History of Switzerland

The Age of Romans

When the Celtic Helvetians attempted to move south from Switzerland to Southern France they were stopped by the Roman commander and subsequent emperor C. Julius Cesar in 58 B.C. They were forced to return to Switzerland. The Romans controlled Switzerland's territory until about A.D. 400. Roman military camps and forts were erected at the northern Rhine frontier towards Germany. Under Emperor Augustus (27 B.C. - A.D. 14) the Romans conquered Western Germany and Austria. Now Switzerland was no longer at the border, a Roman fortification (Limes) was built in Germany and in A.D. 101 the military camp of Vindonissa in northern Switzerland was given up because it was no longer needed. Switzerland saw 150 peaceful years under Roman administration.

The urban structures created by the Romans are still important to modern Switzerland after 2000 years: Out of five Swiss cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants today, the four economically important ones (Zurich = Turicum, Basel = Basilia, Geneva = Geneva and Lausanne = Lousonna) were founded either by the Celtic Helvetians or by the Romans, only one (the federal capital Bern, founded in 1191) does not have roots in the Age of the Romans. Dozens of other cities, towns and villages in Switzerland have Roman origins:

Roman Cities and Military Camps in Switzerland

Roman name	Translation / Remarks	Today's name
Ad Fines	at the border	Pfyn
Ad Rhenum	on river Rhine	Rheineck
Agaunum	christian martyr St. Maurice was a roman officer refusing to take part in religious veneration of the emperor	Saint-Maurice
Aquae Helveticae	Waters in Helvetia (natural thermal baths)	Baden
Arbor Felix	fortunate tree	Arbon
Augusta Raurica	city in honor of Roman emperor Augustus on the territory of the Rauracs (a fraction of the Helvetians)	Augst
Aventicum	Switzerland's capital in the age of Romans	Avenches
Basilia	royal city (from greek basileus = king)	Basel
Bilitio		Bellinzona
Confluentes	at the confluence of rivers Rhine and Aare	Koblenz
Curia	city hall	Chur
Cunus Aureaus	Golden Pass	Splügen
Eburodunum	-dunum = fence (of Celtic origin)	Yverdon
Genava		Genève (Geneva)
Iulia Equestris (Noviodunum)	(original Celtic name survived Iulius Cesar's ...)	Nyon
Iuliomagus	Field of Iulius (-magus = field, Celtic)	Schleitheim
Lapidaria	quarry	Andeer
Lousonna		Lausanne
Magia		Maienfeld
Minnodunum		Moudon
Octodurus		Martigny
Penneloci		Villeneuve
Petinesca		Studenberg
Sedunum		Sion (Sitten)
Salodurum		Solothurn
Summus Poeninus	(highest point of road over poenine alps)	Grand St. Bernhard pass
Tarnaiae		Massongex
Tasgaetium		Eschenz
Tenedo		Zurzach
Tinnetio		Tinzen
Turicum	tus = incense	Zurich
Urba	city	Orbe
Uromagus	field of the bear	Oron-la-Ville
Vindonissa	important military camp	Windisch
Vitodurum		Oberwinterthur
Viviscus		Vevey

As a rule of thumb, Swiss village names ending in -wil can be traced back to Roman villae (big farms), while others are of celtic origin: -dunum (= fence), -magus (field) and -briga (hill). Examples for celtic names include Minnodunum = Moudon, Eburodunum = Yverdon, Uromagus = Oron-la-Ville and Brig.

This table, though not complete, shows that the Roman cities and military camps were concentrated along the northern border (Rhine, Lake of Constance) separating territory controlled by the Romans from territory controlled by Germanic tribes and along transit roads crossing the alps in Western Switzerland (Summus Poeninus = Grand St. Bernhard pass) and in Eastern Switzerland (Cunus Aureaus = Splügen pass or Maloja pass / Julier pass). St. Gotthard pass in Central Switzerland had no significance in the Age of Romans.

The western, more important route led from Lake Geneva (southwestern edge of Switzerland) to the Lake of Constance (northeastern edge of Switzerland). Needless to say that this is basically Switzerland's interstate 1 and Switzerland's main high-speed railway line connecting the major cities of Zurich, Bern, Lausanne and Geneva ... A branch of this Roman road went to and to Basel (northwestern edge of Switzerland) - basically the northern part of interstate 2.

The roman military bureaucracy was established at Aventicum (Avenches, western Switzerland), which is today but a small village. Neither the Celtic Helvetians nor the Romans colonized Switzerland completely, they just settled were it was convenient for them, where the soil was easy to cultivate and the climate not to cold (especially in winter), preferably in the Mittelland region and in a few major alpine valleys.

Retired Roman military officers stayed in the country and built some 100 big farms that were operated by dozens of slaves. The places where the Romans erected cities were either specifically useful for merchants (on lakeshores, where freight had to be shifted from ships to road transport on carts: Zurich, Geneva, Lausanne, Vevey, Yverdon) or of strategic importance (access to pass routes, bridges, frontier: Basel, Chur, Bellinzona, Martigny). The total population amounted to only about 100,000 to 200,000 inhabitants (today 7 million). A majority of the Swiss territory, in particular most alpine side valleys remained just wilderness.

From the early 3^rd century on Germanic tribes began to attack the Romans and in 260 the Romans were forced to abandon the Limes. The Germanic raid was carried through Switzerland and came as far as Milan (northern Italy). The Roman cities of Augusta Raurica and the old Swiss capital Aventicum were deleted. Germany was lost to the Romans, but they could reestablish the Rhine border. Vindonissa was reactivated as a military camp.

Until A.D. 400 a balance of power between the Romans and the Germanic tribes was kept up. Then the Roman soldiers were withdrawn to Italy which could not prevent, however, that the western part of the Roman empire collapsed under the Germanic attacks.