It Is A
Small Colosseum, If I May Be Allowed The Expression,
And Is In A Much Better Preservation Than The Great
Circus At Rome.
This is especially true of the external
walls, with their arches, pillars, cornices.
I must add
that one should not speak of preservation, in regard
to the arena at Nimes, without speaking also of repair.
After the great ruin ceased to be despoiled, it began
to be protected, and most of its wounds have been
dressed with new material. These matters concern
the archaeologist; and I felt here, as I felt afterwards
at Arles, that one of the profane, in the presence of
such a monument, can only admire and hold his
tongue. The great impression, on the whole, is an
impression of wonder that so much should have sur-
vived. What remains at Nimes, after all dilapidation
is estimated, is astounding. I spent an hour in the
Arenes on that same sweet Sunday morning, as I
came back from the Roman baths, and saw that the
corridors, the vaults, the staircases, the external casing,
are still virtually there. Many of these parts are
wanting in the Colosseum, whose sublimity of size,
however, can afford to dispense with detail. The seats
at Nimes, like those at Verona, have been largely
renewed; not that this mattered much, as I lounged
on the cool surface of one of them, and admired the
mighty concavity of the place and the elliptical sky-
line, broken by uneven blocks and forming the rim of
the monstrous cup, - a cup that had been filled with
horrors.
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