_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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: 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.