III.
HELVETIA UNDER THE ROMANS.
SILVER COIN, VERCINGETORIX. (Dr. Imhoof, Winterthur.)
On the surrender of the noble Vercingetorix, a valiant knight, but no statesman—he delivered himself up to Cæsar, trusting in his generosity on the plea of former friendship, and died a prisoner of Rome—the war with Gaul was virtually at an end. The sporadic risings that followed lacked the spirit of union, and led to no results of any consequence. During the seven years of his governorship in Gaul (58-51 b.c.), Cæsar had completed the subjection of the entire country, with the exception of the province of Narbonensis, whose conquest was of more ancient date. He followed up his victories, and secured their results by organizing a line of secure defences on the northern boundary of Gaul, along the Rhine, creating thereby a new system of open defences—defences offensive, so to speak—which he sketched out with full details, and made Gaul herself a bulwark against the inroads of the aggressive Germans. To secure peace and voluntary submission, he also regulated the internal affairs of the new province, leaving her, however, most of her old national institutions, hoping by conciliatory measures to gradually bring her under Roman influences, and win her to side with Rome. But it was left to others to carry out his plans, the Emperor Augustus being the first to put them into practice; for civil war was again threatening Italy, and Cæsar returned home to carry on his great contest with Pompey for supremacy in the State.
Although Cæsar's plans were but a sketch they were faithfully carried out, and the Gallic conquest proved to be more, and aimed higher, than the mere subjection of the Celts. Cæsar was not only a great general, but also a far-seeing politician. He had clearly understood that the barbarian Germans might well prove more than a match for the Greek-Latin world if they came into close contact with it. His defeat of Ariovistus, who was on the point of forming a German kingdom in Gaul, and his wise measures of defence, kept the barbarian hordes at bay for centuries, and thus there was ample time given for the Greek-Latin culture to take root throughout the West. It happened consequently that when Rome could no longer offer any serious resistance, and the Germans poured into her lands, the people of the West were already Romanized, and those of Gaul, Britain, and Spain, became the medium of transmitting to the Germans the spirit of classicism, by which they would otherwise have hardly been affected; and those nations became the connecting link between the classical age and the German era which absorbed its high-wrought culture. If Alexander may be said to have spread Hellenism over the East; Cæsar may be taken to have done as much, and indeed vastly more for the West, for it is owing to him, though we can scarcely realize the fact in our day, that the German race is imbued with the spirit of classical antiquity.
The fall of Cæsar, and the state of anarchy that followed again, delayed the work of pacification, and Helvetia was left to take care of herself. But when Augustus was firmly seated on the imperial throne, he resumed the task which had been bequeathed to him. The organization of Gaul was chiefly his work, and it required an energetic yet moderate policy. The old Narbonensis district, which had long been moulded into a Roman province, was placed under senatorial control. New Gaul, or Gallia Comata (Gaule Chevelue), as the whole territory was called which Cæsar had conquered, was submitted to imperial authority, and treated more adequately in accordance with the ancient constitutions of the various tribes. To facilitate taxation and administration New Gaul was divided into three provinces, each ruled by a Roman governor. Of these three provinces, one was Belgica, extending from the Seine and the mouth of the Rhine to Lake Constance, thus including Helvetia proper. Belgica, on account of its size, was subdivided into three commands, in one of which, that of Upper Germany, Helvetia found itself placed. Thus we find Helvetia incorporated with Gaul.
The political capital of the Tres Galliæ, or Three Gauls, was Lugdunum (Lyons), owing to its central position, and it seems to have been a very important city. Here Drusus had raised an altar to his imperial father, Augustus, and the Genius of the City. Here met the representatives of the sixty-four Gallic states (including those of the Helvetians and the Rauraci) on the anniversary of the emperor. Here, too, was the seat of the Gallic Diet; and here, in the amphitheatre, took place rhetorical contests, the Celts holding eloquence in high honour.