according to the modern expression, of register vessels. In this way, Rome received from Egypt her supplies of corn, glass, linen, and papyrus. Such fleets, however, did not come from Egypt alone, but also from other quarters, among which Ionia, for example, is expressly mentioned. The expression for these fleets is κατάπλους, as we see from Lucian’s dialogue of this name; but the term is also quite commonly used by Latin writers of the second and third century.[41] Puteoli, as a Roman colony, was very celebrated on account of its situation and at the same time as a watering-place. Pope Gregory the Great quite seriously thinks that the hot springs of Puteoli are connected with purgatory.[42] The real watering-place, however, was BAIAE, towards cape Misenum. It is very remarkable that at present the district is quite pestilential; if a man were to sleep there one night during the summer, he would be seized with a bilious fever, in consequence of the poisonous air. A French officer, who imagined this to be a mere prejudice, made a bet that he would sleep in the villa Borghese: he was urgently requested not to do it, but the next morning he was quite swollen, and after a few days he died of a putrid fever. The same is the case at Baiae, and yet the ancients, as we see from a fragment of Cicero’s speech _in Clodium et Curionem_, most commonly stayed there in April, when it is already dangerous. I have discovered the explanation of all this, from a conversation with a common man. He said to me that the nature of the Pontine marshes was a very strange thing, that it was not possible for any one in summer to sleep there without fatal consequences, and that it was the same in many parts of Latium; but, he added, that to his own knowledge sailors and boatmen, even in the dangerous season, slept in their boats very near the coast without injuring their health. This proves that the poisonous atmosphere does not extend across the water. The man’s remarks contain a significant hint. I remembered that the English ambassador, with whom I often took a walk there—he was not a man of learning—directed my attention to the fact, that beyond mount Posilipo, in the midst of the sea, ruins of ancient Roman houses were found, and he observed that the Romans must have had a singular taste in thus building houses in the midst of the water, and connected with the mainland by means of bridges, although there was no beauty to attract them. To abandon such a charming coast, and to build a house in the sea, was, he thought, a strange fancy. When, afterwards, I heard the account of the man I mentioned before, the matter ceased to be a mystery to me. Even at Formiae, and certainly at Baiae, the Romans built houses into the sea, in order to isolate themselves from the bad air: these are the _moles jactae in altum_, and on them people were safe.