Aventicum

The city was probably created ex nihilo in the early 1st century AD, as the capital of the recently conquered territory of the Helvetii, across the road that connected Italy to Britain, built under Claudius.

Under the rule of Emperor Vespasian, who grew up there, Aventicum was raised to the status of a colonia in 72 AD, whereupon it entered its golden age.

The town wall was 5.6 km (3.5 mi) long but was impracticable for defensive purposes and was doubtless intended as a display of the status of the city.

Shortly after the Council of Macon, in 585, Marius moved the seat from Aventicum, due to the rapid decline of the city, to Lausanne.

[1] In the largest site, the piles extend over an area of 460 square metres (5,000 sq ft) thus forming a large station or village.

In 58 BC, the nobleman Orgetorix instigated a new Helvetian migration, in which the entire tribe was to leave their territory (which is now described as corresponding more or less to the Swiss plateau) and establish supremacy over all of Gaul.

Following their surrender, the Helvetii became foederati,[3] an allied civitas required to provide soldiers, but not granted Roman citizenship.

Sometime between 50 and 45 BC, the Romans founded Colonia Iulia Equestris at the site of the Helvetian settlement Noviodunum (modern Nyon).

This colony was most likely established as a means for controlling one of the two important military access routes between the Helvetian territory and the rest of Gaul, blocking passage through the Rhône valley and the Sundgau.

During that time there was a small settlement built, in the north east corner of modern Avenches, in the Roman square style.

[4] Aventicum would have grown in 16-17 AD as the Roman legion camp Vindonissa was built (today in Windisch, Aargau).

During the reign of Claudius (41–54 AD), a trade route was completed spanning from Italy to the recently conquered province of Britannia over the Gotthard Pass.

Tacitus, writing about 69 AD, speaks of the Helvetians as originally a Gallic people, renowned for their valour and exploits in war, and he designates Aventicum Caput gentis,[5] or capital of Helvetia.

It acquired this title most probably on account of its comparatively advanced state of civilization and its conspicuous position on the main route between Italy and Germany.

Aventicum and Nyon (Colonia Equestris) located on the shores of Lake Geneva were the starting points for all mile-stones in Helvetia.

Like the other Gallic tribes, the Helvetii were organised as a civitas and enjoyed a certain inner autonomy, including the defence of certain strongholds by their own troops.

Aulus Caecina Alienus, a former supporter of Galba who was now at the head of a Vitellian invasion of Italy, launched a massive punitive campaign, crushing the Helvetii at Mount Vocetius, killing and enslaving thousands.

His father, Titus Flavius Sabinus, was a banker on a small scale in Aventicum, where Vespasian lived for some time.

[7] The Alemanni sacked the city in the 280s, and neither Aventicum nor its hinterland recovered from both the impact of the attack and the subsequent changes of the Roman frontier which no longer granted security to the area.

[10] Aventicum was a well-known location in the Grand Tour and J. M. W. Turner made a drawing of Avenches: the Roman Column,'Le Cicognier' in 1802, which shows the old town behind.

[11] Archaeology benefited curiously from the First and Second World Wars when foreigners interned in Switzerland, and local unemployed, were engaged to excavate the main buildings of the Roman city and to renovate and open to the public the theatre, "Cigognier" and the gates and one tower of the wall.

With the advent of the national highway scheme in the late 1960s a programme of rescue archaeology was set up under the association Pro Aventico under the remarkably capable direction of Professor Hans Bogli, after whom the Roman museum has since been named.

[8] Further and extensive work over the succeeding decades opened up much of the insulae – the rectangular street system of the focus of the Roman town.

The more recent work also uncovered a remarkable palace building, much of the centre of the Roman town, and outside the walls a canal and roadway leading from the nearby lake, doubtless assisting in the transport of stone from the Jura by lake and canal, and cemeteries and aqueducts outside the line of the Roman walls.

Pro Aventico is also responsible for the constant round of restoration of the buildings opened up in the early part of the 20th century, including sections of the wall and the original Roman tower-raised and protected through its use as a mediaeval watch tower, and the northern gate.

[14] The theatre was used for comedies and tragedies, but there is also a "cult niche" at the foot of the audience's section with the stage forming an altar.

Supporting this theory, a gold bust of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius was found hidden in drains on the site of the temple.

[15] The temple was started in 98 AD, the first year of the reign of Emperor Trajan, according to dendrochronological analysis of the numerous oak posts that support the walls.

Trajan had served with the Roman army along the Rhine, and after his ascension to the throne may have had the temple built to represent his power over the northern reaches of the Empire.

The temple worships Mercury as the god of travellers and trade and being located on the main street through the city would have been visited by both.