The
Architecture Is Of The Tuscan Order, Sixty Feet High, Composed Of
Two Open Galleries, Built One Over Another, Consisting Each Of
Threescore Arcades.
The entrance into the arena was by four great
gates, with porticos; and the seats, of which there were thirty,
rising one above another, consisted of great blocks of stone,
many of which still remain.
Over the north gate, appear two
bulls, in alto-relievo, extremely well executed, emblems which,
according to the custom of the Romans, signified that the
amphitheatre was erected at the expence of the people. There are
in other parts of it some work in bas-relief, and heads or busts
but indifferently carved. It stands in the lower part of the
town, and strikes the spectator with awe and veneration. The
external architecture is almost intire in its whole circuit; but
the arena is filled up with houses - This amphitheatre was
fortified as a citadel by the Visigoths, in the beginning of the
sixth century. They raised within it a castle, two towers of
which are still extant; and they surrounded it with a broad and
deep fossee, which was filled up in the thirteenth century. In
all the subsequent wars to which this city was exposed, it served
as the last resort of the citizens, and sustained a great number
of successive attacks; so that its preservation is almost
miraculous. It is likely, however, to suffer much more from the
Gothic avarice of its own citizens, some of whom are mutilating
it every day, for the sake of the stones, which they employ in
their own private buildings. It is surprizing, that the King's
authority has not been exerted to put an end to such sacrilegious
violation.
If the amphitheatre strikes you with an idea of greatness, the
Maison Carree enchants you with the most exquisite beauties of
architecture and sculpture. This is an edifice, supposed formerly
to have been erected by Adrian, who actually built a basilica in
this city, though no vestiges of it remain: but the following
inscription, which was discovered on the front of it, plainly
proves, that it was built by the inhabitants of Nismes, in honour
of Caius and Lucius Caesar, the grandchildren of Augustus by his
daughter Julia, the wife of Agrippa.
C. CAESARI. AVGVSTI. F. COS.
L CAESARI. AVGMI. F. COS.
DESIGNATO.
PRINCIPIBVS IVVENTUTIS.
To Caius and Lucius Caesar, sons of Augustus, consuls elect,
Princes of the Roman youth.
This beautiful edifice, which stands upon a pediment six feet
high, is eighty-two feet long, thirty-five broad, and thirty-seven
high, without reckoning the pediment. The body of it is
adorned with twenty columns engaged in the wall, and the
peristyle, which is open, with ten detached pillars that support
the entablature. They are all of the Corinthian order, fluted and
embellished with capitals of the most exquisite sculpture, the
frize and cornice are much admired, and the foliage is esteemed
inimitable. The proportions of the building are so happily
united, as to give it an air of majesty and grandeur, which the
most indifferent spectator cannot behold without emotion.
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