A Report upon the Herculaneum Manuscripts

which have survived the wreck of ancient learning; and their development, although it only obtained the acquisition of solitary unconnected characters, would—as providing a criterion of orthography or literal delineation—furnish “jewels richer than the whole tribe” of all other ancient books and autographs.

It should not be omitted that their value is incalculably enhanced by the local eminence of their discovery. The Romans took possession of Herculaneum in the year of the city 460 (293 BC). “Servilius,” Livy informs us, “had taken Volana, Palumbinum, and Herculaneum from the Samnites—at Herculaneum, he had even fought two indecisive battles with closed ranks.” As belonging to the Samnites, whose language is evidently of oriental extraction, it may not improbably combine in its name terms the same as the Hebrew* har “mountain,” and kalah “burning.”

* It is a circumstance extremely curious that, in one of the most learned and popular journals, this etymology is criticized because the mountain was not burning before the time when Herculaneum was destroyed. However, the journalist might have reflected that while no written record of a prior eruption existed, we are told by Strabo that the soil and appearance of the mountain itself exhibited sufficient evidence of an eruption or eruptions. In excavating the two cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii, volcanic layers were found under the houses and streets, and the streets themselves are paved, and the houses are built, with volcanic stones and lava.