) which flared upward and outward: at once adding to the
acoustic properties of the building and protecting the stage from rain.
Still farther to strengthen the acoustic effect, two curved
walls--lateral sounding-boards--projected from the rear of the stage and
partly embraced the space upon which the action of the play usually went
on.

I shall not enter into the vexed question of scenery. It is sufficient
to say that this permanent set, in regard to which there can be no
dispute--a palace, that also would serve as a temple--made an entirely
harmonious framework for most of the plays which were presented here.
Indeed, a more fitting or a more impressive setting could not have been
devised for the majority of the tragedies of that time: which were
filled with a solemn grandeur, and which had for their chief personages
priests or kings. Above all, the dignity of this magnificent permanent
scene was in keeping with the devotional solemnity of the early
theatre: when an inaugural sacrifice was celebrated upon an altar
standing in front of the stage, and when the play itself was in the
nature of a religious rite.

II

Certainly for two centuries, possibly for a longer period, the people of
Arausio maintained and enjoyed their theatre. The beautiful little city
of which it was a part was altogether charming: abounding in comforts
and luxuries and rich in works of art. From the hill-top where now
stands the statue of the Virgin was to be seen in those days a miniature
Rome. Directly at the base of the hill was the theatre, and beyond it
were the circus and the baths; to the left, the Coliseum; to the right,
the Field of Mars; in front--just within the enclosing ramparts, serving
as the chief entrance to the town--the noble triumphal arch that remains
almost perfect even until this present day. Only the theatre and the
arch are left now; but the vanished elegance of it all is testified to
by the fragments of carved walls and of mosaic pavements which still
continue to be unearthed from time to time. Surrounding that opulent
little city were farms and vineyards and olive-orchards--a gentle
wilderness interset with garden-hidden villas whereto the citizens
retired to take their ease; and more widely about it was the broad Rhone
Valley, then as now a rich store-house of corn and wine and oil.

No wonder that the lean barbarians of the North came down in hungry
hordes and seized upon that fatness as Roman strength decayed; a