erected public buildings of their own accord. The towns of the Valais,
Octodurum (Martigny), Sedunum (Sion), &c., had their own city
council and municipal officers, and received the Latin Right. In the
case of the Helvetians, those of the capital and those of the provinces
equally enjoyed that Right; whereas, with Augusta Rauracorum, the
case was different, only the colonists within the walled cities being
granted the like standing and liberties. On the whole it may be said
that, though Helvetia kept many of her own peculiarities, and some of
her ancient liberties, she submitted to Rome, and was greatly
influenced by the advanced civilization of the empire. The Helvetians,
indeed, underwent that change of speech and character, which split
them into two nations, French and Germans.
[Pg 36]
One of the chief factors contributing to the Roman colonization of
Helvetia was the military occupation of its northern frontier, though
this occupation weighed heavily on the country. The great object of
Rome was to keep back the Germans, who were for ever threatening
to break into the empire. Vindonissa was one of the military
headquarters, and its selection for the purpose was justified by its
excellent position, situated as it was on an elevated neck of land,
washed by three navigable rivers, the Aare, Reuss, and Limmat, and
at the junction of the two great roads connecting East and West
Helvetia with Italy. A capital system of roads, too, was planned all
over the country.
There would no doubt often be but little love lost between the
Helvetians and the soldiery in occupation. Tacitus ("Annals") tells of
one bloody episode. After the death of the madman hero, the twenty-
first legion, surnamed Rapax, or Rapacious, no doubt for good
reasons, was quartered at Vindonissa. Cæcina, a violent man,
lieutenant of Vitellius, then commander of the Rhine army, marched
into Helvetia to proclaim Vitellius emperor. But the Helvetians
supported his opponent Galba, not knowing that he had just been
murdered, and fell upon the messengers of Cæcina, and put them in
prison, after first seizing their letters. The lieutenant enraged at this
affront laid waste the neighbouring Aquæ (Baden near Zurich), a
flourishing watering-place much frequented for its amusements,
Tacitus tells us. Calling in the Rhætian cohorts, he drove them to the
Bœtzberg, and cut them down by thousands in the woods and
fastnesses of
[Pg 37]
Mount Jura; then, ravaging the country as he went, Cæcina marched
on to Aventicum, which at once surrendered. Alpinus, a notable
leader, was put to death, and the rest were left to the clemency of
Vitellius. However, the Roman soldiery demanded the destruction of
the nation, but Claudius Cossus, a Helvetian of great eloquence,
moving them to tears by his touching words, they changed their
minds, and begged that the Helvetians might be set at liberty.
However this military occupation was, after sixty years of duration,
drawing to a close. Under Domitian and Trajan all the land between
Strasburg and Augsburg, as far as the Main, was conquered and
annexed to the Roman Empire. An artificial rampart was formed
across country from the mouth of the Main to Regensburg on the
Danube, and the military cordon was removed from the Swiss frontier
to the new boundary line. Helvetia, now no longer the rendezvous of
the Roman legionaries, quietly settled into a Roman province, where
the language, customs, art, and learning of Rome were soon to be
adopted.
If the military stations were starting-points of the new culture, it was
the more peaceful immigrants who introduced agriculture, commerce,
and wealth, or, at any rate, caused it to make progress. Gradually the
Helvetians amalgamated with the Romans, adopting even their
religion. Horticulture and vine-culture were introduced. A Roman
farmer grew vines on a patch of ground near Cully, on Lake Geneva,
and on an inscribed stone (dug up at St. Prex) begs Bacchus
[Pg 38]
( Liber Pater Cocliensis) to bless the vintage. He little anticipated that
his plantation would be the ancestor, as it were, of the famous La
Côte, now so highly valued.
Wherever the art-loving Roman fixed his abode he built his house,
with the wonderful Roman masonry, and furnished it with all the
luxury and art his refined taste suggested. Thus the country gradually
assumed a Roman aspect. Many towns and vici, or village
settlements, sprang up or increased in importance under Roman
influence—Zurich, Aquæ (Baden near Zurich), Kloten, Vindonissa,
and others.[10] Yet the eastern portion of the country could not compete in the matter of fine buildings with the western cantons.
Indeed, in the eastern districts the Helvetian influence was never
predominated over by the Latin influence, and the Helvetians clung to
their native speech despite the Latin tongue being the official
language.
