as the country of the Latins. We shall first take Latium Proper, then the coast from Antium to Terracina, which was originally a Tyrrhenian and afterwards a Volscian country, and lastly the country of the Hernicans. But I have previously to make some remarks about the port towns of Rome. All rivers of any importance carrying sand or mud form a delta, their mouths being pushed forward by the tides or the nature of the seas. Down to a certain point, they flow in a straight line, and then divide into two arms, leaving a low sand-bank between them. Such are the deltas of the Po, the Mississipi, the Nile, and the Ganges. The Tiber forms a similar πρόχωσις, and the ridges of sand on both sides become more and more widely separated from each other. On the left arm, which accordingly must have existed as early as that time, king Ancus Marcius, who is no doubt an historical personage, built the town of _Ostia_. I believe I can prove that Ancus Marcius concluded a treaty with the Latins, by which a number of the Latin towns, I mean those between Rome and the sea, were ceded to Rome, while other places remained united with Latium. In after times, Rome twice concluded similar treaties with Latium. Ostia was founded as a pure Roman colony, and became the port town of Rome. Afterwards it grew into a very large place, as is clear from the extensive and very splendid ruins. It was first destroyed in the war between Marius and Sulla, and afterwards frightfully devastated by the Vandals; in the ninth century it existed again, but was then destroyed by the Saracens. The great pope Leo IV. restored it, but the new town was not of long duration. At present the atmosphere is very unhealthy, which was not the case in the time of ancient Rome; whence we must infer, that then there were no marshes in the neighbourhood, for the poisonous air comes from the marshes. The district is at present so neglected that the place is completely deserted. In the time of the Antonines, Ostia was the summer residence of the Romans, probably those of the middle classes, who had no large estates and could not afford to remain away from Rome for any great length of time. A very pleasing description of it occurs in the apologetic work of Minutius Felix, the scene of which is laid at Ostia. The Roman jurists spent their vacations there. The beauty and wealth of the place at that time form a remarkable contrast with its present condition, for scarcely any persons but criminals live there; for a long time past Ostia has been a sort of asylum, where murderers are safe against the danger of being seized by the police. This is one of the most fearful changes: the country round it is an immense swamp inhabited by buffalos.