Arelate
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ARELA´TE (also Arelatum, Arelas, Ἀρελάται: Eth. Arelatensis: Aries), a city of the Provincia or Gallia Narbonensis, first mentioned by Caesar (B.C. 1.36, 2.5), who had some ships built there for the siege of Massilia. The place is situated on the left bank of the Rhone, where the river divides into two branches. It was connected by roads with Valentia (Valence), with Massilia (Marseille); with Forum Julii (Fréjus), with Barcino in Spain (Barcelona); and with other places. This city is supposed to be the place called Theline in the Ora Maritima (5.679) of Festus Avienus; and as Theline appears to be a significant Greek term (θηλή), D'Anville (Notice, &c., Arelate), and others found a confirmation of the name of Avienus in a stone discovered near: Arles, with the inscription Mammillaria: but the stone is a mile-stone, and the true reading on it is Massil. Milliar. I., that is, the first, milestone on the way from Arelate to Massilia; a signal instance of the blunders which may be made by trusting to careless copies of inscriptions, and to false etymologies (Walckenaer, Géog. des Gaules). Arelate was in the country of the Salyes, after whose conquest by the Romans (B.C. 123), we may suppose that the place fell under their dominion. It became a Roman colony, apparently in the time of Augustus, with the name of Sextani attached to it, in consequence of some soldiers of the sixth legion being settled there (Plin. Nat. 3.4); and this name is confirmed by an inscription. Another inscription gives it also the cognomen Julia. In Strabo's time (p. 181) it was the centre of considerable trade, and Mela (2.5) mentions Arelate as one of the chief cities of Gallia Narbonensis. The place was improved by Constantine, and a new town was built, probably by him, opposite to the old one, on the other side of the stream; and from this circumstance Arelate was afterwards called Constantina, as it is said. Ausonius (Urb. Nobil. viii.) accordingly calls Arelate duplex, and speaks of the bridge of boats on the river. The new city of Constantine was on the site of the present suburb of Trinquetaille, in the island of La Camargue, which is formed by the bifurcation of the Rhone at Aries. Arelate was the residence of the praefect of Gallia in the time of Honorius; and there was a mint in the city.
The Roman remains of Arles are very numerous. An obelisk of Egyptian granite was found buried with earth some centuries ago, and it was set up in 1675 in one of the squares. It seems that the obelisk had remained on the spot where it was originally landed, and had never been erected by the Romans. The amphitheatre of Aries is not so perfect as that of Nemausus (Nimes), but the dimensions are much larger. It is estimated that it was capable of containing at least 20,000 persons. The larger diameter of the amphitheatre is 466 feet. A part of the old cemetery, Campus Elysius, now Eliscamps, contains ancient tombs, both Pagan and Christian.
[G.L]Situated 90 km W of Marseille on a rocky spur overhanging ancient marshland. The first Phokaian settlement was destroyed by the Ligurians in 535 B.C. Revived in the 4th c. B.C., the settlement developed considerably after Marius had built the Fossae Marianae, the canals linking Arles with the Golfe de Fos (104 B.C.). In 49 B.C. the city provided Caesar with seagoing ships for the siege of Marseille, and in 46 the Colonia Julia Paterna Arelate Sexterum was founded opposite the Gallo-Greek city. An important seaport and naval shipyard grew up on the Via Aurelia. The city was developed under Augustus and Christianized under Constantine. The Council of 314 took place here. About A.D. 400 Arles became the residence of the Prefect of the Gauls, replacing Lyon, and ca. 480 the city was laid waste by the Visigoths.
The most important extant monuments date from the Augustan and Constantinian periods. From the first we have the earliest surrounding wall, with its decumanus gate of half-moon plan marking the beginning of the Aurelian Way to the E; to the SE is a well-preserved section ca. 200 m long. The rest of the wall must have formed four more sides, one of them running parallel to the Rhône. Two municipal arches, now gone but known from descriptions and drawings, marked the limits of the pomaerium to the NE and SW—the Arcus Admirabilis and the so-called Arch of Constantine, both dating from the late Republican era. At that time the city probably was slightly less than 20 ha in area. The modern streets reflect the grid pattern of the rectangular insulae, as well as the cardo and decumanus, at the crossing of which was the forum. Its site is marked by huge cryptoporticos, very well preserved, built below ground on three of its sides. The complex is U-shaped and opens to the E, 90 x 60 m. It was lit by vents, the outer ends of which terminated at the base of a podium built inside the U. Traces were found of the fourth side of the forum and some remains indicate a date from the Augustan period. The N gallery is lined with a row of stalls set up below the forum.
Outside the forum, to the W, are remains of a large paved courtyard bounded to the S by a wall that forms a huge exedra with a monumental gate cut in it. At either end are remains of colonnades leading N. These may indicate the peribolos of a temple of ca. the 2d c. A.D.
