Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/300

HELVETir. mnd the Verbigenns. The critics are not quite agreed whether we should write Urbigenus or Veri)igenu8 in Caesar's text ; but there is the better MS. autho- rity for Verbigenus. (Schneid. ed. Caesar, Bell GaU.) Those who write Urbigenns have identified *' Urb " with the town of Or6e, on the river Orbe, SW. of YtfenhMj a place on the site of Urba. [Urba.] But an altar was found at Saloduruin (jSMothum)^ hj Schoepflin, with the inscription oenio vebbio.; and this discoverj is supposed to determine Solo- tkum to be in the pagus Verbigenus. The letters vs on this inscription are said to be joined t<^ether; but some authorities still saj that the true reading is VKBiOi The inscription, however, belongs to the 3rd century of our aera, and it is no authority for tho orthography of Caesar's time. Whether the name is Urbigenus or Verbigenus, we may assume that the insoription belongs to the place where it was found, and therefore we may conclude that Sa- lodumm was a town of the Veri)igenus pagus. We may also suppose that the pagus extended north- ward to the Khine ; and as far as Baden on the Limmalf a branch of the Aar^ if it be true that there is an inscription with the words Aquae Ver- bigenae ; for these Aquae are {urobably the same as the Aquae Helveticae, which are proved by inscrip- tions to be the baths of Badm on the Limmat, One of these Baden inscriptionsi in honour of M. Au- lelius, contains the words resp. aq. Boden is sup- posed to be the place which Tacitus {Eiit. L 58) alludes to without mentioning the name. An inscription has been found near Avenchet [Avkkticum], with the words oskio paql tioor. ; «Tid, so lar as this evidence goes, we must pkce the Tigurini south of the Verbigeni. Their Pays^ then, was bounded by the Jura on the west as far south MS Fort lEcltttey and on the south by the Bhone from Fort tEclu»t to the Lake, and then by the Lake. The northern boundary would be about the lake of MoraL We cannot determine the eastern boundary of the Tigurini. There is no authority for connecting the name of Zurich with the Ti- l^rinus pagus, for an inscription which has been ibund there shows that the name was different: the inscription is sta, that is Statio, tvricen ; and in the middle age document^ Zurich is named Turicum and Turegum. D'Anvillo (^Notice, ^c.) states his authority for affirming that an inscription "Genio pagi Tigur," with some others, was found nearZuWcA. If tliis were so, it would weaken the testimony of the Avenchea inscription, for we csnnot suppose that this pagus comprehended both Avenches and Zurich. But Walckenaer solves the difficulty by affirming that such an inscription has not been found near Zurich, The opinion of B. Bhenanus, not quite rejected by D'Anville, that the name of the canton Uri may represent the name Tigurini, need only be mentioned to be rejected. The names of the two other Helvetian Pagi are unknown; but it is a fair conjecture that one of tbem may have been the pagus of the Tugeni. Strabo (p. 293) mentions the Tugeni with the Tigurini, when he is giving Posidonius* opinion of the CimbrL Posidonius says that " the Boii once inhabited the Hercynian forest; and that the Cimbri, n lo invaded their country, being repelled by the Boii, came down upon the Danube and the Scor- 4i sci Galatae, and then to the Teuristae and [read ^or"] Tauritici, who were also Qalatae: and after that they came to tho Helvetii, who were rich in ^Id and a peaceable people ; but when the Helvetii VOL. I. HELVETir. 1041 saw'that the wealth got by plunder was greater than th«r own, they were induced, and chiefly the Tigu- rini and Tougeni, to join the Cimbri ; but they were all defeated by the Romans, both the Cimbri and those who joined them." It seems then that there was an Helvetian people named Tugeni, and Walcke- naer (Gcog., ^c vol. i. p. 311) has no difficulty in finding a place for them. He says : " The name of the modem village of Tugen^ at the eastern extre- mity of the lake of Zurich, and that of the valley formed by the river Thur, which is Toggenburg or Tuggenburg, do not pennit us to doubt that tho Tugeni inhabited the neighbourhood of these places; and in the time of Caesar it is probable that this people occupied the country between the lake of ConttanZf the Limmaty the lake of WaUenstadty and the two parts of the course of the Rhine- to the west and to the east of the lake." Within the Uinits of the Tugeni, if this conjecture is true, we find Zurich, Vltodurum {Oherwinterlhur near Winierthur Ar- bor Felix {Arhon) on the lake of ConstanZj and Vindonissa {Wtnditch), The name of the fourth pagus is unknown ; but as there was a people named Ambrones, who were with the Teutones when Marius defeated them at Aquae Sextiae, Walckenaer supposes that they may have formed the fourth canton. Strabo (p. 183)^ in speaking of this campaign of Marius, mentions only the Ambrones and Tugeni. Eutropius, who of course was copying some authority, says (v. 1) that " the Roman consuls Alanilius and Caepio were defeated by the Cimbri and Teutones, and Tigurini and Ambrones, which were German and Gallio nations, near the Rhone." As the Cimbri and Teutones are here supposed to be Germans, and aa the Tigurini were certainly Galli, it is plain that the writer, or the authority which he followed, took the Ambrones also to be Galli. The Epitome of Livy {Ep, 68) mentions the Teutones and Ambrones as the names of the barbarians whom Marius de- feated east of the Rhone ; and aUo Plutarch (Mar. c. 19), who adds that Ambrones is also a name of the Ligures. If the Ambrones were a Gallic |)eople, there is no place for them except in Switzerland : and if the position of the three other Pagi is rightly determined, the Ambrones occupied the part south of the Verbigeni and Tugeni ; and they would extend from the eastern extremity of the lake of Geneva, in the upper valleys of the Aar and the Beats, as far east as the course of the Rhone above the lake of Corutanz, But all this is only a conjecture, founded on no very strong probabilities ; and it is not likely that the inhabitants of the high valleys of Switzerland j(xned the Helvetic emigration. The stoiy of the migration of the four Helvetic Pagi is told by Caesar (A G. i. 2). Orgetorix (b. c. 61), a rich Helvetian, persuaded the nobles to leave their country with all their people and movables; for he argued that, as they were the bravest of the Galli, it would be easy to make themselves mastera of all the country. They did not, hoit-ever, intend to attack either their neighbours the Sequani, or the Aedui, or the AUobroges on the south side of the Rhone; but to make terms with the Allobniges, in order to secure a freo passage through their country, Orgetorix prevailed on the Helvetii to get -ready aa many waggons and beasts of draught as they could, and to sow largely, in order to have a stock of pro- visions for their journey. Two years were considered enough for preparations, and the third was to be the year of emigration. Oi^etorix, in the meantune, 3x