The Old Greek City, He Conjectured, Must Have Been
Largely Built Of Bricks Made From Their Clay, Which Is Once More Being
Utilized For This Purpose.
How else account for its utter disappearance?
Much of the finer buildings were doubtless of stone, and these have been
worked into the fort, the harbour and palazzi of new Cotrone; but this
would never account for the vanishing of a town nearly twelve miles in
circumference.
Bricks, he said, would explain the mystery; they had
crumbled into dust ere yet the Romans rebuilt, with old Greek stones,
the city on the promontory now occupied by the new settlement.
The modern palaces on the rising ground of the citadel are worthy of a
visit; they are inhabited by some half-dozen "millionaires" who have
given Cotrone the reputation of being the richest town of its size in
Italy. So far as I can judge, the histories of some of these wealthy
families would be curious reading.
"Gentlemen," said the Shepherd, "if you have designs of Trading, you
must go another way; but if you're of the admired sort of Men, that have
the thriving qualifications of Lying and Cheating, you're in the direct
Path to Business; for in this City no Learning flourisheth; Eloquence
finds no room here; nor can Temperance, Good Manners, or any Vertue meet
with a Reward; assure yourselves of finding but two sorts of Men, and
those are the Cheated, and those that Cheat."
If gossip at Naples and elsewhere is to be trusted, old Petronius seems
to have had a prophetic glimpse of the dessus du panier of modern
Cotrone.
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