GALLIA ROMANA

Database of texts and images
Of Gallo-Roman antiquities (15th-17th centuries)

Notice

Ville Vienne (Isère, 38)
Subject(s) Pyramid
 
Author(s) Du Rivail, Aymar
  Jurisconsult and historian from the Dauphiné province (c. 1490-c. 1560)
Resource type Manuscript
Date 1535
Inscription
References Du Rivail 6014, I, ff. 6-6v°= Terrebasse 1844, p. 10
Bibliography

DLF XVIe siècle, p. 446 ; Terrebasse 1844 ; Macé 1852 ; Pelletier 1974, pp. 6-15 ; Pelletier 1982, pp. 221-222 ; Lemerle 2003, pp. 10-14 ; Lemerle 2005, pp. 58, 96
Remarks

The quadrifrons (square-sided) arch which constituted the base of the obelisk stood on the spina of the circus
Transcription 

« Et dum in Hispaniam ulteriorem Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus pergeret, apud Viennam Allobrogum pyramidem miro opere construxit […] ; et quia aliarum instar in loco superiori illa pyramis est acuta, eam [6v°] Acum Viennenses appellant ; et est inter vineas extra urbem a meridie prope Rhodanum, aliquorumque opinione quatuor æneis leonibus sustinetur. »
= “And when later Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus continued on to Spain, he built at Vienne, capital of the Allobroges, a pyramid of admirable workmanship […] and, since the point of this pyramid appears to be very sharp, the Viennoise call in the 'Aiguille' (Needle). It is situated amidst the vineyards just south of the town, near the Rhone, and, according to some, it is supported by four bronze lions.”