I have now spent a month in my second visit to this great and
flourishing city, and fortunately took lodgings in a _Hotel_, where I
found the lady and sister of _Mons. Le Marquis De Valan_, whose
politeness to us I mentioned in a former letter at _Vienne_, and by
whose favour I have had an opportunity of seeing more, and being better
informed, than I could have been without so respectable an acquaintance.
At _Vienne_ I only knew his rank, here I became acquainted with his good
character, and fortune, which is very considerable in _Dauphine_, where
he has two or three fine seats. His Lady came to _Lyons_ to lye-in,
attended by the Marquis's sister, a _Chanoinesse_, a most agreeable
sensible woman, of a certain age; but the Countess is young and
beautiful.
You may imagine that, after what I said of _Lyons_, on my way _to_
Spain, I did not associate much with my own country-folks. On my return,
indeed, my principal amusement was to see as much as I could, in a town
where so much is to be seen; and in relating to you what I have seen, I
will begin with the _Hotel De Ville_; if it had not that name, I should
have called it a Palace, for there are few palaces so large or so noble;
on the first entrance of which, in the vestibule, you see, fixed in the
wall, a large plate of Bronze, bearing stronger marks of fire than of
age; on which were engraven, seventeen hundred years ago, two harangues
made by the Emperor _Claudius_ in the senate, in favour of the
_Lyonoise_, and which are not only legible at this day, but all the
letters are sharp and well executed; the plate indeed is broke quite
through the middle, but fortunately the fraction runs between the first
and second harangues, so as to have done but little injury among the
the letters. As I do not know whether you ever saw a copy of it, I
inclose it to you, and desire you will send it as an agreeable exercise,
to be well translated by my friend at Oxford.
On the other side of the vestibule is a noble stair-case, on which is
well painted the destruction of the city, by so dreadful a fire in the
time of the Romans, that _Seneca_, who gives an account of it in a
letter to his friend, says,
"_Una nox fuit inter urbem maximam et nullum._"
i.e. One night only intervened between a great city and nothing.
There is something awful in this scene, to see on one side of the
stair-case the conflagration well executed; on the other, strong marks
of the very fire which burnt so many ages ago; for there can be no
doubt, but that the Bronze plate then stood in the _Roman Hotel de
Ville_, and was burnt down with it, because it was dug up among the
refuse of the old city on the mountain called _Fourvire_, on the other
side of the river, where the original city was built.--In cutting the
letters on this large plate of Bronze, they have, to gain room, made no
distance between the words, but shewn the division only by a little
touch thus < with the graver; and where a word eroded with a C, or G,
they have put the touch within the concavity of the letter, otherwise it
is admirably well executed.
Upon entering into the long gallery above stairs, you are shewn the late
King and Queen's pictures at full length, surrounded with the heads of
some hundred citizens; and in one corner of the room an ancient altar,
the _Taurabolium_, dug up in 1704, near the same place where
_Claudius's_ harangue was found; it is of common stone, well executed,
about four feet high, and one foot and a half square; on the front of
it is the bull's head, in demi relief, adorned with a garland of corn;
on the right side is the _victimary_ knife[A] of a very singular form;
and on the left the head of a ram, adorned as the bull's; near the point
of the knife are the following words, _cujus factum est_; the top of the
altar is hollowed out into the form of a shallow bason, in which, I
suppose, incense was burnt and part of the victims.
[A] The knife, which is cut in demi relief, on the _Taurobolium_,
is crooked upon the back, exactly in the same manner, and form, as
may be seen on some of the medals of the Kings of Macedonia.
The Latin inscription under the bull's head, is very well cut, and very
legible, by which it appears, that by the express order of CYBELE, the
reputed mother of the Gods, for the honour and health of the Emperor
_Antoninus Pius_, father of his country, and for the preservation of his
children, children, _Lucius Æmilius Carpus_[B] received the horns of
the bull, by the ministration of _Quintus Samius Secundus_, transported
them to the Vatican, and consecrated, at his own expence, this altar and
the head of the bull[C]; but I will send the inscription, and a
model[D] of the altar, as soon as I can have it made, as I find here a
very ingenious sculptor and modeller; who, to my great serprize, says
no one has hitherto been taken from it. And here let me observe, lest I
forget it, to say, that _Augustus_ lived three years in this city.
[B] _Lucius Æmilius Carpus_ was a Priest, and a man of great
riches: he was of the quality of _Sacrovir_, and probably one of
the six Priests of the temple of Angustus.--_Sextumvir Augustalii_.
[C] Several inscriptions of this kind have been found both in Italy
and Spain, but by far the greater number among the Gauls; and as
the sacrifices to the Goddess Cybele were some of the least ancient
of the Pagan rites, so they were the last which were suppressed on
the establishment of Christianity. Since we find one of the
Taurobolian inscriptions, with so recent a date as the time of the
Emperor Valentinian the third. The silence of the Heathen writers
on this head is very wonderful; for the only one who makes any
mention of them is Julius Firmicus Maternus, in his dissertation on
the errors of the Pagan religion; as Dalenius, in his elaborate
account of the Taurobolium, has remarked.
The ceremony of the consecration of the High Priest of Cybele,
which many learned men have mistaken for the consecration of the
Roman Pontifex Maximus; which dignity, from the very earliest
infancy of the Roman Empire, was always annexed to that of the
Emperor himself.
The Priests who had the direction of the Taurobola, wore the same
vestments without washing out the bloody stains, as long as they
would hold together.
By these rites and baptisms by blood, they thought themselves, as
it were re-born to a life eternal. Sextilius Agefilaus Ædesius
says, that he was born a-new, to life eternal, by means of the
Taurobolium and Criobolium.
