GALLIA ROMANA

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

Notice

Ville Aix-les-Bains (Savoie, 73)
Subject(s) Arch of L. Pompeius Campanus
 
Author(s) Du Rivail, Aymar
  Jurisconsult and historian from the Dauphiné province (c. 1490-c. 1560)
Resource type Manuscript
Date Before 1535
Inscription
References Du Rivail 6014, I, ff. 29v°-30= Terrebasse 1844, p. 58
Bibliography

DLF XVIe siècle, p. 446; Terrebasse 1844; Macé 1852; Bonnard 1908, pp. 314-315; Gros 1996, p. 76; Rémy/Ballet/Ferber 1996, pp. 103-104; Lemerle 2005, p. 58
Remarks

The Arch of L. Pompeius Campanus was situated in front of the thermal baths. Modern archaeologists are apparently unaware of Rivail's important account of the antiquities of Aix (Rémy/Ballet/Ferber 1996)
Transcription 

“Prope id prætorium, adhuc est arcus triumphalis integer, in cujus fronte est inscriptio longa litteris romanis, quæ ob antiquitatem præter quædam verba legi non potest. Sub illa inscriptione trilineari sunt hæc verba grossioribus litteris :

POMPEIVS CAMPANVS,

per quæ constat Campanum fuisse illius arcus authorem et conditorem, ob aliquem victoriam forte apud Allobroges habitam. Frons hujusce arcus ad prætorii portam conversa est, et occasum respicit, et circa hunc arcum ætas recens ædificavit, ita quod in parte occultatur.”
= “Nearby this court of justice there is still today an intact triumphal arch, on the front of which there is a long inscription in Roman letters that, with the exception of a few words, the course of time has rendered illegible. Under this three line inscription are these words in larger letters:

POMPEIVS CAMPANVS

By which it is clear that Campanus erected this arch, perhaps following some victory over the Allobroges. The west side of this arch has been converted into the door of the court. In recent times, so much has been built around this arch, that it is largely hidden.”