legions, the last of all the Ligurian tribes; and contested it with a resolute pertinacity, which cost their invaders dear. Entrenched in their mountain strongholds, they set at defiance the superior advantages of the disciplined and civilized Roman legions; and were only at last overcome by stratagem. They were of the same stock as the Taurini, Graioceli, Centrones, Caturiges, and the other Highland Ligurian tribes, who probably withdrew entirely to the mountain ranges of the Cottian, Graian, and Pennine Alps, when driven back by the invading Etruscans; as the ancient Celtic Cymri did in Britain, under similar circumstances. According to the local antiquaries of Aosta, the Salassi advanced from Gaul, across the Alps, under the leadership of Cordelius-a descendant of no less a person than Saturn himself, and moreover one of the Generals of Hercules-who appropriated the then uninhabited valley, and founded a city, on the site of the present Aosta, which he named Cordele. This event is modestly fixed at 406 years before the Roman era, and 1159 before Christ. We may, however, safely admit the authenticity of the name, and leave the Valdotians the belief in its antiquity. As to the relations of the Salassi with the neighbouring tribes, we have seen, on the authority of Polybius, that they joined not only with the Ligurian tribes, the Taurini, Libui, and others, but also with the Gallo-Celtic Boii and Insubres, against the Romans, in the great Gallic war, B.C. 226; when, as Gallenga observes, the number of combatants on both sides exceeded that of the very largest hosts brought into the field, in later times, by Napoleon himself. They were not however conquered, but only driven back, and the Salassi retired on their own strongholds. At the commencement of the second Punic war, B.C. 218, they do not seem to have been unfavourable to the intentions of their allies, the Boii and *Dion., Hist. Rom., liv. 53. G Insubres, in sending the deputation over to Hannibal. The Carthaginian army, in fact, does not appear to have met with any opposition from the Salassi, nor is any mention. made of Cordele, from which we may conclude they merely marched through it, as a friendly country, down to their first halt in the plains, at the mouth of the Val d'Aosta. The Salassi pursued an entirely different policy from that of their mountain neighbours; who had been compelled into an understanding with the Romans, which eventually resulted, after various struggles, in the submission of twelve of their tribes, who became allies of Rome, with Cottius, their former king, at their head, as Prefect; and by whom the triumphal arch was erected to Augustus at Susa. The Salassi were of a different mettle, for Livy tells us that Appius Claudius only partially subdued them, with the loss of 10,000 troops. Strabo moreover says, that, "whether at war or at peace with the Romans, they still maintained their power; inflicting loss on them whenever they passed through their territory. They compelled Decimus Brutus, on his flight with his troops from Modena, to pay a denarius or six sesterces a head as indemnity; and when Messala wintered in the neighbourhood, he had to purchase from them the wood for fuel, and the elm spear-shafts for their exercises. They also sometimes carried off the treasures of Cæsar's army, and under the pretence of assisting his movements, by repairing the roads and erecting bridges, they laid wait for his troops on the tops of precipitous places. At last Cæsar conquered them, and sold the whole of them as slaves at Eporedia (Ivrea); which had been built as a Roman colony, and for a protection against the Salassi, although it was of little avail against the native tribes, until their race was blotted out. 36,000 of them were thus sold by Terentius Varro, including 8000 men-at-arms. Augustus sent 3000 Roman soldiery, and founded a city on + Strabo, Geog., lib. iv. Livy, Epitome, liii. the site where Varro had encamped, after which the whole district was tranquillized, and the highest mountain passes secured." By this unscrupulous and wholesale deportation of the inhabitants, all possibility of future contests was put an end to, and a large number of them were incorporated into the Roman legions. Not long after the erection of this arch, which was about the 724th year of Rome, or B.C. 29, Augustus himself visited this noble valley, which now afforded him such facilities for the transport of troops across the Alps, in his Gallic expeditions; and attracted by its richness, the mines of gold, silver, copper, and iron, and the admirable site of the old city of Cordele, he determined to build upon its ruins a Roman fortified station of the first class, to accommodate the three legions he had sent there. He laid the foundation himself, B.C. 20, and gave it the name of Augusta, as he had that of Augusta Taurinorum to the restored city of the Taurini, distinguishing it with the additional title of Prætoria, as he honoured it with the residence of a Prætor, or military governor. The form of the city was an oblong square, enclosed by solid stone walls, and laid out with streets and gates, on the then received principles of Roman castrametation. On examining its measurements, they correspond very nearly with those of the "castra tertiata," or camp of three legions, as laid down by Hyginus,* who was camp surveyor in the time of Trajan. The dimensions he gives of such a camp are, 2400 Roman feet in length, by 1600 in breadth. The actual measurements of the walls of Aosta are 2424 by 1903 Roman feet, thus giving a somewhat greater breadth, but the general correspondence is near enough. General Roy gives, as the result of his investigations, the length 2232, and *Hygini Gromatici de Castrametatione. breadth 1620, where the relative proportions are nearer to those of Aosta, though the actual measurements differ. The system of castrametation, as described by Polybius, who makes it a perfect square, most certainly was not followed here, and the Romans seem greatly to have modified their plans of entrenchment, as in use previous to the Emperors. On looking at the annexed plan of modern Aosta, and comparing it with the outline of Hyginus's camp, a remarkable coincidence will be at once seen between the two, in the arrangement of the present streets, which are almost exactly those of Hyginus. The main street, from the Porte de la Savoie to the Porte de la Trinité, only varies from the line of the original Via Prætoria in the casual irregularity of the houses. The Place Charles Albert occupies the exact position of the "Groma," or surveying staff, placed at the intersection of the Via Prætoria and the Via Principalis; the line of which latter is exactly followed by the street between the Porte Pertuis and Porte du Collège. The Via Quintana is preserved in the Rues du Follier and Mal Conseil, where Calvin's cross stands; and what appeared to me clearly vestiges of the Via Sagularis, just behind the Prætorian and the Decuman gates, exist in the present Rue des Prisons, and Ruelle de Plouve, on either side of the former; and at the Decuman, or Porte de Savoie, in the Ruelle Malherbe, and the lane opposite, leading to the Tour du Lépreux. Whether the four lateral gates all existed originally, it is difficult to say without very attentive examination, as they have been much altered and built up to.* The Porte Pertuis, and Porte du Collège, however, undoubtedly correspond with the Porta Principalis dextra, and Porta Principalis sinistra. The Portes de Bramafam and Mal Conseil I believe also to have been the outlets of the Via Quintana, The Chevalier Promis, professor of architecture at Turin, whose reputation and knowledge of Roman remains well qualify him for the task, has, I understand, made long and patient researches into the antiquities of Aosta, and intends very shortly to make the results of them public. |