Herculāneum

, a town of Camp an i a, swallowed up, with Pompeii, by an earthquake, produced from an eruption of mount Vesuvius, August 24th, A.D. 79, in the reign of Titus. After being buried under the lava for more than 1600 years, these famous cities were discovered in the beginning of the 18th century; Herculaneum in 1713, about 24 feet underground, by labourers digging for a well, and Pompeii 40 years after, about 12 feet below the surface, and from the houses and the streets, which in a great measure remain still perfect, have been drawn busts, statues, manuscripts, paintings, and utensils, which do not a little contribute to enlarge our notions concerning the ancients, and develop many cla ical obscurities. The valuable antiquities, so miraculously recovered, are preserved in the museum of Portici, a small town in the neighbourhood, and the engravings, . , ably taken from them have been munificently presented to the different learned bodies of Europe. Seneca , Quæstiones natura les , bk. 6 , chs. 1 & 26.— Cicero , Letters to Atticus , bk. 7 , ltr. 3 .— Mela , bk. 2 , ch. 4 .— Paterculus , bk. 2 , ch. 16 .