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 (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 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 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 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 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.)