ARMS. _ ' 



of the rinr there U a suburb railed Trinquetaille, which is connected 

 with the nxt of the town by bridge of boata. The area of the 

 city within the inclooure of the old ramparts is somewhat under 

 800 acre*. Aria cannot be said to be a well-built town ; it* streets 

 are neither straight, regular, nor wide ; they are payed with round 

 tones from the desert of Crau, but the wide quays along tli 

 are pared with flag*. There are only three squares, all of which are 

 mail The area inclosed by one of these, the Place-Royale, is used as 

 a market-place and sometimes as a bull-ring, for the inhabitants of Aries 

 are comewhat addicted to bull-baiting. Among the buildings that 

 urruund it are the town-hall and the museum, the cathedral church of 

 St-Trophime, and the former archiepiscopal palace ; and in the centre 

 of the area is an ancient obelisk. Bound the Place des Hommes are 

 the principal hotels and coffee-houses. 



The cathedral originally built in the 7th century, but considerably 

 altered and enlarged in the 13th and 15th centuries, has a spacious 

 interior, which is decorated with pictures. The most remarkable part 

 of this church is its curious projecting porch which is reached by a 

 flight of 10 steps, and profusely adorned with sculptures. The deeply 

 recessed door is flanked on each side by columns, some round and 

 others rectangular, forming niches, in which are statues of saints. The 

 door itself is divided into two parts by a column of blue granite 

 which supports the lintel, and has its base and capital adorned with 

 sculptured figures. The tympanum, friezes, ami other adjuncts of this 

 magnificent doorway represent the temptation of Kve, the birth of 

 Christ, the last judgment, and the punishment of the reprolute. 

 Near the cathedral to the rear of the former archiepiscopal residnn v 

 are the cloisters of St-Trophime, the north 'and oast sides of which 

 date from the llth century, the other two sides from the end of the 14th 

 century. The church of N6tre-Dame de la Major dates from the 6th 

 century and occupies the site of a temple of Cybele, the altar :' 

 which goddess was discovered near the principal doorway in 1758, 

 and is preserved in the museum. The finest modern building in 

 Aries is the town-hall, which was built after the designs of Mansard 

 in 1673 ; it is three stories high, and the facade in the Place-Royale 

 is of the Corinthian order. In this building are kept the archives of 

 the city, and the public library consisting of about 12,000 volumes. 

 The former church of Sainte-Anne is fitted up as a museum, in 

 which a considerable number of Roman antiquities found in the town 

 are collected together. 



The situation of Aries on the banks of the Rh6ne gives it con- 

 siderable advantages for trade. The river is navigable only for vessels 

 of less than 200 tons up to Aries. It is supposed that the river wan 

 deeper and the neighbourhood less marshy in ancient than in modern 

 times. There is a navigable canal, which runs through the marshy 

 district on the left bank of the eastern or main channel of the Rhone, 

 from Aries to the shore-lake of Berre, which opens into the Mediter- 

 ranean at I'ort-du-Bouc. The com, wine, fruit*, manna, cattle, soda, 

 salt, wool, and oil of the surrounding country find sale at Aries; 

 glass bottles, hats, soap, silk, tobacco, sausages, and brandy are 

 manufactured. Aries has some coasting trade : merchant steam- 

 boats ply regularly to Marseille, and passenger steamers up the 

 river to Avignon' and Lyon ; about 100 vessels, of from 30 to 180 

 tons, are constantly under weigh for Marseille or Toulouse, which 

 Utter city is reached by the Beaucaire Canal, the Canal-des-Ktangs, 

 and the Canal du-Midi. Aries has obtained increased facilities for 

 trade within a few years by the establishment of railroads which 

 connect it with Marseille, Avignon. Nisines, Alais, Moutpellier, 

 andCette. 



