Chapter 4

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._