The more I saw and heard in this
town, the more I found was to be seen. The remains of the Roman theatre
here would of itself be a sufficient proof that it was a town of great
riches and importance. Among the refuse of this building they found
several large vases of baked earth, which were open on one side, and
which were fixed properly near the seats of the audience to receive and
convey the sounds of the instruments and voices of the actors distinctly
throughout the theatre, which had forty-eight arches, eleven behind the
scenes of ten feet wide, three grand arches of fourteen feet wide, and
thirty-one of twelve feet; the diameter was thirty-one canes, and the
circumference seventy-nine; and from the infinite number of beautiful
pieces of sculpture, frizes, architraves, pillars of granite, &c. which
have been dug up, it is very evident that this theatre was a most
magnificent building, and perhaps would have stood firm to this day, had
not a Bishop of _Arles_, from a principle of more piety than wisdom,
stript it of the finest ornaments and marble pillars, to adorn the
churches.
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