Nor were the priests alone initiated in this manner, but also
others, who were not of that order; in particular cases the
regenerations were only promised for twenty years.
Besides the Taurobolia and Criobolia, which were erected at the
expence of whole cities and provinces, there were others also,
which were founded by the bounty of private people. We often meet
with the names of magistrates and priests of other Gods, who were
admitted into these mysteries, and who erected Taurobolia as
offerings for the safety of the Emperor, or their own. The rites of
the Taurobolia lasted sometimes many days.
The inscription, on the Taurobolium, which is on the same side with
the head of the bull, we have endeavoured to explain by filling up
the abbreviations which are met with in the Roman character.
TAUROBOLIO MATRIS DEUM MAGNÆ IDÆÆ
QUOD FACTUM EST EX IMPERIO
MATRIS IDÆÆ DEUM
PRO SALUTE IMPERATORIS CÆSARIS
TITI ÆLII
ADRIANI ANTONINI AUGUSTI PII PATRIS PATRIÆ
LIBERORUMQUE EJUS
ET STATUS COLONIÆ LUGDUNENSIS
LUCIUS ÆMILIUS CARPUS SEXTUMVIR
AUGUSTALIS ITEM DENDROPHORUS
VIRES EXCEPIT ET A VATICANO
TRANSTULIT ARAM ET BUCRANIUM
SUO IMPENDIO CONSECRAVIT
SACERDOTE
QUINTO SAMMIO SECUNDO AB QUINDECEMVIRIS
OCCABO ET CORONA EXORNATO
CUI SANCTISSIMUS ORDO LUGDUNENSIS
PERPETUITATEM SACERDOTIS DECREVIT
APPIO ANNIA ATILO BRADUA TITO
CLODIO VIBIO VARO CONSULIBUS
LOCUS DATUS DICRETO DECURIONUM.
[D] _The Model is now in the possession of the ingenious_ Dr.
HARRINGTON _at Bath_.
The _Taurobolium_ was one of the great mysteries, you know, of the
Roman religion, in the observance of which, I think, they dug a large
hole in the earth, and covered it with planks, laid at certain
distances, so as to give light into the subterranean temple. The person
who was to receive the _Taurobolio_ then descended into the theatre, and
received on his head and whole body, the smoaking hot blood of the bull,
which was there sacrificed for that purpose. If a single bull was only
sacrificed, I think they call it a simple _Taurabolio_, if a ram was
added to it, as was sometimes done, it was then called a _Torobolia_,
and _Criobolio_; sometimes too, I believe a goat was also slain.
After all the blood of the victim animals was discharged, the Priests
and Cybils retired beneath the theatre, and he who had received the
bloody sacrifice, came forth and exposed himself, besmeared with blood,
to the people, who all prostrated themselves before him, with
reverential awe, as one who was thereby particularly sanctified, and
whose person ought to be regarded with the highest veneration, and
looked upon with holy horror; nor did this sanctification, I think, end
with the ceremony, but rendered the person of the sanctified holy for
twenty years. An inscription cited by _Gruter_, seems to confirm this
matter, who, after speaking of one _Nepius Egnatius Faventinus_, who
lived in the year of Christ 176, says,
_"Percepto Taurobolio Criobolioque feliciter,_"
Concludes with these words,
_"Vota Faventinus bis deni suscipit orbis,
Ut mactet repetens aurata fronte bicornes._"
The _bis denus orbis_ seems to imply, the space of twice ten years.
And here I cannot help making a little comparison between the honours
paid by the Roman citizens to their Emperors, and those of the present
times to the Princes of the Blood Royal. You must know that the present
King's brother, came to _Lyons_ in the year 1775, and thus it is
recorded in letters of gold upon their quay:
LOUIS XVI. REGNANT.
EN MEMOIRE DE L'HEUREUX JOUR CINQ.
SEPTEMBRE M,DCC,LXXV.
OU
MONSIEUR FRERE DU ROI
ET MADAME
SONT ARRIVES EN CETTE VILLE
CE QUAI
DE L'AGREMENT DU PRINCE
ET PAR ORDONNANCE DU CONSULAT
DU DOUZE DU MEME MOIS
A ETE NOMME A PERPETUITE
QUAI MONSIEUR.
If the _Bourgeoise_ of _Lyons_, however, are not men of genius, they are
ingenious men, and they have a most delightful country to dwell in. I
think I may say, that from the high hills which hang about this city,
and taking in the rivers, fertile vales, rude rocks, vine-yards, and
country seats, far and near, that _Lyons_ and its environs, afford a
greater variety of natural and artificial beauties, than any spot in
Europe. It is, however, by no means a place for the winter residence of
a stranger. Most of the natives advanced in years, were carried off last
winter. The surly winds which come down the Rhone, with impetuous
blasts, are very disagreeable and dangerous. I found the cold
intolerable in the beginning of May, out of the sunshine, and the sun
intolerable in it. In England I never wore but one under waistcoat; in
Spain, and in the south of France, I found two necessary. The Spaniards
wear long cloaks, and we laugh at them; but the laugh would come more
properly from them. There is in those climates a _vifness_ in the air
that penetrates through and through; and I am sure that such who travel
to the southward for the recovery of their health, ought to be ten times
more upon their guard, to be well secured against the keen blasts the
south of France, than even against an easterly wind in England.
The disorder which carried off so many last winter at _Lyons_, was
called the Gripe. In a large hotel only one person escaped it, an
English Lady. They called it the _Gripe_, from the fast hold it took of
the person it seized; nor did it let them go till April.
On my way here, I found it sometimes extremely hot; it is now the first
of May, and I am shaking by the side of a good fire, and have had one
constantly every day for this fortnight.