A SACRIFICIAL SCENE. 153 



fesses to some doubts as to its real character, however, 

 and says he would rather have seen it on the foot of a 

 horse/ 



It appears that this Vaison monument was found in the 

 sixteenth century, in building the Chateau de Marodi, and 

 was kept in that building as an ornament until recently. 

 French archieologists are of opinion, that it has been 

 sculptured towards the second century of our era, at the 

 time of the Roman decadence. 



The sacrificial scene (plate 3) on this grand memento 

 of Gallic history lends additional evidence as to its an- 

 tiquity. ' The chief personage is, I believe, one of the 

 inside passengers in the rheda, who, as Jlamen, or chief 

 sacerdotal magistrate of the province, or district, is jour- 

 neying to superintend some important religious ceremony. 

 The attendant carrying the securis is as significant of this 

 office as the eagle, vexillum, or other standard would 

 have been in denoting a military office ; while the whole 

 details of this second scene are so carefully rendered, as to 

 determine a connection between the two, allusive to one 

 of the chief offices which the deceased object of the 

 monument held. Provincial inscriptions prove that dis- 

 tinguished persons commonly held the highest sacer- 

 dotal offices in connection with the first civil appoint- 

 ments.' ^ 



Shortly after their conquest of Gaul, the Romans 

 appear to have commenced the suppression of Druidism, 

 and the priests shared the fate of the vanquished nation in 

 being doomed to slavery, or at best were permitted to 



' C. Rnach Smith. Op. cit. ^ Ibid. p. 22. 



