A Tour Through Old ProvenceForrest, A. S. (Archibald Stevenson)
History
A Tour Through Old Provence
Forrest, A. S. (Archibald Stevenson)
Provence (France) -- Description and travel
extent and elegance show how important and wealthy the colony had
become. Stone terraces, courts, and promenades, ornamented with urns and
statues, are now built upon the site, and the water of the spring is
allowed to overflow into the apartments and chambers of the ancient
Baths. The gardens are very beautiful, the brilliant white of the stone
balustrade, terraces, and steps, contrasting with and adding to the
beauty of the thickly wooded hill that rises at the back. After the
gardens at Arles, and even Avignon, this garden of the Fountain seems
fresh and joyous; there is an air of perpetual youth about it which the
genii of the spring seem unwilling to abandon.
The statues that adorned the place in the Roman days have vanished;
here, as elsewhere, the collector and vandal have had their way with the
smaller objects of art, but the place is not dead nor deserted.
Succeeding ages so felt the beauty of the spot that they have adorned it
with the best works they could produce.
The habit the ancients had of throwing small coins into these waters to
propitiate the gods and goddesses to whom the spot was sacred, accounts
for the almost inexhaustible supply of coins that have been and still
are discovered in the “Spring.” Thousands of these have found their way
into museums and private collections, and amongst them the curious “pied
du sanglier,” a coin which has puzzled many numismatists.
The coin, or medal, has one of its edges extended or drawn out into a
shape resembling the leg of a boar. The obverse of these coins has the
heads of Augustus and Agrippa embossed upon it, with the letters IMP ...
P.P ... DIVIF ..., and on the reverse is a crocodile chained to a
palm-tree, with the letters COL. to the left and NEM. to the right,
separated by the palm-tree. It is thought that the boar’s leg and foot
on these coins, or medals, may be some special compliment to the Gauls,
to whom the boar was sacred. The inscription on the coin is common
enough, and the heads of Augustus and Agrippa are of course meant for
the heads of Octavius Augustus, the grand-nephew of Julius Cæsar,
Emperor in 27 B.C., and Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, the great general who
was the life-long friend and son-in-law of Augustus.
[Illustration: The Pied de Sanglier]
He was a great benefactor to Nîmes, and built the gigantic Pont du Gard
which brought the water into the town, the spring of Nemausus being too
sacred to use for drinking and domestic purposes. It is in compliment to
Agrippa that the crocodile tied to the palm-tree is stamped on the
reverse of these coins, symbolic of the subjugation of the Egyptian
power when Antony was defeated at Actium. This device of the palm-tree
and crocodile has been adopted as the arms of the town. Agrippa was a
warrior and organiser of the first order, and the honours that his
friend the Emperor showered upon him were no more than he deserved, for
Rome owes to him its Pantheon, and Nîmes its Pont du Gard.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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