbled down, and all that can
be seen amid the desert waste. are the
hideous ruins where they were old
bricks in masses disfguring the ground,
and puzzling the antiquary to tell to whom
they once belonged. By these monu-
mental ruins, strewn for miles upon tho
Appian way, the road can now be track.
cd out, for these ruins stand at present as
mournfnl landmarks Of what Rome and
its suburbs were. What an interesting
spectacle they must have been, in Cice-
ro's day, when the Scipios and other no.
bic families had their mausolca upon this
road-a spectacle to which he so beau.
tifully alludes in his appeal to Cataline
This celebrated road went in straight
line to Albano, and by the way, all the
Roman roads ran as straight rs needles ;
but the Romans nevertheless, did not hold
to theIAmerican doctrine Of making roads,
that the shortest way to got round hill,
is over its top, for they tunnel!cd often, or
else reduced the hill nearly to the sur
rounding level. A constant succession of
ruins, most probably sepu'chral, attends
the traveller all the way to Albano, one
OF which more conspicuous than the
others from its height, has been attributed
Ascauius.
AT three o'clock the ensuing morning,
we were mounted in our vetturino again,
and on our way to and over the POntine
Marshes. 1t was yet long before day
light, and could not see well where
was. We passed crowds of people NOV
ing onward with their torches from the
villages on the border Of these marshes,
to work upon them during the day,
rs they held their torches before their
livid and sallow faces, they looked like so
many grim ghosts from tho regions be-
low, brandishing their fiery ensigns in
some parade or other.
The sun arose upon us, as we were
upon these famous marshes, and then for
the first time, we saw clearly where we
wcrc. The road upon which we were,
was excellent for such place. and bor-
dered with trees as it was, it stripped the
view of half its horrors. Indeed the re-
gion cannot be what it was, so terrible, so
awfully hideous as travellers have des-
cribed it, in which the malaria was so
potent, that it was almost death to pass 1t.
We had been warned in fact, not to cross
it before the sun had removed the vapors
and then not with an empty stomach, but
here we were upon it before daylight
even, and without breakfast also. But
when | remembered that October was not
Septernber,nor the warm summer months
OF July and June, ceased to have any
concern on this account. He who has
seen the swamps in the vicinity of New
Orleans, or the low grounds Of South
Carolinas, between the Santess, say,has
seen places far more frightful than this
l was reminded in my journey over it
Of the Dismal Swamp, between Virginia
and North Carolina though the brush
and tangled wood is thick On that, and
there is little or none on this. The Dis
NAL Swamp, however, i'll am right in my
recolectons, is not so long as the Pontine
Marshes are, though they may be wider.
This region Of swamp here is about
twenty -four English mi les in length, and
varies from six to twelve in BREADTH
To make road through these marshes
and TO drain them, has been an object ia
progress from the time Of Appius Clau
dius, two thousand years ago, to the pre-
sent day and upon them have workc'
the Roman Republicans, and the CAESARS
Theodoric the Goth and the Popes, bu
generally in vain, till Plus vi. fornc
his road upon the foundations of the Ap
plan Way, long hidden under water an
drained the swamps SO judiciously as +
render them in some degree capable @
cultivation. French engineers pursue
the same measures, and Plus VII. at las
succeeded in some measure in purifying
tract Of country, where gales in iorme
times werc tainted with pestilence an
death. Nevertheless Pliny says, upo
the authority Of an older writer, that thi
swampy ground once included thirt.
three cities in the earlier times of tn
Roman republic--a fact which seem