The disorder which carried off so many last winter at Lyons, was called the Gripe.  In a large hotel only one person escaped it, an English Lady.  They called it the Gripe, from the fast hold it took of the person it seized; nor did it let them go till April.

On my way here, I found it sometimes extremely hot; it is now the first of May, and I am shaking by the side of a good fire, and have had one constantly every day for this fortnight.

LETTER XLIII.

LYONS.

The Lyonoise think their town was particularly honoured by the Taurobolium; but it was a common practice to offer that sacrifice not only for the Emperor’s health, but for the preservation of a city.  There are two of these altars in the town of Letoure; one consecrated for the preservation of the Emperor Gordian, on which is the following inscription: 

PRO SALVTE IMP.  ANTONINI GORDIANO PII FEL. 
AVG.  TOTIVSQVE DOMVS DIVINAE PROQVE STATV CIVIT. 
LACTOR TOROPOLIVM FECIT ORDO LACTOR D.N.  GORDIANO
II ET POMPLIANO COS VI ID DEC CVRANTIS M
EROTIO ET FESTO CANINIS SACERD.

And in a little village near Marseilles, called Pennes, there is a stone, on which is engraven,

MATRI DEVM MAGNAE IDEAE

And on another, in the same town,

MATRI DEVM TAVROPOLIVM.

I must not omit to give you a copy of a singular inscription on the tomb of a mint-master which was found in Lyons, and is preserved entire: 

NOBILIS TIB.  CAESARIUS AVG.  SER AEQ.  MONET HIC
AD QVI LOCIT JVLIA ADEPTA CONJUNX ET
PERPETUA FILIA D.S.D.

The most ancient money which has been found in and about this city, is the little coin of Mark Antony; on one side of which is represented the Triumvirate; on the other, a Lion, with the word Lugudani under it; on each side of the Lion are the letters A and XL.  The antiquarians here think those letters marked the value of the piece, and that it was about forty sous; but is it not more probable, that this was only the mint-master’s touch?

Nothing can be a stronger proof of the importance of this city in the time of the Romans, than the immense expence they were at in erecting such a number of grand aquaeducts, one of which was eighteen leagues in length; many parts of them are still visible; and it appears that they spent for the reparation of them at one time, near one thousand talents; and here it was that the four grand Roman highways divided; one of which went directly to the sea, and another to the Pyrenees.