If you happen to be Christian, that means that the stones on which we were standing were quarried and placed during the life of Jesus (often thought to have died in either 30 or 33 CE). The theatre was constructed between 10 and 25 CE. When we stepped into the bowl, with the theatre surrounding us, we felt something like awe. We climbed the stairs to enter from the middle ranks of the seating area. The Roman town center mostly exists as wall footings today. We didn’t opt for the special multimedia options. Tom and I were able to enter the theatre for twelve Euros apiece, including audio guides coded to English. I am glad that the modern city has not absorbed this area. The area west of the theatre on Rue Madeleine Roch has the remains of a temple porch and city center. We spent a few minutes just walking the bounds, emitting the occasional unabashed “Wow!” Our visit to the theatre of antiquity My brother Tom pauses for a selfie with the Roman Temple porch ruins. We turned south for a block to reach the hulking wall of the Théâtre antique d’Orange. If I could linger on Raimbaud II for just a moment, I would point out that his battles in 1099 CE are closer to the present (2021 CE) than to the time during which the theatre this post describes was built. I think Tom was a bit surprised to see that the Crusades had any impact on a small town in Southern France. The podium celebrated his taking part in the First Crusade victories at Antioch and Jerusalem in 1099 CE. We paused at a statue of Raimbaud II, the Count of Orange. Tom and I walked west from the small train station to the center of the modern town of Orange. The way the Romans wrote “1099” seems unnecessarily convoluted. Throughout our visit, I was reminded of my visit to Italica with Natasha. That’s why the town is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. One can find Roman amphitheatres all over Europe (even in Paris), but Orange is the only place I know where one can find a full-size theatre in this excellent condition. A memorial arch was erected at the northern extremity of the town. The town gained substantial infrastructure, with a forum accompanied by a ampitheatre in the side of Saint-Eutrope Hill and a temple complex. When the Romans occupied southern Gaul, Arausio was colonized in 35 BCE to house veterans of the second legion of Gaul. ![]() The Roman colony of Arausio, as reconstructed by J-C Golvin The disaster was named for a sacred spring called Arausio on Saint-Eutrope Hill. With the two Roman armies in conflict with each other, their forces were mauled, with just a few dozen survivors. ![]() After an initial conflict between the “barbarians” and the Roman vanguard eviscerated the Romans, each of the two Roman military leaders signaled the other to move his forces closer so that they couldn’t be individually defeated, and both refused. In 105 BCE, Rome raised an army of 120,000 and landed them in Southern Gaul to defeat these migrants, but the Senate made an important error in establishing two separate forces reporting to consul Mallius Maximus and to proconsul Servilius Caepio (one on each side of the Rhône River). The Roman Republic was irritated by the migrations of the Cimbrians and Teutons, who kept trying to take up residence in areas occupied by allies of Rome. The area first gained prominence from a clash in 105 BCE, part of the Cimbrian Wars. It might seem that a town of only 30,000 inhabitants is unlikely to have any depth to its history, but Orange has surprisingly long roots. Saint-Eutrope Hill, as seen from the Roman theatre below ![]() We purchased tickets through and were soon aboard a stopping train to the town of Orange, department of Vaucluse. Setting up our base at Avignon gave us great flexibility for long distances we could board the TGV at a station at the edge of the city, and for short distances we could hop a local train at the nearby Gare d’Avignon Centre. Visiting Southern France with my brother let us see some of the best-preserved structures from the early years of the Roman Empire.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |