tubamque
Monte sub aereo, qui nunc Misenus ab illo
Dicitur aeternumque tenet per saecula nomen._"

Cumae was the most ancient Greek colony of Italy on the coast, and the
last survivors of the Tarquinii died here. This is the most classic of
all these legendary coast towns near Naples, as it was here that the
Cumaean Sibyl dwelt with the mysterious sibylline leaves,--the books that
were carried to Rome. A colossal Acropolis was once here, fragments of
whose walls are now standing; and the rocky foundation is honeycombed
with secret passages and openings. It is here that Virgil's "Grotto of
the Sibyl" is supposed to have stood,--the grotto "whence resound as
many voices, the oracles of the prophetess."

The journey from Naples to Herculaneum is easily made by electric train
cars within an hour, and while there is not much to see it is still an
excursion well worth making. Dr. de Petra, of the chair of Archaeology in
the University of Naples, and formerly the Director of the National
Museum, is warmly in favor of the proposed excavation of this buried
city, as is Professor Spinazzola of the San Martino museum, who believes
that Italy may well become one vast museum of antiquities. "As the
theatre of Herculaneum is actually at present a subterranean
excavation," he observed, "why not excavate in a similar way the entire
city underneath modern Resina? In this way a perfectly unique
underground museum would be formed, which would have the merit of
leaving magnificent Roman art treasures exactly in their proper places
in the villas. Such a work ought to be perfectly practicable, with the
resources of modern engineering, and would certainly be unique in the
world.

"There would be no need to build a special museum for the objects
discovered. Not only would this money be saved, but I feel convinced
that so many visitors would be attracted as to more than pay for the
maintenance. A subterraneous Herculaneum--surely a perfectly unique
place of pilgrimage, just as it was nearly two thousand years ago--might
be lighted by electric arc lights. I feel certain it would attract
sight-seers from the ends of the world. At the same time work might go
on in the open parts of the city.

"Pompeii was more of an industrial town, while Herculaneum was a
favorite resort of the Roman patricians, who did not bring their
treasures with them from their northern homes, but had them executed by
Greek artists in the south."

Under the mi