increase and bold enjoyment of national wealth. From the shades
of Tibur and Praeneste, the Roman senators still retired in the
winter season to the warm sun, and salubrious springs of Baiae;
and their villas, which advanced on solid moles into the Bay of
Naples, commanded the various prospect of the sky, the earth, and
the water. On the eastern side of the Adriatic, a new Campania
was formed in the fair and fruitful province of Istria, which
communicated with the palace of Ravenna by an easy navigation of
one hundred miles. The rich productions of Lucania and the
adjacent provinces were exchanged at the Marcilian fountain, in a
populous fair annually dedicated to trade, intemperance, and
superstition. In the solitude of Comum, which had once been
animated by the mild genius of Pliny, a transparent basin above
sixty miles in length still reflected the rural seats which
encompassed the margin of the Larian lake; and the gradual ascent
of the hills was covered by a triple plantation of olives, of
vines, and of chestnut trees. ^72 Agriculture revived under the
shadow of peace, and the number of husbandmen was multiplied by
the redemption of captives. ^73 The iron mines of Dalmatia, a
gold mine in Bruttium, were carefully explored, and the Pomptine
marshes, as well as those of Spoleto, were drained and cultivated
by private undertakers, whose distant reward must depend on the
continuance of the public prosperity. ^74 Whenever the seasons
were less propitious, the doubtful precautions of forming
magazines of corn, fixing the price, and prohibiting the
exportation, attested at least the benevolence of the state; but
such was the extraordinary plenty which an industrious people
produced from a grateful soil, that a gallon of wine was
sometimes sold in Italy for less than three farthings, and a
quarter of wheat at about five shillings and sixpence. ^75 A