NIMES (Nemausus). Situated at no great distance from Arles, and at the base of the hills which bound the plain of the Rhone, Nimes formed the capital of the Volces Arecomiques (or inhabitants of the flat country). In B.C. 121 it submitted voluntarily to Rome, and a few years B.C. Augustus planted a colony there. Being enriched with baths, &c., by Agrippa, Nimes soon became an important town surrounded with walls and towers, and provided with all the usual public buildings. It had reached the height of prosperity when it was ravaged by the Vandals in 407. In 472 it fell under the power of the Visigoths, who established themselves in the town, and made the amphitheatre their fortress. After suffering the usual course of sieges and destruction by the Saracens and Franks, Nimes early declared itself a Republic. In 1185 it came under the suzerainty of the Count of Toulouse, in which condition it continued to flourish till it finally passed to France under Louis VIII., along with the other domains of the Count of Toulouse after the Albigensian wars. [Illustration: FIG. 20. AMPHITHEATRE, NIMES.] Although Nimes was a comparatively obscure town in the days of the Empire, the remains of its Roman monuments are the finest in Southern Gaul. The Amphitheatre (Fig. 19) is not quite so large as that at Arles, nor is the interior (Fig. 20) so well preserved, but the exterior is more complete. It measures 437 feet by 332 feet, with thirty-two rows of seats which contained about 20,000 spectators. The amphitheatre is now well seen, owing to the removal of the paltry buildings which had invaded it both within and without. Like all such Roman works it is constructed with the most massive materials, built without cement, and all bound together with solid stone lintels and arches. Fig. 21, a view in the corridor on the first floor, gives some idea of the colossal strength of the masonry. But these great stone lintels, massive as they are, indicate a vicious form of construction, many of them being cracked and shattered by the weight of the arches resting upon them. The exterior is of the usual design of such edifices having two arcades superimposed one on the other, with upright pilasters, or engaged columns, between the arcades supporting horizontal entablatures. Each arcade has sixty arches. The pilasters of the ground tier are square, and have no base, while the engaged columns of the upper tier are round and of the Doric order; above the latter is the attic, partly demolished, but still containing 120 bold consoles with holes to receive the masts which supported the velarium or awning.