fesses to some doubts as to its real character, however, and says he would rather have seen it on the foot of a horse.[1]
It appears that this Vaison monument was found in the sixteenth century, in building the Château de Marodi, and was kept in that building as an ornament until recently. French archaeologists are of opinion, that it has been sculptured towards the second century of our era, at the time of the Roman decadence.
The sacrificial scene (plate 3) on this grand memento of Gallic history lends additional evidence as to its antiquity. 'The chief personage is, I believe, one of the inside passengers in the rheda, who, as ƒlamen, or chief sacerdotal magistrate of the province, or district, is journeying to superintend some important religious ceremony. The attendant carrying the securis is as significant of this office as the eagle, vexillum, or other standard would have been in denoting a military office; while the whole details of this second scene are so carefully rendered, as to determine a connection between the two, allusive to one of the chief offices which the deceased object of the monument held. Provincial inscriptions prove that distinguished persons commonly held the highest sacerdotal offices in connection with the first civil appointments.'[2]
Shortly after their conquest of Gaul, the Romans appear to have commenced the suppression of Druidism, and the priests shared the fate of the vanquished nation in being doomed to slavery, or at best were permitted to
