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“What now remains of all
the mighty bridge
Which made the Lucrine lake an inner pool,
Caligala, but mossy fragments left
As monuments of doubt and ruined hopes,
Yet gleaming in the morning’s ray, that tell
How Baja’s shore was loved in days gone by?”
Fallacies of Hope.
The famous bridge of Caligula was built by that emperor in defiance of a
prophecy of Thrasyllus “that it was as impossible for him t’ be emperor
as to drive his horses round the Bay of Baiae.” He constructed a bridge
of boats from Puteoli to Baiae, a distance of i than three Roman miles,
and both rode and drove over it. At Puteoli there existed an ancient
mole, a permanent structure on arches, of which many of piers are still
visible above the water. Turner has apparently fallen into the error of
supposing that these were the remains of the bridge of Caligula, and has
continued the arches across the bay. This magnificent picture is a wreck
of what it once was, but still the effect of the sun rising, with its
light breaking through the ruined arches of the palace, show the hand of
a consummate artist. The figures of the children playing with goats, and
the horses on the bank, are introduced with good effect. |
