I left _Nismes_ reluctantly, having formed there an agreeable and
friendly intimacy with Mr. _D'Oliere_, a young gentleman of Switzerland;
and an edifying, and entertaining acquaintance, with Mons. _Seguier_. I
left too, the best and most sumptuous lodgings I had seen in my whole
tour; but a desire to see _Arles_, _Aix_, and _Marseilles_, &c. got the
better of all. But I set out too soon after the snow and rains, and I
found part of the road so bad, that I wonder how my horse dragged us
through so much clay and dirt. When I gave you some account of the
antiquities of _Nismes_, I did not expect to find _Arles_ a town fraught
with ten times more matter and amusement for an antiquarian; but I found
it not only a fine town now, but that it abounds with an infinite number
of monuments which evince its having once been an almost second Rome.
There still remains enough of the Amphitheatre to convince the beholder
what a noble edifice it was, and to wonder why so little, of so large
and solid a building, remains. The town is built on the banks of the
Rhone, over which, on a bridge of barges, we entered it; but it is
evident, that in former days, the sea came quite up to it, and that it
was a haven for ships of burden; but the sea has retired some leagues
from it, many ages since; beside an hundred strong marks at _this_ day
of its having been a sea-port formerly, the following inscription found
a century or two ago, in the church of _St. Gabriel_, will clearly
confirm it:
M. FRONTONI EVPOR
IIIIIIVIR AVG. COL. JVLIA.
AVG. AQVIS SEXTIIS NAVICVLAR.
MAR. AREL. CVRAT EJVSD. CORP.
PATRONA NAVTAR DRVENTICORVM.
ET VTRICVLARIORVM.
CORP. ERNAGINENSIUM.
JULIA NICE VXOR.
CONJVGI KARISSIMO.
Indeed there are many substantial reasons to believe, that it was at
this town _Julius Cæsar_ built the twelve gallies, which, from the
cutting of the wood to the time they were employed on service, was but
thirty days.--That it was a very considerable city in the time of the
first Emperors, is past all doubt. _Constantine_ the Great held his
court, and resided at _Arles_, with all his family; and the Empress
_Faustina_ was delivered of a son here (_Constantine_ the younger) and
it was long before so celebrated for an annual fair held in the month of
August, that it was called _le Noble Marche de Gaules_. And _Strabo_, in
his dedication of his book to the Emperor, called it "_Galliarum
Emporium non Parvum_;" which is a proof that it was celebrated for its
rich commerce, &c. five hundred years before it became under the
dominion of the Romans. But were I capable of giving you a particular
description of all the monuments of antiquity in and near this town, it
would compose a little book, instead of a sheet or two of paper. I
shall therefore only pick out a few things which have afforded me the
most entertainment, and I hope may give you a little; but I shall begin
with mentioning what must first give you concern, in saying that in that
part of the town called _la Roquette_, I was shewn the place where
formerly stood an elevated Altar whereon, three young citizens were
sacrificed annually, and who were fattened at the public expence during
a whole year, for the horrid purpose! On the first of May their throats
were cut in the presence of a prodigious multitude of people assembled
from all parts; among whom the blood of the victims was thrown, as they
imagined all their sins were expiated by that barbarous sacrifice; which
horrid practice was put a stop to by the first Bishop of _Arles_, ST.
TROPHIME. The Jews, who had formerly a synagogue in _Arles_, were driven
out in the year 1493, when that and their celebrated School were
demolished. There were found about an hundred after, among the stones
of those buildings some Hebrew characters neatly cut, which were copied
and sent to the Rabbins of Avignon, to be translated, and who explained
them then thus:
Chodesh: Elvl. Chamescheth, lamech, nav. Nislamv. Bedikoth.
Schradai.
i.e. they say,
"In the month of August five thousand and thirty--the Visitation
of God ceased."
Perhaps the plague had visited them.--There was also another Hebrew
inscription, which was on the tomb of a famous Rabbin called Solomon,
surnamed the grandson of David.
The Amphitheatre of _Arles_ was of an oval form, composed of three
stages; each stage containing sixty arches; the whole was built of hewn
stone of an immense size, without mortar, and of a prodigious thickness:
the circumference above, exclusive of the projection of the
architecture, was 194 toises three feet, the frontispiece 17 toises
high and the area 71 toises long and 52 wide; the walls were 17 toises
thick, which were pierced round and round with a gallery, for a
convenience of passing in and out of the seats, which would conveniently
contain 30,000 men, allowing each person three feet in depth and two in
width; and yet, there remain at this day only a few arches quite
complete from top to bottom, which are of themselves a noble monument.
Indeed one would be inclined to think that it never had been compleated,
did we not know that the Romans left nothing unfinished of that kind;
and read, that the Emperor _Gallus_ gave some superb spectacles in the
Amphiteatre of _Arles_, and that the same amusements were continued by
following Emperors. Nothing can be a stronger proof than these ruins, of
the certain destruction and corruption of all earthly things; for one
would think that the small parts which now remain of this once mighty
building would, endure as long as the earth itself; but what is very
singular is, that this very Amphitheatre was built upon the ruins of a
more mighty building, and perhaps one of a more substantial structure.
_Tempus edax rerum, tuque invidiosa vetustas omnia destruis_. In the
street called _St. Claude_, stood a triumphal arch which was called
_L'Arche admirable_; it is therefore natural to conclude, that the town
contained many others of less beauty. There are also within the walls
large remains of the palace of _Constantine_. A beautiful antique statue
of _Venus_ was found here also, about an hundred and twenty years
ago.--That a _veritable_ fine woman should set all the beaux and
_connoisseurs_ of a whole town in a flame, I do not much wonder; but you
will be surprized when I tell you that this cold trunk of marble, (for
the arms were never found) put the whole town of _Arles_ together by the
ears; one _Sçavant_ said it was the goddess _Diana_, and wrote a book to
prove it; another insisted upon it, that it was the true image of
_Venus_; then starts up an Ecclesiastic, who _you know has nothing to
do with women_, and he pronounced in dogmatical terms, it was neither
one nor the other; at length the wiser magistrates of the town agreed to
send it as a present to their august monarch Lewis the XIVth; and if you
have a mind to see an inanimate woman who has made such a noise in the
world, you will find her at _Versailles_, without any other notice taken
of her or the quarrels about her, than the following words written (I
think) upon her pedestal, _La Venus d'Arles_. This ended the dispute, as
I must my letter.