University of Virginia Library

“The line of confusion and the stones of emptiness” are indeed stretched over the once splendid city of Aventicum. Occasional remains of the exterior wall, the broken shell of the ancient Amphitheatre, and one isolated turret, are all that now remain, but the relics which at various times have been discovered—urns, vases, cornices of columns, altars, inscriptions, baths, ruined aqueducts, bas-reliefs, statues, and tesselated pavements,—all attest its ancient magnificence. The foundation of the City is hid in the night of Time: from the researches of Mons. Wild, Librarian of Berne, it would seem to have been founded 589 years before Christ. It was in the zenith of its splendour during the reign of Vespasian, from 469 to 477. Flavius Sabinus, the father of that prince, came to reside here, bringing with him the riches which he had amassed in Asia. It is probable that the early years of Vespasian were also passed in Aventicum. Tacitus calls it the Capital of Helvetia, and an inscription is yet to be seen in the church of the modern Avenches, which makes mention of it in these terms: Colonnia pia, Flavia constans emerita Aventicum Helvetiorum. It was dismantled by the Alemanni, and Ammianus Marcellinus writes, at the end of the fourth Century—“In the neighbourhood of the Penninian mountain lies Aventicum, now deserted, but whose splendid remains point out its former flourishing state. The circumference of its walls is still to be seen, a solitary pillar stands in the midst of a meadow, like that of the superb temple of Juno at Samos: grass grows in the Amphitheatre, and the plough strikes on statues, altars, tombs, mighty walls, and other traces of ancient opulence.”

Attila overthrew it to its foundation during the following century. Matthisson, who visited it a few years since, observes that the city occupied a large square, the great extent of which is accurately defined by the town-wall, distinguishable in many places. In summer, particularly, if the weather be dry, the streets are still discernible in many places, by the long streaks running in parallel lines, and at right angles, where the grass is scattered very thinly, on account of the little depth of earth over the pavement.

The pathetic Inscription to the memory of Julia Alpinula, was discovered at Aventicum two centuries ago. Gruter, in his valuable “Inscriptiones Antiq. totius orbis Romani,” has preserved a fac-simile of the tablet and inscription. The latter differs slightly from the one quoted by Lord Byron: it runs thus— AVENTICI.JVLIA. ALPINVLA. HIC. JACBO. INFELICIS. PATRIS. INFELIX. PROLES. DEÆ AVENT. SACERD.EXORARE. PATRIS. NECEM. NON. POTVI. MALE. MORI. IN. FATIS. ILLI. ERAT.VIXI. ANNOS. XXIII.

The column spoken of by Ammianus Marcellinus is yet standing. It is of the Corinthian order, 37 feet high, and is seen on the left in a garden very nigh the city on the side of Morat. The fragment of an inscription was found near it in 1536, bearing the name of Vespasian, whence it is probable that the column formed part of a portico erected in honour of that prince. The inhabitants gave it the name of The Storks, from the bird's having been long accustomed to build her nest there. This accidental circumstance gives a hallowed association to that lonely relique, and affords to the moral fancy a beautiful and significant emblem. The Stork sitting upon that solitary Pillar! It is as if the spirit of Julia yet haunted the ruin, that she might still speak to the human heart from forth the shadows of deserted empire— of piety and filial love, as of an indestructible principle, outbraving the eloquent epitaphs of man, and surviving the wreck of his most splendid monuments.