I have not half done with _Arles_. The more I saw and heard in this
town, the more I found was to be seen. The remains of the Roman theatre
here would of itself be a sufficient proof that it was a town of great
riches and importance. Among the refuse of this building they found
several large vases of baked earth, which were open on one side, and
which were fixed properly near the seats of the audience to receive and
convey the sounds of the instruments and voices of the actors distinctly
throughout the theatre, which had forty-eight arches, eleven behind the
scenes of ten feet wide, three grand arches of fourteen feet wide, and
thirty-one of twelve feet; the diameter was thirty-one canes, and the
circumference seventy-nine; and from the infinite number of beautiful
pieces of sculpture, frizes, architraves, pillars of granite, &c. which
have been dug up, it is very evident that this theatre was a most
magnificent building, and perhaps would have stood firm to this day, had
not a Bishop of _Arles_, from a principle of more piety than wisdom,
stript it of the finest ornaments and marble pillars, to adorn the
churches. Near the theatre stood also the famous temple of _Diana_; and,
as the famous statue mentioned in my former letter was found beneath
some noble marble pillars near that spot, it is most likely _La Venus
d'Arles_ is nevertheless the Goddess _Diana_.
I never wish more for your company than when I walk, (and I walk every
day) in the Elysian fields. The spot is beautiful, the prospect far and
near equally so: in the middle of this ancient _Cimetiere_ stands a
motly building, from the middle of which however rises a cupola, which
at the first view informs you it is the work of a Roman artist; and here
you must, as it were, thread the needle between an infinite number of
Pagan and Christian monuments, lying thick upon the surface in the
utmost disorder and confusion, insomuch, that one would think the Day of
Judgment was arrived and the dead were risen. Neither _Stepney_
church-yard, nor any one in or near a great city, shew so many
headstones as this spot does stone coffins of an immense size, hewn out
of one piece; the covers of most of which have been broken or removed
sufficiently to search for such things as were usually buried with the
dead. Some of these monuments, and some of the handsomest too, are still
however unviolated. It is very easy to distinguish the Pagan from the
Christian monnments, without opening them, as all the former have the
Roman letters DM (_Diis Manibus_) cut upon them. It is situated,
according to their custom, near the high-way, the water, and the
marshes. You know the ancients preferred such spots for the interment of
the dead.
The tombs of _Ajax_ and _Hector_, HOMER says, were near the sea, as well
as other heroes of antiquity; for as they considered man to be composed
of earth and water, his bones ought to be laid in one, and near the
other.
I will now give you a few of the most curious inscriptions; but first I
will mention a noble marble monument, moved from this spot into the
_Cimetiere_ of the great Hospital. This tomb is ornamented with
Cornucopiæ, _Pateræ_, &c. and in a shield the following inscription:
CABILIAE D.F. APPRVLLAE FLAM
D DESIGNATAE COL. DEA. AUG. VOC. M
O. ANNOS XIIII, MENS II. DIES V.
MARITVS VXORI PIENTISSIMAE.
POSUIT.
This poor girl was not only too young to die, but too young to marry,
one would think; I wish therefore her afflicted husband had told us how
many years he had been married to a wife who died at the age of
fourteen, two months, and five days. The cornucopiæ, I suppose, were to
signify that this virtuous wife, I was going to say maid, was the source
of all his pleasure and happiness. The _Pateræ_ were vases destined to
receive the blood of the victims.
Supponunt alij cultros, tepidumque cruorem
Suscipiunt Pateris,--_Says the Poet_.
On each side of the tomb are the symbols of sacrifice. It is very
evident from the fine polish of this monument, that her husband had
obtained the Emperor's particular leave to finish it highly.
Rogum _ascia ne Polito_ says the law of the twelve tables.
On another tomb, which is of common stone, in the middle of a shield
supported by two Cupids, is the following inscription:
M IVNIO MESSIANO
----VTRICI. CORP. ARELAT.
D EIVS D. CORP. MAG. III. F M
QUI VIXIT ANN. XXVIII.
M. V. D. X. IVNIA VALERIA.
ALVMNO CLARISSIMO.
The first word of the second line is much obliterated.
There are an infinite number of other monuments with inscriptions; but
those above, and this below, will be sufficient for me to convey to you,
and you to my friend at _Winchester_.
L DOMIT. DOMITIANI
EX TRIERARCHI CLASS. GERM.
D PECCOCEIA VALENTINA M
CONIUGI PIENTISSIMA.
Before I leave _Arles_, and I leave it reluctantly, whatever you may do,
I must not omit to mention the principal monument, and pride of it, at
this day, i.e. their Obelisque. I will not tell you where nor when it
was dug up; it is sufficient to say, it was found here, that it is a
single piece of granite, sixty-one feet high, and seven feet square
below; yet it was elevated in the Market-place, upon a modern pedestal,
which bears four fulsome complimentary inscriptions to _Lewis_ the XIV.
neither of which will I copy. In elevating this monstrous single stone,
the inhabitants were very adroit: they set it upright in a quarter of an
hour, in the year 1676, just an hundred years ago, amidst an infinite
number of joyful spectators, who are now all laid in their lowly graves;
for though it weighed more than two thousand hundred weight, yet by the
help of capsterns, it was raised without any difficulty. The great King
_Harry_ the IVth had ordered the houses in the arena of the Amphitheatre
to be thrown down, and this obelisk to be fixed in the center of it; but
his death, and _Lewis_'s vanity, fixed it where it now stands; it has
no beauty however to boast of but its age and size, for it bears neither
polish, characters, nor hieroglyphicks, but, as it seems to have been an
Egyptian monument, the inhabitants of _Arles_ have, like those people,
consecrated it below to their King, and above to the sun: on the top is
fixed a globe of azure, sprinkled with _fleurs de lis d'or_, and crowned
with a radiant sun, that is to say, as the sun was made by GOD to
enlighten the world, so LEWIS LE GRAND was made to govern it.
