Aventicum

Aventicum was the largest town and capital of Roman Switzerland (Helvetia or Civitas Helvetiorum). Its remains are beside the modern town of Avenches.

The city was probably created ''ex nihilo'' in the early 1st century AD, as the capital of the recently conquered territory of the Helvetii, across the road that connected Italy to Britain, built under Claudius. Under the rule of Emperor Vespasian, who grew up there, Aventicum was raised to the status of a '' colonia'' in 72 AD, whereupon it entered its golden age. The town wall was long but was impracticable for defensive purposes and was doubtless intended as a display of the status of the city.

In the Christian era Aventicum was the seat of a bishopric. The most famous of its bishops was Marius Aventicensis. His terse chronicle, spanning the years 455 to 581, is one of the few sources for the 6th-century Burgundians. Shortly after the Council of Macon, in 585, Marius moved the seat from Aventicum, due to the rapid decline of the city, to Lausanne.

Prehistoric Aventicum

The area around Aventicum was occupied before the Romans founded the city. There have been numerous lake-dwellings discovered within the adjoining Lake Murten, with at least 16 stilt house settlements having been found. In the largest site, the piles extend over an area of thus forming a large station or village. A great number of objects have been found buried in the mud amongst the piles, consisting of implements of stone and bone, such as hatchets, chisels, needles, awls, besides a vast quantity of the bones of animals. The pottery is a coarse, dark red kind of earthenware containing numerous grains of quartz, and there are 12 or 15 varieties.

Migration of the Helvetii

The Helvetii probably reached southern Germany around the year 111 BC and soon invaded Gaul. During their invasion of the Roman province Gallia Narbonensis, they defeated a Roman army under L. Cassius Longinus near Agendicum in 107 BC and killed the consul. They continued to march into Spain, Gaul, Noricum, and northern Italy. Suffering defeats in the year 102–101 BC the surviving Helvetii retreated across the Alps.

In 58 BC, the nobleman Orgetorix instigated a new Helvetian migration, in which the entire tribe was to leave their territory (which is now described as corresponding more or less to the Swiss plateau) and establish supremacy over all of Gaul. They marched from their villages, but were stalled by Julius Caesar on the banks of the Rhône. The Helvetii then marched around and across the Jura Mountains, to an area near the Aeduan oppidum Bibracte. There Caesar caught up and defeated the Helvetii in the Battle of Bibracte. This resulted in the Helvetii's retreat and the capture of most of their baggage by the Romans. Following their surrender, the Helvetii became ''foederati'', an allied ''civitas'' required to provide soldiers, but not granted Roman citizenship.

The Helvetii likely lost their status as ''foederati'' six years later, when they supported Vercingetorix in 52 BC. Sometime between 50 and 45 BC, the Romans founded Colonia Iulia Equestris at the site of the Helvetian settlement Noviodunum (modern Nyon). This colony was most likely established as a means for controlling one of the two important military access routes between the Helvetian territory and the rest of Gaul, blocking passage through the Rhône valley and the Sundgau.

During the following half century, the Helvetii would become increasingly romanized. During this time, there were two settlements near where Aventicum would be founded. The first was the ''oppidum'' on Mont Vully

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