If we compare the present condition of Italy with what it was in ancient times, say under Nero or at the time of Pliny, there can be no doubt that Rome itself is only a shadow of what it then was; I have calculated that its population then amounted to from 600,000 to 700,000 souls. But the territory around Rome was in those days far more desolate than it is now: it is at present more thickly peopled, better cultivated, and happier. Under the later emperors the country may have somewhat recovered; in the fourth century, previously to the plague under Gallienus, it may have had a larger population, and so also in the time of Theodosius. But I entirely agree with Hume, against Wallace, that the population of Italy in antiquity was far less numerous than at present, except in Rome itself. Naples was then only a country town, of about 20,000 or 30,000 inhabitants, while at present it has 400,000. But notwithstanding all this, Italy possessed incomparably more wealth than at present, so that a small town was of much greater importance than one at present with a far larger population; a third-rate town, for example, was illustrious for its works of art to a much greater extent than any modern town of any country. The name CAPUA is now transferred to the town built upon the ruins of Casilinum; ancient Capua was destroyed by the Saracens during the Lombardic period: its ruins can still be recognised; and among them the remains of an amphitheatre are particularly remarkable; but no ancient Campanian ruins are found there. I never was there, because at the time the country was not safe, and there are no high roads in those parts: I was a whole month at Naples, but was too much engaged to go to Capua. The inhabitants of the district are reported to form a band of robbers, and many a one is said to have had sad experience there. Notorious districts of this kind, however, are different at different times: you may often go to such a place without exposing yourself to any particular danger, while at other times it would be madness to approach it. During my residence at Rome, e.g., it was impossible to visit mount Algidus, whereas at present I have no doubt whatever that a person may go there without any danger. Capua is regarded by the ancients as an Etruscan colony, but we have every reason for supposing that it never was Etruscan. There is, in all probability, some confusion here between Etruscan and Tyrrhenian, because the Etruscans occupied the country of the Tyrrhenians as far as the Tiber, and the name of the latter must have been confounded with the former; the other places on the coast, unless they were Greek, were likewise Tyrrhenian. The name of this Tyrrhenian Capua is compared by the ancient grammarians with _Campi_, the name of the Pelasgian Chaonians. The town was taken, about the middle of the third century of the Roman era, by the Oscans, who were pressed onward by the Sabellians. At that time the district was under the supremacy of Cumae.