Porta Nigra.
Trèves was frequently the residence of the Roman Emperors, and its inhabitants had all the privileges of Roman citizenship. In the last half of the third century Galienus held his court here; and here Maximian was attacked by the Franks, whom he defeated. Here Constantine the Great, when celebrating a victory that he had gained over the Franks, caused two of the captive princes to be thrown to wild beasts in the arena. They met their death with smiles, and shortly after the whole of the German nation rose to avenge them. Constantine disguised himself, and entering the hostile camp, gave the enemy false information, which led to their total defeat, A.D. 310. The simple-minded Germans were no match for the Romans in fraud; they deemed any ambuscade, or advantage taken against an enemy, dishonourable, and we even find them sending messages to their opponents of the day and hour upon which they intended to attack them.
The cruelty of throwing captives to wild beasts, however, we find surpassed by a German named Magnentius, who, having become a Roman soldier, set himself up for Emperor in opposition to Constantius. This Magnentius, on the eve of the great battle of Marsa, sacrificed a maiden, and mixing her blood with wine, gave his army to drink, and invoked his gods, pouring a libation of this fiendish drink in their honour. He was totally defeated, and killed himself.
The Western Empire of the Romans fell, and Germans walked the streets of Rome, supplanting with their fresh vigour the worn-out strength of that wonderful empire, on the ruins of which their leaders planted their feet, which at first slipped and stumbled, but eventually found a firm basis, on which was erected what we call Modern History.
Many legends are given us by the German poets connected with Trèves; the following are the most remarkable:—
LEGEND OF THE GREAT CANAL FROM TRÈVES TO COLOGNE.
For more than a hundred years the people of Cologne had been endeavouring to raise a Cathedral that should eclipse all others. The master-builder was busy making measurements for the arch of the great door, when one of his apprentices jeeringly said the building would never be finished, but ever remain in fragments. Thereupon the master waxed wroth and dismissed the apprentice, who departed, saying: “Woe to thee, O my master! never shall thy work be finished; sooner shall I complete a canal from here to Trier, than shalt thou place a tower upon thy cathedral.”
Years passed on, and the Cathedral was rapidly approaching to completion, when the master saw a huge worm creep from the ground. This was the fiend, by whose assistance the apprentice had made a canal from Trèves to Cologne: the apprentice appeared to the astonished master and said, “Lo, my canal is complete, while thy church is yet a fragment!” and water flowed from the canal, on which a duck came swimming from Trèves.
The water rose and encompassed the master, who thus perished, and his cathedral is still unfinished; but the wicked apprentice fared still worse, for the great worm strangled him, and he is doomed evermore to haunt the cathedral, measuring the uncompleted works.