ABSTRACT
Naples, with her fabulous origin and Argonautic foundation, the land of the Syrens, the Parthenope of antiquity, preserved the religion, habits, and language of Greece, from whence she was colonized, even long after she became a part of the Roman empire. In the latter end of the fifteenth century, the death of Alphonso of Arragon, King of Naples, who died without heirs, brought to issue the claims of his nephew, Ferdinand the Catholic, and of Louis the Twelfth, the successor of the ancient Kings of Naples of the house of Anjou. The romantic Duke de Guise became their champion; and a republic in Naples, like that of Holland, was dreamed of both by the chief and the people. When the death of the King of Spain called his brother the King of Naples to the throne, in 1759, Naples, ere breathing-time was allowed her from her former miseries, entered on a new era of suffering and degradation.