The theater (diam. 102 m) is ca. 300 m E of the forum and fits into the plan of the ancient city: its scaenae frons is aligned with a cardo. Although the theater is on the W slope of the city escarpment, every part of it is built; the cavea was supported by a continuous system of radiating arches, demonstrated by a modern restoration in situ. The outer walls are almost completely destroyed except at two points, one of which, known as Roland's Tower, shows three superimposed architectural orders framing the arcades. The scaenae frons is in ruins except for two columns which, with their architrave, remain in situ to the right of the site of the valvia regia. The complex of the postscaenium and the parascaenia could be restored, and the stone floor of the orchestra is well preserved. Three altars have been excavated and some statues, among them the famous Venus of Arles and a torso, with head, of a colossal statue of Augustus. The outer architectural decoration together with the continuing use of Doric elements suggest that the theater may have been begun under the second triumvirate, while the statue of Augustus suggests that it was completed during that emperor's reign.
The amphitheater is less than 100 m from the theater in an oblique SE-NW position relative to the grid of the insulae. The great axis of the ellipse is 136.2 m, the small axis 106.75, and the arena 69.10 by 39.65 m. The outer wall is well preserved up to the first-story entablature; the attic has gone. Two stories of 60 arcades with two superimposed architectural orders are still standing, among them four lower ones for entrance on the axes. The lower arcades open on to a wide gallery with a stone ceiling that serves as the floor of a second gallery one story above. Corridors and stairways lead to more galleries, then to more stairways, so as to serve the entire cavea. Many of the seats in the lower section are still preserved, as is the podium, originally covered with slabs of marble. Part of the wall surrounding the colony had to be pulled down to build the amphitheater. Its position in the city and certain details of its structure date it to the Flavian period.
The circus was outside the city along the Rhône, downstream and ca. 500 m from the surrounding wall (outside width 100 m; inner width 83.3 m; width of spina 6.00 m; total length probably 400 m). An obelisk found there is now in the Place de la République. Built in the 1st c. A.D., this circus was still in use in the 6th and 7th c.
Remains of minor monuments were noted in the 17th and 18th c. E of the theater, at the city's highest point. There were probably two temples here, one of them consecrated to the Good Goddess. There were doubtless other sanctuaries, large or small, for indigenous cults and for those from the Orient and Rome, first pagan, then Christian.
In the Constantine period the N gallery of the crytoporticos was duplicated by an arcaded gallery that curved back E and W to encircle a second courtyard, or another forum. This new gallery and that of the cryptoporticos were interrupted along the axis by the foundations of a monument with a vestibule of four columns, two of which are still standing in the modern Place du Forum. The frieze and architrave had an inscription in bronze letters alluding to Constantine II (A.D. 337-340). Farther N are the remains of a monument (94 x 47 m) that terminates, quite near the Rhône in a huge, well-preserved, vaulted apse. These are the remains of baths with several heated rooms; but modern building makes it impossible to tell whether there were porticos surrounding a vast courtyard, or a basilica. The use of brick, more systematic than in the arcaded gallery, suggests that the complex dates from the beginning of the 4th c. A.D.
The city received its water from two aqueducts that came from the Alpilles and met at Barbegal, where remains of a flour mill can still be seen.
Opposite Arles, on the right bank of the Rhône, was a sizable settlement now known as Faubourg de Trinquetaille. It was approached by a pontoon bridge; the remains of one of the first stone arches are still to be seen on the left bank. This suburb included a seaport and docks; farther off were houses of ship fitters, merchants, and landowners, and, farther still, farms and villas. The remains of a cella can be seen 1 km from the river bank. The area of this second Arles is still to be determined.
Since the left-bank city was partly surrounded by marshlands, the necropoleis could not be extended along the roads, but spread out parallel to the SE and S surrounding walls. The largest one, to the SE, famous in legend in the Middle Ages and known since then as Les Aliscamps, contained several layers of tombs. Stone and marble sarcophagi have been found there, also funerary monuments, stelae, cippi, and mausoleums.
There is a museum rich in Roman antiquities and a museum of Christian art containing a number of marble sarcophagi.
BIBLIOGRAPHYJ. Formigé, “Remarques sur les théâtres romains,” Mémoires présentés par divers savants à l'Académie (1914) I; id., “L'Amphithéâtre d'Arles,” RA (1964: 2) 25-41, 113-63I; (1965:1) 1-46I; L. A. Constans, Arles antique (1921) I; F. Benoit, Forma orbis romani: Bouches du Rhône (1936); id., “Sarcophages paléochrétiens d'Arles et de Marseille,” Gallia 5 (1954) Suppl.; Grenier, Manuel II:1, 289-95; II:2, 493-510; III:1, 158-71; III:2, 613-39; IV:1, 75-88I; A. Boethius & J. Ward-Perkins, Etruscan and Roman Architecture (1970) see index for Arles; M. Euzennat, “Le monument à rotonde de la nécropole du cirque à Arles,” CRAI (1972); R. Amy, “Les cryptoportiques d'Arles,” Actes du colloque de Rome (1973) I.
R. AMY