40. The change from the inauspicious word 'Avernus', which
stands in the text, is immaterial. The two lakes, Avernus
and Lucrinus, communicated with each other, and were
fashioned by the stupendous moles of Agrippa into the Julian
port, which opened through a narrow entrance into the gulf
of Puteoli. Virgil, who resided on the spot, has described
(Georgic ii. 161) this work at the moment of its execution:
and his commentators, especially Catrou, have derived much
light from Strabo, Suetonius, and Dion. Earthquakes and
volcanoes have changed the face of the country, and turned
the Lucrine lake, since the year 1538, into the Monte Nuovo.
See Camillo Pellegrino Discorsi della Campania Felice, p.
239, 244, etc. Antonii Sanfelicii Campania, p. 13, 88.