Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/173

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VAISON MONUMENT.
149

If any other evidence was needed to prove that the ancient people of Gaul shod their horses, beyond that furnished by the discovery of these articles in situations, and accompanied by relics, which cannot leave a doubt as to the fact, it would be supplied in a most conclusive and satisfactory manner by the monument which has been, it may be said, re-discovered in the public museum of Avignon, by that most indefatigable and typical archæologist, Mr C. Roach Smith. This most interesting piece of sculpture was found at Vaison, in the department of Vaucluse, on the Ouvèse, a tributary of the Rhone; a place retaining almost unchanged the ancient name, Vasio, and described by Pomponius Mela and Ptolemy as one of the wealthiest cities of Gallia Narbonensis. It was the capital of the Vocontii, and the vast quantities of antiquities which have at times been recovered from the ancient site, covering, as it did, a large extent of ground, bears witness to its opulence in ancient times. 'All we know of this monument is the meagre assertion that it was found at Vaison. The structure, to which the portions about to be described originally belonged, appears to have been of large dimensions, erected probably upon a quadrilateral basement. The summit is wanting, and two of the sides; but the two which remain are in fine preservation, and covered with sculptures in a good style of art. The inscription is lost, so that we have no clue whatever to the name or history of the persons to whom such a costly memorial was erected, except so far as the two principal subjects, in the central compartments, may be accepted as referring to the public offices he held, the usual object of such representations. One of those subjects is a travelling scene