THE PERMANENT CAMP—FOUNDATION OF A CITÉ.

Six years after the events just related, the siege of Alesia being terminated, CÆsar gave orders for the establishment of a permanent camp on the plateau of Avon—the site of the Gallic Oppidum.

As the plateau was near the road connecting ChÂlons-sur-SaÔne with Langres, CÆsar judged it desirable to have at this point, which was naturally favourable for defence, a safe retreat for a numerous body of troops, more especially as the road passed through somewhat disturbed countries. The camp was to be sufficient in case of need for two legions and some auxiliaries—about twenty thousand men. Now, as the site of the Oppidum was much more extensive than was needed for a force of that strength, it was determined that the camp should be placed on the southern part of the plateau, whose level was elevated some few feet above the northern point, and which was separated from this extremity by a wide ditch.

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Fig. 14.—The Roman Permanent Camp.

Fig. 14 gives a plan of the arrangement. A ditch thirty feet wide and seven feet deep divided the plateau obliquely from W.N.W. to E.S.E. At A was placed the PrÆtorian gate, and at B the PrÆtorium. At D was the Decuman gate. The two lateral gates, F, E, fronted east and west respectively. The sunken roadways of the Gauls had to be altered and made into metalled roads; they started right and left of the bridge, C, and followed the acclivities of the plateau, rising till they branched off at O into the road from ChÂlons to Langres. From these two lateral military roads there was an ascent to the gates E, D, F, the place d'armes, H, and the two side entrances of the small advanced camp, I, on the south point of the plateau. Thus the outer circuit could be traversed without difficulty.

The ramparts of the town occupying the southern declivities of the promontory were destroyed, and the inhabitants obliged to settle on the other side of the river, either to the south-east or to the south. The head of the bridge, C, was repaired.

The gates of the camp had good claviculÆ, each with two towers constructed of dry walling, earth, and timber work (Fig. 15).

At regular intervals along the vallum—which, except the front on the N.N.E., exactly followed the edge of the plateau—were erected towers, or rather watch-towers, of timber. In addition to the supply from the wells within the limits of the camp, the Romans collected the water of the springs on the northern plateau, by means of pipes made of trunks of trees bored lengthwise and joined end to end. This channel followed the roadway G, and conducted the water into six good cisterns, hollowed out in the rock and lined with cement. There was a cistern under the PrÆtorium, and two for each of the legions.

On the western side palisades connected the smaller camp with the ditch sunk near the angle of the PrÆtorium; while on the eastern side of the plateau its escarpment rendered this precaution unnecessary.

The engineer entrusted with the setting out had disposed the fosse in an oblique direction, as shown in Fig. 14, so as to present a larger front to assailants who, having taken the smaller camp, should present themselves on the place d'armes, H. The projecting angle was well defended by the PrÆtorium, and the obliquity of the vallum enabled the defenders making a sortie by the PrÆtorian gate, and by that marked F, to take the enemy almost in rear, and to drive them over the eastern declivity of the plateau.

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Fig. 15.

The rampart walk of the vallum was raised three feet above the level of the camp, and was furnished with a cresting of stakes with wattling to retain the earth on the parapet (see Fig. 15). The fosse was twelve feet wide and seven deep, and was continued all round the camp, even on the sides where the declivities were steep.

The NÉmÈde was demolished. The Druids had it re-erected on the plateau in front of the camp, to the south, at the entrance of the wood. The inhabitants of the Val d'Avon were enjoined, under penalty of seeing their town destroyed, to abstain from injuring these intrenchments while unoccupied; they were even charged to keep them in repair, and to supply provisions to the troops who should be quartered there to protect the country against the invasions of the barbarians; for as Gaul was then tranquilized internally, and brought under the Roman sway, there was nothing to fear, except the attacks of the Germans, who were continually threatening the north-eastern provinces.

The camp was in fact occupied several times by Roman troops, and new works were successively planned and executed there. The country was fertile, and the position excellent, viz., between the large towns ChÂlons-sur-SaÔne (Cabillonum), Langres (Andrematunnum), and Autun (Bibracte). The camp received the name of AboniÆ Castrum, the town being thenceforth called Abonia—a name which it retained until the fourth century.

It was from Abonia that Vindex set out with a party of troops, which he assembled in the plains of the SaÔne, to rouse Gaul in revolt against Nero, and to give the empire to Galba. After the death of the Gallic hero, Galba wished to testify his gratitude to the towns and countries that had declared in his favour: and Abonia then acquired the title and rights of civitas, and enjoyed a long peace.

From the reign of Titus onwards, the camp was no longer appropriated exclusively to the troops. At the time when the Oppidum had been converted into a permanent camp, the whole of the plateau, its slopes, and part of the ground situated to the north, had been considered as Ager Romanus. It was what we should now call "crown land,"—Ager Publicus. The inhabitants, therefore, could not possess or build upon this land, or, if permitted to occupy a part, it was as usufructuaries, not as freeholders.

This Roman law, which dated from the time of the Republic, and which at first affected all provincial soil, was never rigorously applied. Its enforcement would have been difficult, and the populations of the provinces, as well as those of Italy, solicited and easily obtained the jus Italicum, which consisted in the full possession of the soil, with liberty to use, to sell, and to transmit it by way of inheritance. When the imperial government was definitively established, the emperors favoured the development of the principle of private property; because the great landholders were then the only persons who could be considered as forming an aristocratic class, privileged, it is true, but, on the other hand, bearing the burden of special functions—such, for instance, as that of urban magistrature, then very onerous. It must be observed that the civic rights accorded by Rome extended not only to a town, but to the whole of the territory pertaining to it.

As the Vale of Abonia possessed the jus civitatis, and the site of the camp remained unoccupied, the inhabitants petitioned that ground so well adapted to habitations should be restored to civil uses. It was then determined by the Emperor Vespasian that the ager publicus of Abonia should be colonized. Colonization under the Roman empire meant the division solemnly made by the agrimensores, according to certain religious prescriptions, of a part of the ager publicus into shares.

These shares were unequal, and, although apportioned by lot among the colonists—that is to say, among the native inhabitants and the foreigners who presented themselves as applicants for their possession, it always happened—by what means we are unable to say—that the allotments fell according to the rank or fortune of the individual. The ancient Oppidum was therefore colonized.

The remains of its ramparts soon disappeared; the wide fosse, which separated the large camp from the smaller one, became a road terminating by sloping paths in the level of the plateau; a theatre rose on the eastern declivity; water was brought in abundance, by a fine aqueduct of masonry, to baths constructed at the southern point, and to all the new habitations which soon arose on every side, surrounded by gardens. A temple, dedicated to Augustus, was erected on the site of the ancient PrÆtorium, on the very spot where stood the shrine of former days, and a second sacred edifice dedicated, say some, to Hercules—which is doubtful—took the place of the ancient southern stronghold. A forum and a basilica occupied the middle of the plateau. The villÆ spread beyond the circumvallation, and extended over the two declivities, east and west.

The lower town continued to be occupied by the merchants, craftsmen, boatmen, and the poorer class; it extended along the two shores down the river. The bridge previously mentioned was rebuilt with stone, and a second bridge of timber was thrown across half a mile further up the stream, at the continuation of the sunken way by which the plateau was divided.