But it was the mild and sunny west which most attracted the
foreigner, as it still does. Wealthy Romans settled in great numbers
between Mount Jura and the Pennine ranges. Every nook and corner
of the Canton Vaud bears even down to our days the stamp of
Roman civilization. The shores and sunny slopes of Geneva lake
were strewn with villas, and the woody strip of land between
Villeneuve and Lausanne and Geneva was almost as much in
request for country seats by the great amongst the Romans as that
delightful stretch of coast on the Bay of
[Pg 39]
Naples, from Posilippo to Pozzuoli and Baiæ, where Cicero and
Virgil, and many Romans of lesser mark, had their villegiatures.
But the most remarkable place, whether for art, learning, or opulence,
was Aventicum, the Helvetian capital. Of this town some mention has
been made above, and, did space permit, a full description might well
be given of this truly magnificent and truly Roman city. Its theatre,
academy, senate-house, courts, palaces, baths, triumphal arches,
and private buildings were wonderful. Am. Marcellinus, the Roman
writer, who saw Aventicum shortly after its partial destruction by the
Alamanni, greatly admired its palace's and temples, even in their
semi-ruinous condition. The city next in beauty and size was Augusta
Rauracorum (Basel Augst), where the ruins of a vast amphitheatre
still command our wondering admiration.
But this period of grandeur was followed by the gradual downfall of
the empire, which was already rotten at the core. The degenerate
Romans of the later times were unable to stand against the attacks of
the more vigorous Germans. The story is too long to tell in detail, but
a few points may be briefly noted. In 264 a.d. the Alamanni swept
through the country on their way to Gaul, levelling Augusta
Rauracorum with the ground, and considerably injuring Aventicum. At
the end of the third century the Romans relinquished their rampart
between the Rhine and the Danube, and fell back upon the old
military frontier of the first century. Helvetia thus underwent a second
military occupation. Yet the prestige of Rome
[Pg 40]
was gone. In 305 a.d. the Alamanni again overran Helvetia, and
completed the ruin of Aventicum. Weaker and weaker grew the
Roman power, and when the Goths pressed into Italy the imperial
troops were entirely withdrawn from Helvetia. As for the Helvetians
themselves, they were quite unable to offer any resistance, and when
the Alamanni once more burst into the land (406 a.d.), they were able
to secure entire possession of the eastern portions. The Burgundians,
another German tribe, followed suit, and in 443 a.d. fixed themselves
in West Helvetia. The inaccessible fastnesses of Graubünden alone
remained untouched by the tide of German invasion, which effected
such changes in the neighbouring districts.
At this period of worldly grandeur and internal decay, occurs another
historical event of the greatest importance, the rise of Christianity,
containing the vital elements necessary for bringing about the
spiritual regeneration of the world. The social and political
decomposition throughout the empire, the cruel tyranny of the
sovereigns, the decrepitude of the state and its institutions, the
growing indifference to the national religion, which showed itself in
the facile adoption of, or rather adaptation to, the Eastern forms of
worship—the adoption of the deities Isis and Mithra, for example—all
these and many other things unnecessary to mention, were
unmistakable signs that Roman rule was drawing to its close, and
they also prepared the way for the reception of the new doctrine. The
belief in one God of mercy and love; of one Saviour, the Redeemer of
the world; of a
[Pg 41]
future life,—were startling but good tidings to the poor and
oppressed, and made their influence felt also on the rich and
cultivated, who saw in Christianity a tolerance, benevolence, human
love, loftiness of principle and moral perfection which had not been
attained by the creeds of antiquity. The passionate ardour and force
of conviction amongst the Christians was such that they faced
suffering and death rather than abjure their tenets or desist from
preaching them to others.
The accounts of the introduction of Christianity into Switzerland are
mostly legendary, yet it is generally believed that it was not the work
of special missionaries. It is more likely that the new faith came to the
land as part and parcel of the Roman culture. Indeed this is now the
opinion most generally received. The military operations of the empire
required continual changes of locality on the part of the troops; thus
we find Egyptian, Numidian, and Spanish soldiers quartered on the
Rhine and the Danube, and such as they would most probably be the
first to bring in the new faith.
At first the Roman authorities looked upon Christians as state rebels,
and fierce persecutions followed. The oldest Christian legend of this
country tells of such a conflict between the state officials and the
Christians, and no doubt contains some admixture of truth, as many
of these stories do. A legion levied at Thebes in Egypt—hence called
the Thebaïde—was sent to Cologne to take the place of troops
required to quell a rising in Britain. Coming to the Valais, they were
required by the Emperor Maximian to sacrifice to
[Pg 42]
the heathen gods (a.d. 280-300), but being mostly Christians they
refused, and were massacred with their chief, Mauritius. Some,
however, escaped for the time, but were called upon to receive the
martyr's crown later on, and in other places. Two such, Ursus and
Victor, came to Soleure with sixty-six companions, and were put to
death by order of Hirtæus, the Roman governor. Two others, Felix
and his sister Regula, reached Zurich, where their successful
conversions irritated Decius, who put them to the rack, and then
beheaded them. Yet, wonderful to tell, the legend goes on, they
seized their heads that had fallen, and, walking with them to the top
of a hill close by, buried themselves, bodies and heads too. This
wonderful feat was an exact counterpart of that reported to have been
performed also by Ursus and Victor at Soleure. Felix and Regula
became the patron saints of Zurich, and play a conspicuous part in its
local history. Tradition says that Charlemagne himself in later days
erected a minster on their burial spot. Thus, as ever, the blood of
martyrs became the seed of the Church.
