The town of Autun, whose name is derived from the Roman "Augustodunum", was founded by the Emperor Augustus as a new capital built along Roman lines for the Aedui. From the outset Autun had the distinction of being a walled town. Some 6 km in length, the walls constitute the best preserved Augustan enclosure in France. The town still possesses two monumental gates from this period: the partially rebuilt Porte Saint-André in the east, and the Porte d’Arroux with its elegant pilasters in the north. Mystery is attached to the nearby Temple of Janus for it is not known to whom this natively inspired building is dedicated. But there is nothing mysterious about the Roman Theatre, two-thirds of which survive today. The theatre, the largest in the whole of the western part of the Roman Empire, has taken on a new lease of life in the last ten years. On certain evenings each summer, thousands of people are drawn to its rows of seats and mossy arches to witness the town’s ancient history re-enacted in an epic pageant entitled "Augustodunum". A bygone age springs gloriously to life with such spectacles as chariot races and the military manoeuvres of Roman legionaries, not to mention the incantations of the druids and the bottles of scent belonging to patricians’ wives. Many vestiges of daily life in Augustodunum may be admired at the Rolin Museum (Musée Rolin) in the upper town. Treasures unearthed in the course of excavation work are constantly being added to the Museum’s collection. Another masterpiece is the Cathedral of Saint-Lazare, built after 1120 in order to accommodate the pilgrims flocking to the supposed tomb of St Lazarus, brother of Mary of Bethany, and containing some of the finest examples of Romanesque sculpture to be found in Burgundy. The pillars of the nave are decorated by a profusion of capitals, for the most part figurative. Twenty of these capitals were replaced by copies during restoration work in the 19C. The originals are now on display in the chapter room at a convenient height for all to see. The Flight into Egypt, The Dream of the Magi and The Adoration of the Magi, more human than naive, are perhaps the most compelling creations of the man signing himself Gislebertus (itself a most unusual occurrence in the Middle Ages) and whose masterpiece is The Last Judgement depicted on the tympanum of the central doorway., more human than naive, are perhaps the most compelling creations of the man signing himself Gislebertus (itself a most unusual occurrence in the Middle Ages) and whose masterpiece is The Last Judgement depicted on the tympanum of the central doorway. Some of the cathedral’s finest and most important sculptures are nowadays to be found in the neighbouring Rolin Museum. These include another creation by Gislebertus, The Temptation of Eve. This arrestingly sensual work, the first female nude of European mediaeval sculpture, comes from the now demolished north door of the cathedral where the Original Sin is depicted . Autun was also the native town of Nicolas Rolin, Chancellor of Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy, and founder of the Hôtel-Dieu in Beaune. The museum which bears his name is housed in the Chancellor’s former town house. We are indebted to the patronage of his son, Cardinal Jean Rolin, for the museum’s large collection of 15C sculptures and other works of quality, and also for the redecoration of the Romanesque cathedral in the Flamboyant style.