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 or trowsers. (plate 2). In a four-wheeled vehicle, drawn by two mules, are no less than four persons, exclusive of the driver. Two of these are seated, face to face, in the inside; and two, back to back, on the roof. The passengers upon the top of the vehicle are all provided with hoods which fall down upon the back; and the driver wears the Gaulish bracc The centre figure of the upper group is seated in what resembles, in some degree, the body of the common chariot, or biga, while the personage in the rear is seated upon what seems to be a chest, perhaps containing luggage. He carries what appears to be a securis, or long-handled axe, which is, unluckily, broken; but I think may be nevertheless recognized as an axe. The whole gives a striking and interesting picture of the equipment and arrangement of a travelling party in Gaul, not to be found, in all probability, elsewhere; and it may doubtless be depended upon as a very faithful representation. Mr Smith believes the carriage to be the rheda or petorritum, of which Cicero,' Ausonius, Isidore,3 Quintilian,* Juvenal, and Martial speak. He then adds: The custom of shoeing horses among the ancients has been much discussed pro and con. If it could remain an unsettled question after the repeated discovery of iron horseshoes themselves, among unquestionable Roman remains, the indications of the nails are so decidedly marked in the feet of the mules in the Vaison monument, as to leave no doubt that the artist intended to show that the mules were shod; and we may conclude that the shoeing of horses, as well as very many more inventions in the useful arts, Oratio pro Milone; Philippica Secunda; Attico Epist. EARLIEST PROOF OF SHOEING. 151 commonly supposed of comparatively modern origin, are really of a remote antiquity. Spurs and saddles are in this category of the former we can produce ancient examples; the latter are indicated in monuments."" This discovery by the talented English antiquarian (to whom I am indebted for the two illustrations of this relic) is a most important one for our subject, as it is the only monument of the Romano-Gallic period, and is indeed the first of any ancient sculpture, exhibiting horses. really shod. I use the term 'horses,' as it is evident Mr Smith has overlooked the specific differences between them and mules. The heads, ears, and general physiognomy are those of horses, and the tails, which in mules have but little more than a tuft of hair at the ends, are here truly equine. The limbs and feet are also widely different from those of the hybrid, which are light, the hoofs being particularly small in proportion to the size of the animal. Here we have the hoofs enormously large amounting almost to a deformity, and such as no mule ever could have. The horses, altogether, are extremely coarse lymphaticlooking animals-ungainly and clumsy to a marked degree. The hoofs undoubtedly exhibit traces of shoeing in this copy, which Mr Smith, who drew it, asserts is absolutely correct. It must be confessed that the number of nails on each side exceeds those in any of the specimens of shoes we have seen of that age: there are six on each side of the fore-foot, and five in the hind, making twelve and ten nails for each hoof. But the artist, in his anxiety to demonstrate that these heavy, unwieldy creatures were so completed in their equipment, has perhaps not scrupled Collectanea Antiqua, vol. vi. p. 18. |