The isle of Camargue and the low grounds on the left of the Uh.'.n.- 



seasons, but 

 .je. The site 

 times spring 



water was conveyed to the town by an aqueduct from the hill ranges 

 to the eastward. On the road leading to Tarascon along the Rhone 

 there is a fine promenade formed by majestic elm-trees. Anothci 

 public walk called La-Lice skirts a branch of the Craponno Canal to 

 the south of the town, and consists of three shaded alleys formed by 

 rows of mulberry-trees. At a little distance from Aries the canal in 

 carried across a valley into the Crau district, which it serves to 

 fertilise, by an aqueduct above 2000 feet long. The remains of the 

 abbey of Mnnt-Majeur, situated on an isolated rock that rises above 

 the surrounding flat about two miles north of the city, are very 

 interesting. They date from the 10th century, and consist of largo 

 palatial constructions in the Italian style ; a pointed church, beneath 

 which is a vast crypt ; and cloisters all now crumbling to ruins. At 

 ** bsM of the rock on the eastern side is the curious church of 

 HainU-Oroix. dedicated in 1019, and consisting of four equal semi 

 circular apsides projecting from a central square tower. The rock 

 rU*lf U honeycombed with excavations which form tombs. 

 Aries occupies the site of the ancient Ardait, which is men- 



ARLF.S. 



no 



he 



, 



bv Julias Ce*ar ( Belt Civ/ L 36 j ii. 6), who 'built here twelve hhi 

 of war prarkms to the siege of MassUta. Arelate fell under t 

 Roman ^dominion about .o.1, when the Salves, in whose territory 

 it was situated, were conquered. It seems to hare become a Roman 

 colony abont the time of Augustus. Btrabo and Pomponius Mela 

 ^* on . * 1> ^ e *"** *""* "* prosperity. The city Buffered 

 from the Allsineimi during the decline of thV Roman empire, but in 



he early part of the 4th century it rose to distinction un.lrr 

 Constantino the Great, who gave it the name of Conntantina, which it 

 continued to bear in the time of Honoring, when it became the seat of 

 he praetorian prefect of Oallia. A new town was built by Constan- 

 ine, on the right bank of the river, the site of which is now occupied 

 >y the suburb of Trinquotaille. Aries was the residence of a k 

 he Visigoths, and of a prefect under Thcodoric king of the 

 Jstrogoths. Under the Merovingian kings, who became masters of 

 Aries after the Ostrogoths, tl .-lined. In the 12th century 



Aries jwsscd under the dominion of the emperors of Germany. In 

 A.D. 1131 the city adopted a republican form of government, presided 

 over by consuls, till VJ12, when a chief cntitliil Podestat was elected 

 iy the people, in imitation of the contemporaneous Italian republic*. 

 Under this constitution the city flourished greatly, bin hleuco 



was overthrown in 1251 by Charles of Anjou, who was recognised as 

 Lord of Aries, in feudal subjection to the emperor of Germany. 

 About a century afterwards the city, with its territory, came finally 

 under the kings of France. 



The antiquities of Aries are numerous : the most important are 

 the obelisk, the amphitheatre, the theatre, and tin- mctery, 



called Eliscamps from the ancient name Klysii Campi, ' 1 

 fields.' 



The obelisk stands in the middle of the Place-Royale. It is antique, 

 jut not Egyptian, as sometimes stated : it is a monolith of ifnmit 

 she quarriea of Esterel, near Frejus. It was discovered in 1889 



buried in the mud of the Rh6ne, but it was only in 1675 that it was 

 erected on a pedestal on its present site. It is 53 feet 4 inches high. 

 The top of the obelisk is crowned by a globe adorned with fleurs-de- 

 lis, and surmount*- 1 by a representation of the sun, the emblem of 

 \ 1 V. 'I'll.' obeUsk mull nv.-nt some restorations in 1829, when 

 four I.I-..TI/I- li iced at the angles of the pedestal. 



amphitheatre consults of a vast space inclosed by a continuous 

 oral building, two stories high, each of which is pierced by sixty 

 arches ; the lower story is supported on done pilasters, the upper on 

 C'.rinthmn '.Imiin . The length of the greater axis to tha outer edges 

 of the surrounding wall is 459 feet, that of the shorter axis is 338 

 feet; the rows of seats were 44 in number, and afforded room for 

 24,000 spectators. In the 8th century the amphitheatre was in 

 fortress, towers having been built over the four gates ; two of these 

 towers still remain. In later times the whole of the interior was 

 covered with a mam of hovels, which contained a population of about 

 2000 : all these have been recently cleared away. 



Of the Roman theatre which has been still more recently disinterred 

 there remain two isolated columns of breccia, (which formed part of 

 the soena) and the cavea (pit), still containing some of the seats. A 

 part of the exterior has long been known as the ' Tour Roland ; ' this 



