Glanum (St.Rémy-de-Provence)

Glanum: Roman village in southern France, modern St.Rémy-de-Provence.

Glanum was a Roman town in southern Gaul, in the country of the Salluvii, situated along the Via Domitia, which connected Italy and Hispania. It boasted of an old sanctuary dedicated to a god named Glan and the Matres, and benefited from Roman rule since the second century BCE, when the town became a real city and one of the most important centers of Roman culture west of the Alps. The town flourished in the first two centuries CE, but as destroyed by Franks in 270 and never resettled.

Today, the town boasts two monuments that are together called "Les antiques": the southern gate of Glanum and a tower-shaped mausoleum, which is one of the best-preserved monuments from the ancient world. A satellite photo of the area can be found here.

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Gate

Glanum's southern gate, which looks a bit like a triumphal arch and must have been one before it was incorporated in the town walls, glorifies Rome and shows the deplorable fate of those who resist its armies. The monument was erected between 10 and 25 CE. The flowers on the arch may indicate the abundance brought to Gaul by the Romans.

One of the most striking scenes on the arch of Glanum is a native woman who laments her fate together with a chained man. They are carried away to the triumph of an unknown Roman general. Notice, on the photo to the left, how the artist has indicated that this couple is forcibly separated.

Mausoleum

The mausoleum, 18 meters high, can be found at the beginning of the road to Arles and Nîmes, and is dated to 30 to 20 BCE. The dedicatee was a warrior in the armies of Julius Caesar and/or the emperor Augustus, who awarded him with the Roman citizenship. The inscription says that the tomb was erected by Sextus, Lucius and Marcus Julius, the sons of Gaius, and dedicated to their father and grandfather; hence its alternative name, Cenotaph of the Julii. The fourfold arch reminds of a triumphal arch, a fitting symbol for a warrior.

The top of the monument reminds one of a round temple or tholos. There may have been statues of the deceased and his father as heroes. No urn was ever found inside the monument, so perhaps it was placed in this temple - if the monument was not dedicated to someone who was missing in action.

At the bottom are historical and mythical reliefs, showing scenes from ancient legends. The deceased warrior and his family are compared to the heroes of the old legends. The photo to the left is the northern relief, which shows an unidentified cavalry fight.

The eastern relief (second photo) is inspired by common representations of the war between the Greeks and the Amazons, but in fact shows the dedicatee's most famous war deed. In the center, he takes the spoils from an enemy, who may have died in single combat. To the left, his family receives the news.

The southern relief (third photo) shows the legend of the Calydonian hunt, conducted by Meleager. The two horsemen are Castor and Pollux; several people are wounded.

The western relief (right-hand photo) shows a battle scene from the Trojan War: the struggle over the possession of the corpse of Patroclus.