GOLD COIN OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY (ST. FELIX, ST. REGULA-
SANCTUS CAROLUS). (By Dr. Imhoof, Winterthur.)
The Roman towns Geneva, St Maurice, Augusta Rauracorum,
Aventicum, Vindonissa, and Curia had
[Pg 43]
been episcopal sees since the third century, though some of these
sees were in process of time removed to other places. Thus,
Augusta, Vindonissa, and St. Maurice were removed to Basel,
Constance, and Sion respectively.
FOOTNOTES:
We know little of them, most likely they were but vici (village settlements).
Aquæ alone we know from Tacitus was a city-like watering-place; Kloten
had handsome villas, but what it was we do not know.
[Pg 44]
IV.
THE ANCESTORS OF THE SWISS NATION.
THE ALAMANNI; BURGUNDIANS; FRANKS;
MEROVINGIANS.
The fifth century was remarkable for what may be called the
dislocation of the peoples of Europe—the migrations of the Germans
into the Roman Empire, and, mightiest movement of all, the irruption
of the Huns under their terrible king Attila, the "Scourge of God." The
mere sight of the hideous Asiatics filled men with horror. Never afoot,
but ever on their ill-shaped but rapid steeds, to whose backs they
seemed as if they were glued, and on which they lived well-nigh day
and night, it seemed as if man and horse had grown into one being.
Their large heads ill-matched their meagre bodies; their tawny faces
with deep-set eyes and high, protruding cheek-bones made them
resemble rough-cut figures in stone rather than human beings. The
Goths regarded them as the offspring of spirits of the desert and of
witches. These masses of Asiatic barbarism, which had burst
[Pg 45]
into Europe, stayed for awhile in Hungary, but soon rolled towards the
West, dislodging all the peoples with whom they came in contact.
Marching to the Rhine, they drove the Burgundians from their
settlements in the district of Worms, a land so rich in song and saga,
and entered Gaul to found a new kingdom. But the doom of the Huns
was at hand, for Aëtius the Roman general, and the last defender of
the empire, defeated them, a.d. 451, in a truly gigantic battle on the
Catalaunian Plain, in the Champagne country. The slaughter was so
terrible that the saying went abroad that the river ran high with the
blood of 300,000 men.
But it was clear that the tottering empire could not defend itself
against a whole world in commotion. The time had come when Rome
was to leave the stage of history. The great German nation was
forming. It would be tedious and profitless to mention all the German
tribes beyond the Rhine and Danube, a well-nigh endless list of
names, impossible to remember. Besides, the petty tribes and clans
gradually formed alliances with each other for greater security, and,
dropping their ancient names, took collective ones more familiar to
our ears—Saxons, Franks, Thuringi, Burgundians, Alamanni, and
Bavarians.
Of these the Alamanni and the Burgundians are those from whom the
Swiss are descended, and thus Switzerland, like England, has to look
back to Germany as its ancestral home. The tall, fair-haired, true-
hearted Alamanni for whom Caracalla had such an admiration that to
be like them he wore a red wig,
[Pg 46]
are said to have been descendants of the Semnones, who had
migrated from Lusatia on the Spree (in Silesia) to the Main. The
name Alamanni is generally held by the learned to be derived from
alah, a temple-grove, and implies a combination of various tribes,
"the people of the Divine grove." The Suevi, of whom the Semnones
were the most conspicuous tribe, had a sacred grove in the district of
the Spree, where they met for worship. In the fifth century we find the
Alamanni occupying the district from the Main to the Black Forest,
East Helvetia, and Alsatia as far as the Vosges.
When this formidable horde took possession of Eastern Helvetia they
found but little trouble from the Celto-Roman population, who, thinned
by previous invasions, and unaccustomed to fighting, could offer no
serious resistance, and sank into slaves and servants. The towns
were laid in ruins, the country ravaged, and all culture trodden under
foot. It seemed as if "the hand on the dial of history had been put
back by centuries,"[11] and civilization had once more to begin her work. They outnumbered the natives, and were not absorbed by
them, but on the contrary on the half-decayed stock of the Roman
province the Alamanni were grafted as a true German people,
retaining their old language, institutions, and mode of living.
