166 LA CROMA, OMBLA, RAGUSA VECCHIA
meditate and experiment in refraction; he made use of the deep sea-gully beneath his house for his observations on rays of light. “ He was regarded by the people as a wizard,” says Sig. Villari, “ and his experiments in setting fire to boats out at sea by means of mirrors and burning-glasses were regarded as quite diabolical A short way farther on the road divides: to the left it leads into the upper valley of the Breno; the right-hand road, which we follow, leads to the lower Breno district on the sea-board, and to Ragusa Vecchia. At the Molini di Breno our goal comes well into view, on its jutting peninsula across the gulf of Breno, which, however, we have to circumvent before we reach Cavtat. The town occupies a typically Greek site: a peninsula with a low neck of land and a rocky hill or Arx, with a harbour on either side, and a second promontory almost enclosing one of the harbours. From the Arx, or acropolis, now deserted, the view sweeps the coast till it reaches Ragusa itself, and beyond it the dim outlines of the Dalmatian islands. Though there is nothing Greek left about ancient Epidaurus save its site, and the fact that it was the home of Aesculapius—all having been swept away by the barbarian invasions of the sixth and seventh