GALLIA ROMANA

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

Ville	Nîmes (Gard, 30)
Subject(s)	Late Roman city walls

Author(s)	Zinzerling, Just
	Dutch scholar (1590-1618)
Resource type	Printed book
Date	1616
Inscription
References	Zinzerling 1616, p. 214
Bibliography	Bernard 1859, pp. 1-14 ; Fiches/Veyrac 1996, pp. 353-354 ; Lemerle 2005, pp. 84-88 ; Lemerle 2013-2
Remarks	These fragments of frieze decorated with eagles observed in the area east of the amphitheatre, on the site occupied by the ancient tribunal and, later, by the prison and the court of justice, were part of the late Roman or early medieval ramparts, which were probably built to reinforce the fortress provided by the amphitheatre. Poldo d’Albenas had already observed fragments of this kind in private homes. Zinzerling stayed in France from 1612 to 1616

Transcription « In vestibulo ædium quarundam privatarum aliquot aquilæ saxis insculptæ visuntur in pariete, capitibus truncatæ. [170] Gotthi ita mutilasse creduntur, in Romanorum odium, & significationem imperii nunc divulsi, nec sub vno imperante constituti. » = “In the fore-courts of some of the private houses, one finds on the walls, sculpted in stone, image of eagles which have been beheaded. This mutilation is believed to have been the work of the Goths, out of hate for the Romans and to express the division of the Empire and their refusal to bow to a single leader.”