as Cassiodorus describes it, "a city of the sun."'

(2) Its ruins. While no remains of a pre-mediaeval time have been
discovered at Squillace, there is still standing at Roccella the shell
of a splendid basilica, of which Mr. Evans has taken some plans and
sketches, but which seems to have strangely escaped the notice of most
preceding travellers. The total length of this building is 94 paces,
the width of the nave 30, the extreme width of the transept 54. It has
three fine apses at the eastern end, and is built in the form of a
Latin cross. On either side of the nave was an exterior arcade, which
apparently consisted originally of eleven window arches, six of them
not being for the transmission of light. 'Altogether,' says Mr. Evans,
'this church, even in its dilapidated state, is one of the finest
monuments of the kind anywhere existing. We should have to go to
Rome, to Ravenna, or to Thessalonica, to find its parallel; but I
doubt whether, even at any of those places, there is to be seen a
basilica with such fine exterior arcading. It is a great tribute to
the strength of the original fabric that so much should have survived
the repeated shocks of earthquake that have desolated Calabria, and
scarcely left one stone upon another of her ancient cities.'

After a careful examination of the architectural peculiarities of this
basilica, Mr. Evans is disposed to fix its erection somewhere about
the time of the Emperor Justinian.

In addition to this fine building there are at Roccella the ruins of
two smaller late Roman churches, mausolea, and endless foundations of
buildings which must have formed very extensive suburbs.

More important than all, the massive walls of a considerable city can