One of the most curious particulars, and which cannot be omitted in a
history of sorcery, is the various achievements in the art of magic
which have been related of the poet Virgil. I bring them in here,
because they cannot be traced further back than the eleventh or
twelfth century. The burial-place of this illustrious man was at
Pausilippo, near Naples; the Neapolitans had for many centuries
cherished a peculiar reverence for his memory; and it has been
supposed that the old ballads, and songs of the minstrels of the north
of Italy, first originated this idea respecting him. [166] The vulgar
of this city, full of imagination and poetry, conceived the idea of
treating him as the guardian genius of the place; and, in bodying
forth this conception, they represented him in his life-time as gifted
with supernatural powers, which he employed in various ways for the
advantage of a city that he so dearly loved. Be this as it will, it
appears that Gervais of Tilbury, chancellor to Otho the Fourth,
emperor of Germany, Helinandus, a Cisterian monk, and Alexander Neckam,
all of whom lived about this time, first recorded these particulars in
their works.
They tell us, that Virgil placed a fly of brass over one of the gates
of the city, which, as long as it continued there, that is, for a
space of eight years, had the virtue of keeping Naples clear from
moskitoes and all noxious insects: that he built a set of shambles,
the meat in which was at all times free from putrefaction: that he
placed two images over the gates of the city, one of which was named
Joyful, and the other Sad, one of resplendent beauty, and the other
hideous and deformed, and that whoever entered the town under the
former image would succeed in all his undertakings, and under the
latter would as certainly miscarry: that he caused a brazen statue to
be erected on a mountain near Naples, with a trumpet in his mouth,
which when the north wind blew, sounded so shrill as to drive to the
sea the fire and smoke which issued from the neighbouring forges of
Vulcan: that he built different baths at Naples, specifically prepared
for the cure of every disease, which were afterwards demolished by the
malice of the physicians: and that he lighted a perpetual fire for the
refreshment of all travellers, close to which he placed an archer of
brass, with his bow bent, and this inscription, "Whoever strikes me, I
will let fly my arrow:" that a fool-hardy fellow notwithstanding
struck the statue, when the arrow was immediately shot into the fire,
and the fire was extinguished. It is added, that, Naples being
infested with a vast multitude of contagious leeches, Virgil made a
leech of gold, which he threw into a pit, and so delivered the city
from the infection: that he surrounded his garden with a wall of air,
within which the rain never fell: that he built a bridge of brass that
would transport him wherever he pleased: that he made a set of statues,
which were named the salvation of Rome, which had the property that,
if any one of the subject nations prepared to revolt, the statue,
which bore the name of, and was adored by that nation, rung a bell,
and pointed with its finger in the direction of the danger: that he
made a head, which had the virtue of predicting things future: and
lastly, amidst a world of other wonders, that he cut a subterranean
passage through mount Pausilippo, that travellers might pass with
perfect safety, the mountain having before been so infested with
serpents and dragons, that no one could venture to cross it.