The Amphitheatre of _Arles_ was of an oval form, composed of three stages; each stage containing sixty arches; the whole was built of hewn stone of an immense size, without mortar, and of a prodigious thickness: the circumference above, exclusive of the projection of the architecture, was 194 toises three feet, the frontispiece 17 toises high and the area 71 toises long and 52 wide; the walls were 17 toises thick, which were pierced round and round with a gallery, for a convenience of passing in and out of the seats, which would conveniently contain 30,000 men, allowing each person three feet in depth and two in width; and yet, there remain at this day only a few arches quite complete from top to bottom, which are of themselves a noble monument. Indeed one would be inclined to think that it never had been compleated, did we not know that the Romans left nothing unfinished of that kind; and read, that the Emperor _Gallus_ gave some superb spectacles in the Amphiteatre of _Arles_, and that the same amusements were continued by following Emperors. Nothing can be a stronger proof than these ruins, of the certain destruction and corruption of all earthly things; for one would think that the small parts which now remain of this once mighty building would, endure as long as the earth itself; but what is very singular is, that this very Amphitheatre was built upon the ruins of a more mighty building, and perhaps one of a more substantial structure. _Tempus edax rerum, tuque invidiosa vetustas omnia destruis_. In the street called _St. Claude_, stood a triumphal arch which was called _L'Arche admirable_; it is therefore natural to conclude, that the town contained many others of less beauty. There are also within the walls large remains of the palace of _Constantine_. A beautiful antique statue of _Venus_ was found here also, about an hundred and twenty years ago.--That a _veritable_ fine woman should set all the beaux and _connoisseurs_ of a whole town in a flame, I do not much wonder; but you will be surprized when I tell you that this cold trunk of marble, (for the arms were never found) put the whole town of _Arles_ together by the ears; one _Sçavant_ said it was the goddess _Diana_, and wrote a book to prove it; another insisted upon it, that it was the true image of _Venus_; then starts up an Ecclesiastic, who _you know has nothing to do with women_, and he pronounced in dogmatical terms, it was neither one nor the other; at length the wiser magistrates of the town agreed to send it as a present to their august monarch Lewis the XIVth; and if you have a mind to see an inanimate woman who has made such a noise in the world, you will find her at _Versailles_, without any other notice taken of her or the quarrels about her, than the following words written (I think) upon her pedestal, _La Venus d'Arles_. This ended the dispute, as I must my letter. LETTER XXXVI.