‘For four centuries,’ he writes, ‘the world was ransacked “to make a Roman holiday.” Whole populations taken prisoner were butchered for the delectation of society. Whole nations were ground down with taxes to provide extravagantly gorgeous details for the spectacle. Whole tracts of country were laid waste to supply the animals that furnished jaded epicures with novel forms of death or fiercer appetite for carnage. Unequal combats were not enough. Defenceless families were cast to the lions to be publicly devoured on the excuse of having professed a religion that was considered politically dangerous. ‘It is difficult to believe all this even among the sinister shadows of the Coliseum. At Arles it seems impossible. Yet the fashions of Rome were the fashions of the provinces--the difference was in quantities alone; and there was not a fragment of that huge building where the public circulated which was not given up to the gratification of their passions--sometimes the vilest.’ The beauty of the women of Arles astonishes the stranger even when he is prepared by the statement of the fact in all guide-books. The classic features of their Greek ancestry are constantly reproduced to-day, although in the men the intermingling of Roman, Saracen, and Frank has destroyed all resemblance to the Hellenic type. In a book of this character one is compelled to summarize where expansion is so inviting, and the reader is advised to study Mr. Cook’s two volumes entitled ‘Old Provence’ if he wishes to know more of the story of the region which teems with evidence of the Roman occupation. The historic monuments of Arles are therefore briefly tabulated below: 1. The Roman Amphitheatre, begun, it is said, about 46 B.C., and capable of holding an audience of about 30,000. 2. The Greek Theatre, of which two beautiful columns of the proscenium, the bases of two others, and the semicircular tiers of seats, remain. It was built before the Christian era, and prior to the Roman occupation of the city. The lovely Venus of Arles, now in the Louvre at Paris, was dug up among the ruins of this theatre. 3. The Remains of the Roman Forum, commenced by Constantine II., embedded in the walls of an hotel in the Place du Forum. [Illustration: THE GREEK THEATRE AT ARLES. The two pillars formed part of the proscenium, and in the Middle Ages were used as a gibbet.] 4. The Roman Tower of La Trouille (near the Musée Réattu--a small picture-gallery) is all that remains of the magnificent palace built by the Emperor Constantine between 306 and 330 A.D. 5. The Archæological Museum in the Church of St. Anne contains a magnificent Roman collection, including carved sarcophagi, altars, statues, and inscriptions.