Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1333

 VIENNA. Table. It is remarked, too, that Seneca (De Morte Claudii, c. 6) says that Claudius was born at Lng- dunum (Li/on), " ad sestum decimum lapidem a Vienna." The real distance from Vienna to the Rhone at Lyon is about 17 M. P. ; but D'Anville suggests that the territory of Lugdunum may have liad a nan-ow strip on the south side of the Rhone. There can be no road of 23 M. P. from Lug- dunum to Vienna, unless it be one on the west bank of the Rhone. Strabo (iv. pp. 184, 186) makes the distance between Lugdunum and Vienna 200 stadia or 20 ]I. P., which is too much. Vienna is first mentioned by Caesar (5. G. vii. 9), and only once mentioned. He had crossed the Ce- vennes into the Auvergne in the depth of winter, and he went aofain over the mountains to Vienna to meet a newly-levied cavalry force, which some time before he had sent on thither. Under the Empire Vienna was a great city, and there was rivaliy and enmity between it and Lugdunum. (Tacit. Hist. i. 65.) Mela speaks of it as a flourishing place ; and under the Empire it was a Colonia (Plin. iii. 4 ; Tacit, nist. i. 66), before the time of Claudius, who speaks of it in his Oratio {super Civitate Gallis danda) ; " Ornatissima ecce Colonia valentissimaque Vien- nensium, quam longo jam tempore senatores huic curiae confert." (J. Lipsius, Excurs. ad Tacit. Ann. lib. xi.) This passage shows that Vienna had already supplied members to the Roman senate, and it must have been a Romana Colonia. Martial (vii. 88) calls it "pulcra" : — " Fertur habere meos, si vera est fama, libellos, Inter delicias pulcra Vienna suas." So Pliny says that his works were in the booksellers' shops at Lugdunum. [Lugdunum.] These facts present a curious contrast between the book trade in a French provincial town under the Empire and at the present day, when a man would not find much. Vienna was also noted for the wine (Martial, siii. 107) that grew in the neighbourhood ; and some of the best wines of the Rhone are still made about Vienne. This town afterwards gave name to the subdivision of Narbonensis named Viennensis. The modern town of Vienne is in the department of Tsere, on the little river Gere, which flows through Vienne to the Rhone. The modern town is in the narrow valley of the Gere, and extends to the banks of the Rhone. The Roman town was placed on two terraces in the form of amphitheatres. There still exist the foundations of the massive Roman walls above 19,000 feet in circuit which enclosed Vienna. These walls, even in the weakest parts, were about 20 feet thick ; and it appears that there were round towers at intervals. There are at Vienne the remains of some arcades, which are supposed to have formed the entrance to the Thermae. They are commonly called triumphal arches, but there is no reason for this appellation. One of the arcades bears the name of the emperor Gratian. There is a temple which M. Schneider has conjectured to have been dedicated to Augustus and Livia, if his deciphering of the inscription may be trusted. This is one of the best preserved Roman monuments of its kind in France after the MuUon Carrie of Nimes [NEMAust:s]. It is now a Museum, and contains some valuable ancient remains and inscriptions. This building is of the Corinthian order, with six columns in front and eight on each side ; the columns are above 3 feet in diameter, and 35 feet high, including the base of the capitals. VIGESIMUM, AD. 1309 There is a singular monument near Vienne, some- times called Pontius Pilate's tomb, there being a tradition that Pilate was banished to Vienna. But even if Pilate was sent to Vienna, that fact will not prove that this is his monument. It is a pyramid supported on a quadrangular construction, on the sidesof which there are four arcades with semicircular arches at the top; and there are columns at each of the angles of the construction. Each side of the square of this basement is about 21 feet long, and the height to the top of the entablature of the basement is nearly 22 feet. The pyramid with its smaller base rests on the central part of the quadrangular construction ; it is about 30 feet higli, and the whole is consequently about 52 feet high. The edifice is not finished. It has on the whole a very fine ap- pearance. There is a drawing of it in the Penny Cyclopaedia (art. Vienne'), made on the spot in 1838 by W. B. Clarke, architect. The remains of the amphitheatre have been found only by excavation. It was a building of great magnitude, the long diameter being above 500 feet and the smaller above 400 feet, which dimensions are about the same as those of the amphitheatre of Verona. It has been used as a quarry to build the modern town out of. Three aqueducts supplied Vienna with water during the Roman period. The.se aqueducts run one above annther on the side of the hill which borders the left bank of the Gh-e, and they are nearly parallel to one another, but at dif- ferent elevations. The highest was intended to supply the amphitheatre when a naumachia was exhibited. There are also remains of a fourth aqueduct large enough for four persons to walk in upright and abreast. These aqueducts were almost entirely constructed under ground, with a fell of about one in a thousand, and for the most part lined inside with a red cement as high up as the spring of the arches. The Roman road, sometimes called the Via Do- mitia, ran from Arelate {Aries) along the E. side of the river to Lugdunum {Lyon). Where it enters Vienne, it is now more than .3 feet below the surface of the ground, and this depth increases as it goes farther into the town. It is constructed of large blocks of stone. Another road went from Vienna to the Alpis Graia {Liltle St. Bernard) through Bergintrum; and it is an interesting fact to find that several villages on this road retain names given to them in respect of the distance from Vienne: thus Septhne is 7 miles, Oyticr 8 miles, and 7>iV- moz 10 Roman miles from Vienne. Another road led from Vienne through Cularo {Grenoble) to the Alpis Cottia {Mont St. Genivre). (See Richard et Hocqnart, Gtvide du Voyageur, for references to modern works on the antiquities of Vienne, and par- ticularly M. Mermet's work, 8vo. Vienne, 1829, which contains the answers to a .series of questions proposed by the Acade'mie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres ; also the references in Ukert, Gallien, p. 453.) [G. L.] VIGESIMUM, AD. 1. A station in Gallia Narbonensis, the distance of which from a given point determined its name, as we see in the case of other names of places derived from numerals. [Dro- DKCiMiJM, Ad; Vienna.] The i)lace is xx. JI. P. from Narbo {Nurhonne) on the road to Sjiain, and may be at or near a place called La Palme. 2. There is another Ad Vigesinuun which occurs in the Itin. of Rordcniix to .Jerusalem, on the road from Toulouse. These numerals show that such cities