A Years Journey through France and Part of Spain | Page 5

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,