tion upon them for provisions for his soldiers. Hearing at last that they were all carousing and playing at dice in the Rath Haus, he had a few shots fired into the windows, by which method he succeeded in placing their services immediately at his disposal. It appears that the citizens possessed that kind of courage of which Aristotle quotes, as an example, the ass, which even by the best applied blows cannot be deterred from finishing his dinner of thistles.
At about five miles from Trêves, on the former consular road which led to Rheims, near the junction of the Moselle and Saar, there is a most remarkable monument of the Roman times. This is the pillar of Igel. The Emperor Caligula was said to have been born there, and some think it was put up to commemorate this event, but most authorities look upon it as a family monument of the Secundini. The stone of which it is composed is a firm whitey gray sandstone. The governor of Luxembourg, to his shame, once tried to carry away the monument piecemeal, but only partially succeeded. Amongst the sculptures subtracted was one of a beautiful nymph resting on an urn. The stones were subsequently made over to a tradesman in Luxembourg, who made them into steps for his house. Goëthe speaks of this monument in terms of high approbation as a work of art.
The principal members of the Secundini family appear to have been agentes in rebus, that is, officers appointed to provide for the commissariat of troops, general intendants and postmasters. The monument is covered with sculptures, part of which denote the pleasant lives of the persons commemorated,—part record the employments in which they were engaged. They represent incidents of the navigation of the Moselle, and of the hall of business, with the Secundini at work, while the three large figures are supposed to pourtray the ceremony of betrothal, and there is added to them the picture of a family banquet. Nothing is more remarkable, as connected with Roman monuments, than the absence of the mournful element. The skull and cross-bones belong to a period of corrupted taste. The dead are thought of by the classics as those who have ceased to labour, as Death is symbolised on a Pompeian monument by a ship entering the port. With a beautiful simplicity Christian Germany still speaks of the departed as “those who have gone home.” This elegant pillar of Igel is more than seventy feet high, and sixteen feet broad at the base. It is square, and brought to a point above swelling into a crest, so that the whole might be compared to a square bottle of cut-glass with a highly ornamented stopper. One who has time to spend in and about Trêves has much more to see. At Ruver are the remains of an aqueduct which lead to the amphitheatre, and there is a votive monument to Diana in a wood between Echternach and Bollendorf. This goddess appears to have been as popular with the Treviri as the corresponding Greek divinity Artemis was with the Ephesians. In the year 72, we find St. Eucharius stirring up the people to break certain statues of Diana which stood on the site of the present fantastic church of St. Matthias. We can easily believe the huntress-goddess to have been worshipped in the neighbourhood of the Ardennes and Eifel, which still glory in real wild beasts. A dip into the history of Trêves would at once explain the present shrunk state of the city. Storms of Franks, Alemans, Huns, Normans, and in later times of Spaniards and French, and the two contending parties in the Thirty Years’ war, have swept over it; and it appears to have had its share of mediæval pestilences, the drainage which was, no doubt, perfect under the Romans, having fallen most probably into neglect under the auspices of its Archbishop Electors. Not that the government of these could be compared to a mere priestly government of the present day, for such men as the Johanns, Cunos and Baldwins of Trêves could wield the sword and mace with as much effect as the crozier, and it is more likely that the physical well-being of their subjects suffered more from temporal than spiritual distractions. Trêves has been honoured or disgraced by the residence of several Roman Emperors, since the time when Julius Cæsar was brought in, A. D. 54, to mediate in the quarrel between Cingetorix and Induciomarus, which was ultimately settled in the manner usual with the Romans, by taking possession themselves of the disputed territory.
In the rebellion of Civilis, recorded by Tacitus, Trêves joined the insurgents, and was consequently taken by Petilius Cerealis. As allies and enemies of the Romans the Treviri were chiefly distinguished in the arm of cavalry.
As time went on, and Trêves acquired more and more of an ecclesiastical character, many holy men took up their residence or sought asylum there. Amongst them was the famous Athanasius, who lived here in exile for more than two years in the reign of Constantine. Trêves was visited in his rambles by the erratic St. Martin, in the fourth century, who worked miracles long remembered, and in the twelfth by the more authentic St. Bernhard of Clairvaux, who came preaching a crusade, and attesting his mission by the usual signs and wonders.
If the projected railroad is completed between Trêves and Cologne, the old town will probably enter on a new lease of life; but the present is the time for those who are curious in history and antiquities to pursue their investigations, as modern improvements have a tendency to choke antiquity. At present, Nature holds her own in Trêves. The remains of ancient art have become part of Nature, and the memorials of the mighty dead are mellowed in tint by the same sunshine which glorifies the living vineyards and flower-gardens. To Trêves applies, even better than to Paris, that expression of Mrs. Barrett Browning in “Aurora Leigh,”—
The city swims in verdure.
[“ELEANOR'S VICTORY,” a New Novel, by the Author of “Aurora Floyd,” “Lady Audley’s Secret,” &c., will be commenced in the next Number of Once a Week.]