I am sure now, you will excuse my mentioning what is said of this great
man _below_; but speaking of light, I must not omit to mention, that
there are men of veracity now living in this town, who affirm, that they
have seen, upon opening some of the ancient monuments here, the eternal
lamps burning. The number of testimonies we have of this kind puts the
matter past a doubt, that a flame has appeared at the lip of these
lamps when first the tombs have been opened; one was found, you know, on
the _Appian_ way, in the tomb of _Cicero_'s daughter, which had burnt
more than seventeen centuries; another at _Padua_, which had burnt eight
hundred years, and which was found hanging between two little phials,
one of gold, the other of silver, which were both quite full of liquor,
extremely clear, as well as many others; but as it is impossible to
believe that flame can exist, and not consume that which feeds it, is it
not more natural to conclude that those lamps, phials, &c. contained a
species of phosphorus, which became luminous upon the first opening of
the tombs and the sudden rushing in of fresh air; and that the reverse
of what is generally supposed is the fact, that they are not
extinguished, but illuminated by the fresh air they receive? I have seen
several of these lamps here and elsewhere, most of which are of baked
earth. It has been said, that there is an oil to be extracted from gold,
which will not consume, and that a wick of _asbestos_ has burnt many
years in this oil, without consumption to either. I have seen a book
written by a German Jesuit, to confirm this fact; so there is authority
for you, if not conviction.
As I know your keen appetite after antiquities, I will send you a few
other inscriptions, and leave you to make your own comments; and
_voila_.
D M
L. HOSTIL. TER.
SILVANI.
ANN. XXIIII. M. II. D.
XV MATER FIL PIJSSIMI
MISERA ET IN LVCIV.
AETERNALI BENIFICI.
O NOVERCAE.
The following inscription is cut upon a marble column, which stands near
the Jesuits' church:
SALVIS D.D.N.N. THEODOSIO, ET VALENTINIANO.
P.F.V. AC TRIVM. SEMPER AUG. XV.
CONS. VIR. INL. AUXILIARIS PRÆ.
PRÆT, GALLIA. DE ARELATE MA,
MILLIARIA PONI. S.
M.P.S.
In the ancient church of _St. Honore_, which stands in the center of all
these Heathen and Christian monuments, are to be seen nine Bacchanalians
of very ancient workmanship; where also is the tomb of _St. Honore_,
employed as the altar of the church; and beneath the church are
catacombs, where the first Christians retired to prayer during the
persecution by the Emperors, and where is still to be seen their altar
and seven ancient sepulchres, of beautiful marble, and exquisitely
worked; the first is the tomb of _St. Genet_; the second of _St.
Roland_, Archbishop of _Arles_; the third of _St. Concord_, with an
epitaph, and two doves with olive branches in their beaks, cut in bass
relief, and underneath are the two letters X and P; on this tomb is the
miraculous cross seen in the heavens by _Constantine_, who is
represented before it on his knees; and on the cover of this tomb are
the heads of _Constantine_, _Faustina_, and his son; and they say the
Emperor saw this miracle in the heaven from the very _Cimetiere_ in
which this monument stands, i.e. in the year 315; the fifth is the tomb
of _St. Dorothy_, Virgin and Martyr of _Arles_; the sixth _St. Virgil_,
and the seventh _St. Hiliare_, (both Archbishops of _Arles_,) who has
borrowed a Pagan sepulchre, for it is adorned with the principal
divinities of the ancients in bass relief.--It seems odd to see on a
Christian Bishop's tomb _Venus_, and the three Destinies. The people
here say, that this tomb represents human life, as the ancients believed
that each God contributed something towards the being. Be that as it
may, the tomb is a very curious one, and much admired by the
_Connoisseurs_, for its excellent workmanship; but what is more
extraordinary than all these, is, that this catacomb, standing in the
middle of the others, with its cover well and closely fixed, has always
water in it, and often is quite full, and nobody can tell (_but one of
the priests perhaps_) from what source it comes. There is also in this
church the tomb and a long Latin Epitaph of _St. Trophime_, their first
Bishop; but the characters are very Gothic, and the Cs are square,
[Image: E E with no mid bar]; he came here in the year 61, and preached
down that abominable practice of sacrificing three young men annually.
He died in the year 61, at 72 years of age. On the front of the
Metropolitan church of _Arles_, called _St. Trophime_, are the two
following lines, in Gothic characters, cut above a thousand years:
Cernitur eximius vir Christi Discipulorum,
De Numero Trophimus, hic Septuaginta duorum.
This church was built in the year 625, by _St. Virgil_, and is a curious
piece of antiquity within, and particularly without; but I will not
omit to give you one of its singularities within; it is an ancient and
curious inscription in large Gothic letters, near the organ:
Terrarum Roma Gemina de luce majistrA.
Ros Missus Semper Aderit: velut incola IoseP
Olim Contrito Letheo Contulit OrchO.
To read this you will see you must take the first letter of each verse:
TRO, _Trophemus_; GAL, _Galliæorum_; and APO, _Apostolus_. The letter H,
belonging to the word _Joseph_, must be carried to the word _Orcho_, and
the P must stand by itself.
_Trophimus Galliarum Apostolus, ut ros missus est, ex urbe Romæ rerum
Dominæ Gemina de luce, scilicet a Petro et Paulo, Ecclesiæ luminaribus;
Contrito orcho Letheo, nempe statim post Christi Passionem qua Dæmonis &
orchi caput contrivit, semper animos nostras nutriet, cibo illo, divinæ
fidei quem nobis contulit: ut alter Joseph qui olim Ægypti populum same
pereuntem liberavit._