The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1909-01-30
Special to The linton.
LETTER FROM ABROAD.
The People Of Aries Still Follow the Gus
toms of Their Ancestors-Much to
be Seen of Absorbing Inter
est-The Story of
Lazarus, Etc.


marble, sheltering innumerable shrinee and
statues. Today it is entoured by hotels and
cafes. the marble pavement has been replaced
by cobble- stones, the antique statues by street
lamps; but the peculiar function of the spot has
been preserved, and the Artisans of today re-
pair habtually to the ancient FORUM as did their
ancestors two thousand years ago. to discuss
their political AFFAIRS drive their bargains. and
pass their idle hours in faneric and friendly con-
versation.
However, the ruins of the ancient forum have
not entirely disappeared, and the remaining
fragments bear eloquent testimony to its former
grandeur. The forum was considerably larger
than the Place des Hommes, and traces of its
monuments and temples have been unearthed,
not only within the boundaries of the present
public square. but in the cellars of adjacent
buildings and beneath the soil of neighboring
streets. In subterranean vault beneath the
Hotel Pinus number of richly ornamented
arches are visible. Many broken columns, capt.
tails and friezes have been transported to the
Lapidary Museum. and the magnificent facade
of temple of Apollo, still facing the square,
calls to mind by its noble entablature and grace
full Corinthian columns the Madison Carree of
Mines. In another quarter of the city were
temples dedicated to Mars, Diana, Jupiter and
Mithra, but they were destroyed in early Chris
tian times and are known today only by their
fragments, their foundations, and the descrip-
lions left by ancient historians.
massive circular wall and tower, dominating
the Rhone hundred yards below the point
where the Roman bridge traversed the stream,
has been identified as appertaining to the impe-
rial palace of Constantine. The palace is built
in alternate layers of brick and stone. lavishly
ornamented and constructed with an infinite at
tention to detail. 1t was truly royal ediice,
inferior only to that of Constantinople. In the
interior of the palace, hidden between two heavy
walls, Monsieur Revolt. Provencal archeolo-
gist has recently discovered spiral staircase,
the earliest existing example of an architec-
tural principle that was later commonly en-
ployed in the towers of feudal castles and Gothic
cathedrals.
The ampitheatre or coliseum of Aries, older
and more interesting than that of Mines, dates
from the first century of the Christian era. It
was commenced in the time of Claudius Tiberius
Nero, father of the Emperor Tiberius, and the
first gladiatorial combats in the Province were
inaugurated under the patronage of this second
ruler, who sent from his royal garrison and dun
geons host of gladiators, wild beasts and an
occasional martyr. to furnish amusement for his
distant colonists.
1t is probable that scenes of this character
were never enacted in the ampitheatres of Mines
and Narhonne, but it is certain that the sands of
the Arlesian arena. like those of the Roman
circus, were more than once stained with Chris
tian blood. According to an ancient ecclesiasti
cal history it was in this ampitheatre that the
Jew, Lazarus, Che whom Christ raised from the
dead performed remarkable miracle. After
he had been banished from Jerusalem, Lazarus,
in the course of his missionary journeys. visited
Aries and entered the ampitheatre on the day of
great fete. There, in the presence of 10000
Romans, he mounted tribune and with inspired
eloquence condemned their dissolute, ferocious
pastimes, denounced their false gods and pro-
claimed in laundering tones the resurrection
and divinity of Christ. And as he uttered the
Saviour's namc rumbling sound was heard, the
massive walls swayed as If shaken by mighty
wind. and the laurel-crowned statues of Jupi-
ter, Venus, Mars and Pallas were hurled from
their pedestals by unseen hands and tumbled
headlong into the arena. The strange part of
the story is its conclusion, when the Romans
had recovered from their establishment, SO runs
the chronicle, they reverently gathered up their
Pagan deties, restored each statue to its proper
niche, and then fed poor Lazarus to the lions.
But even after the Roman conquest the popu-
lace of Aries affirmed its partially hellenic origin
by its taste for more. refined and intellectual
spectacles than those of the circus, and the con-
| struction of the splendid theatre was real
labor of love, if one may judge by the richness
| of its decorations, the delicate strength aud
beauty of its sculptures and the superb marbles
| in which they were executed. This theatre was
| condemned in 446 A. d. by the Episcopate of st.
Hilaire, whose priests conceived it their sacred
| duty to destroy all pagan monuments, no
| matter how great their artistic value. (When-
ever these broadminded churchmen unearthed
an antique statue they smashed it into pieces
and dumped the debris into the Rhone. The
more beautiful the statue the surer it was to be
| demolished.) After the formal condemnation
| of the theatre certain pious clerk named Cy-
rifle led the entire population of the Episcopate,
men, women and children, in a campaign of pill
| lage and destruction from which the noble monu-
ment emerged in ruins. But what glorious ruins
| If nothing were left but the two gigantic mono
| lithc columns of the prosenium the "deux bellies
| collones" described by Rumanill, one in yellow
marble of Sienna, the other in green marble
from the Nile they would amply serve to pro-
| claim the former splendor of the edifce and
command the ecstatic admiration of modern be-
holders.
During the reign of Louis XIV. two Arlesians,
while digging well on property adjacent to
the site of the theatre, unearthed an armless
statue, which the local savants pronounced
Diana, but which is known today throughout the
world as the Venus of Aries and the city in turn
presented it to the king. 1t suffered faulty
restoration at the hands of Girardon, and is now
one Of the priceless treasures of the Louvre.
Beneath the ancient ramparts of the city, near
the Porte de L'Or, in a deserted valley, shaded
by cypress trees and Uttered with the debris of
the ruined sepulchres, extends the Avenue des
A -
ages, once the hottest and most carefully guard
ed spots in Europe, now the most desolate. Its
massive stone sarcophagi are yawning and
empty as If the trump of doom had already
sounded for their countless vanished dead, and
its crumbling, barron tombs recall Ezekiel's
prophetic vision. Around this mortuary field
are clustered myriad ghostly legends, and when
the Arlesian greybeards gather on winter even
ings to doze and gossip in some hospitable Chin
ney corner they tell strange tales of saints and
devils and grin-spectral bands. unhappy spirits,
who return by night to prowl like ghouls among
the sunken graves searching in vain for earthly
bodies that vandal hands have long since scat
tered to the Winds The history of the Ais
camp, according to monkish chronicles, is min
gled from the earliest times with mysteries and
marvels. Formerly pagan burial ground, it
was dedicated to Christianity during the reign of
Constantine, and when the first bishops of Gaul
were assembled for the conservation rites, so it
is recounted, Jesus Christ descended in glory
from the skies, accompanied by multitude of
angels, and with his pierced hands outstretched,
pronounced the benediction. A granite boulder
marks the spot, and to this very day credulous
Provencals point out curious depression in the
rock, said to be the Saviour's footprint.
This cemetery has yielded more ancient tombs
than all the cities of Tuscany combined, and,
barring the collections of the Louvre Aries is
the richest city in the world in early Christian
sarcophagi and mortuary sculpture.
SEABRooK.
THE REPORT of the Commissioner General of
Immigration for the last fical year shows de-
crease of 80 per cent. in immigration, the total
number of newcomers being 1880. OF those
admitted 172, 293 could neither read nor write,
and the bulk of them came from Southern and
Easfern Enrone They hr0npht with them a