The Alamanni did not at once develop into a civilized and cultivated
people, but retained their fondness for war and hunting, and other
characteristics of their ancient life. Their grand and majestic
[Pg 47]
woods had stamped themselves on the intrepid, dauntless spirits,
whose deep subjectiveness and truthful natures contrasts strongly
with the polished artfulness of the Romans. For the mighty aspects of
nature—forest, mountain, sea—play their part in moulding the
character of a nation. And their impenetrable woods had influenced
the destinies of the Germans in the early periods of their history—had
saved them from the Roman yoke, the labyrinths of swamp and river,
defying even the forces of the well-nigh all-powerful empire. Then,
too, when hard fighting was afoot, and men had burnt their
homesteads before the advance of the foe, the vast forest formed a
safe retreat for women and children. The original house, by the way,
was a mere wooden tent on four posts, and could be carried off on
carts that fitted underneath. The next stage was a hut in the style of
the Swiss mountain-shed, but it was still movable—was, in fact, a
chattel the more to be taken along on their wanderings.[12]
Their mode of settling in their new country was curious enough,
though the early settlement of England was very similar in character.
Disliking walled towns of the Roman fashion, the Germans felt their
freedom of movement impeded and their minds oppressed by living
within the prison-like fortifications of strong cities. But loving seclusion
and independence, nevertheless, they built extensive farmsteads,
where each man was his own master. To the homestead were added
fields, meadows, and an extensive farmyard; the whole hedged about
so as
[Pg 48]
to keep the owner aloof from his neighbours. Each farmer pitched his
tent wherever "spring or mead, or sylvan wood tempted him," reports
Tacitus. This liking for seclusion on the part of the Germans is well
shown in the case of Zurich, for at one time the canton had three
thousand farm homesteads, as against a hundred hamlets and twelve
villages.
The mode of partitioning the land shows democratic features. It was
divided amongst the community according to the size of families and
herds of cattle, but one large plot was left for the common use. The
large Allmend, or common, supplied wood for the community, and
there, too, might feed every man's flocks and herds. The nobleman
as such had no domains specially set apart for him, his position and
privileges were honorary. He might be chosen as a high officer of a
district, or even a duke, or leader of the army, in time of war. Payment
for such services was unknown. Money was scarce, and indeed its
use was mainly taught them by the Romans. Not only did flocks and
herds form their chief wealth, but were the standard of value, each
article being estimated as worth so much in cattle.
Society was from the very first sharply and clearly divided into two
great classes—the landowners and the bondsmen—the "free and the
unfree." The former class was again split into "lesser men," "middle men," and "first men," or Athelinge (Adelige), these last named being
of noble blood, and owners of most land and the greatest number of
slaves and cattle. The "unfree" were either Hœrige that belonged to the estate they tilled, and might be sold
[Pg 49]
with it, or slaves who could call nothing their own, for whatever they
saved fell to their lord at their death, if he so willed. A shire or large
district was subdivided into hundreds. The whole of the free men met
on some hallowed spot, under some sacred tree, with their priests
and leaders. Here, besides performing religious exercises, they
discussed war and peace, dispensed justice, chose their officers of
state, and their leader if war was imminent. War and jurisdiction were
the whole, or well-nigh the whole, of public life at that early stage. The
popular assemblies, done away with by the feudal system, revived
later on in the form of the famous "Landsgemeinde" of the forest
district, which are still in use in some of the cantons. Blood money, or
wergild, was exacted from wrong-doers as in Saxon times in England.
The tariff drawn up for bodily injuries reveals the mercenary and
brawling temper of a semi-civilized people.
At the time they settled in Switzerland the Alamanni were heathens,
and worshipped nature-deities—in groves, near springs, or
mountains—the names of some of which we still trace in the names
of the days of the week. Their religion, which was that common to all
Germany, reveals the German mind—full of reverie, deep
thoughtfulness, and wild romantic fancy that leads to a tragical issue.
Like most heathen people the Alamanni clothed their gods in their
own flesh and blood. Woden and his attendant deities, shield-
maidens—Freyr and Freya, the king and queen of the elves—dwarfs,
giants, spirits—all these are well known to us, and are indeed the
charm
[Pg 50]
of the fairy tales of our youth. The bright spirits, the Asen, war against
the spirit of darkness, the giants, and lose ground, for they have
broken the treaties made with them. The Asen are the benevolent
powers of nature, spring sunshine, and fertilizing rain, and live in
bright palaces,