J.H.M.
Bath.
_Julin, the drowned City_ (Vol. ii., pp. 230. 282.).--I am sorry I did
not state more clearly the inquiry respecting the fate of _Julin_, which
DR. BELL has been so good as to notice. This is partly the printer's
fault. I spoke of the _drowned_, not the _doomed_ city.
The _drowning_ was what I desired some account of. "A flourishing
emporium of commerce", extant {380} in 1072, and now surviving only in
tradition, and in "records" of ships wrecked on its "submerged ruins,"
does not sink into the ocean without exciting wonder and pity. I knew of
the tradition, and presumed there was some probability of the existence
of a legend (_legendum_, something to be _read_) describing a
catastrophe that must have been widely heard of when it happened.
This I conjectured might be found in Adam of Bremen; to whose mention of
Julin DR. BELL referred. But it seems that in his time the city was
still existing, and flourishing ("urbs locuples").
The "excidium civitatis," if the _Veneta_ of Helmold were Julin, must
have taken place, therefore, between 1072 and 1184, when the latter
account was written. If Veneta was Julin, and "aquarum aestu absorpta,"
there must, I suppose, be some account of this great calamity: and as I
have seen in modern German works allusions to the drowning of the great
city, and to the ruins still visible at times under water, I hoped to
find out the _where_ of its site, and the _when_ of its destruction--as
great cities do not often sink into the waves, like exhalations, without
some report of their fate.
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