Chapter 3

ARLES.

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.