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Show m - i - -ii -i ' ' I ; ! I ROMANS BUILT WELL j1 Wk fi'l ld Alpino City Provos This $ H I I (SF,EOIAL- CORRESPONDENCE) I HK The great Roman ropubllc found H tlio Alps n serious obstaclo to Its north- H ward expansion. Nature and the na 1 tlves aliko fought against them, and M tho struggle for the mastory of tho 1 fcrtllo valley at the foot of tho two M passes now called tho Great and Lit- M tie St Dcrnnrd was as troublcsomo as M an Afghan' war. Roth had groat strat- H eglc importance, the ono boing tho H only direct route Into the valley of tho H Rhone, tho othor giving easy access to H that of tho Iscro. Tho lower part of H tho valley Is for a time a deop gorgo, H down which rushes tho torrent of tho H Dora Bnltea, and tho deep slopes abovo H It must havo boon troublosomo to tho B Roman roadmaker. Tho natives tho Tr Salassl woro among tho most pugna- B clous of tho Alpino tribes, and so far B from submitting, llko thoso at tho foot HpL of tho Mount Cenls, they lost no f chance of making themselves not loss J unpleasant to their lowland neighbors than is the general wont of highland- ers. When at last a Roman army had r-n --ntainped out tho-nuisanco, good care V) was taken that It should not occur. M 'A fortincd town was built In an opon 1 part of the valley where the roads join K' troni tho two passes, which still may ' claim to bo tho best-preserved ex- K amplo In Europo of a Roman frontier L town. In situation also Aosta is with- v out a rival. Llko Chur and Innsbruck, H 'it is a city of tho mountains, but with 1 yet more impressive surroundings, H The fortllo valley of tho Dora Daltca, V with its malzo fields and vineyards. stretches away westward up to the W massive Rutor, a snowclad wall, cap- Hi, ped by a line of peaks, llko ruined K battlements. To the north tho valley 7 of the Great St. Bernard leads up to H tho snowy cap of tho Velau, and the H: icy summit of the still loftier Combln; B- while to tho south tho hugo rocky pyra- H mid of tho Bocca (11 Nona rises full B R.nnn feet above the strcots. backed H (by tho still loftier Mont Emillus'. ?ven B. 'moro truly than at Innsbruck might F ' wo say that from theso fastnesses tho B wolves look down into tho street of H .Aosta. H ;. Not tju ai,out twenty-nine years bo- H foro tho Christian era did tho Romans B becomo masters of tho valley, and. Vion H only nfter a desperato struggle A H .strong army, led by Terontlus Varro, B stormed the chief town of the Salassl, B which' occupied the slto of tho present B. city, nnd as "Thorough" was the H maxim of tho Roman policy, Varro fl mado sure that thero should bo no H need of doing tho work over again. H Thoso who escaped tho swords of his B' soldiers wore taken down to Eporcdla, H nw Ivrea, already built to guard tho H entrance of tho valley, and were sold B- as slaves. Thus 36,000, it is said, wero B deported, nnd ponco was obtained by H making a solitude Then a strongly H fortified town was built and called B T Augusta Prnotorla. It hold tho koys K of all tho upper valleys draining Into m the Dora Raltca, and not only ron- H dcred uriltod action lmposslblo among B any trlbos which might still linger In B their fastnesses, but also effectually B blocked any nttompt to ponctrato by B H th,s routo lnt0 p'e(lmont for tno re Kr malnlng passes over tho Pennines lead B " across snow and glaciers. Thus, as a B strategic point Aosta was admlrablo, H Ind Augustus was not slow to send B 6,000 soldiers to secure nnd fortify tho B now settlement. To thorn, or their Bf slaves, wo owo tho strong walls which Hl Btlll remain. Thoy bridged a river, B erected a triumphal arch, an nmphl- B? thoatro, and other buildings, nnd moro B than: once in othor parts of tho district B wo aro confronted with tho work of H tho $onian nrchjtoct. With most of H thoso. tlmo and man havo dealt morel- H "fully, eb that nowhere In tho Alps and Bhhh KBBJBhHBiBb not in many other places, is tho out-line out-line of n Roman fortified town bet-, ter preserved. The dimensions of this city agrco very nenrly with thoso usual in a camp intended to hold threo legions, for It measures roughly 2,400 feot by 1.C00. Tho walls still romaln practically unbroken. un-broken. They wero built of small boulders and pebbles from tho river, cemonted by such mortar as Roman masons, whoso Inspectors Woro Intolerant Intol-erant of "Jerry building," know how to make, and thoy were facod with woll-hown blocks of Hmestono or pud-dlngstono. pud-dlngstono. Now tho construction of railway, which has placed It within New Bridge, Geneva. easy roach of Turin, Instead of being separated by a long journey over dusty roads, has awakened Aosta and bogun to modernize its buildings. Tho most imposing relics of Its Roman masters aro on tho eastern sldo of tho city. Thero a strong arch spanned tho torrent tor-rent from tho Valpelllno, nnd this still remains partly burled In gravel, for tho main stream has changod Its course. In front of it stands. In solitary state, tho fine triumphal arch.orectod by Varro to commemorate his conquest of the valley. Except that tho attic has disappeared, It still remains fairly fair-ly perfect, a single arch, with four columns on each faco. Aosta did not cease to bo a place of Importance with tho fall of tho empire, em-pire, nnd tho Roman ruins aro not its only claim to interest. Its medlaoval masters built hero and there towers on tho walls, of which two or threo aro In good preservation. Ono of lnrgo slzo, at tho northeast anglo, serves as a prison; a round ono, already mentioned, men-tioned, at the south, called tho Tour do Bramafam, gives us tho cholco between be-tween two stories to oxplaln its name; ono that a Count of Challant Immured his wlfo hero till she died of hunger; I'll"" mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm tno pillars tiu"3ui"0 'datoof its erection, 1133. The town tself has moro than ono link with ecclesiastical history, for its Archdeacon was St. Bernard, tho Apostlo of the Alps, who has left his name to the two passes which unite hero, and about a quarter of a century after Ms death Aaseln was born In AosU, to bo transformed from a dissipated youth into tho learned Abbot of Bee, and to dlo Arch-bishop Arch-bishop of Canterbury, after some sharp contests with William Uufus and his successor. But thero aro other rollcs of the past, for, as wo wander about tho nnrrow streets and lanes, wo chanco hero and thero upon quaint remnants of olden time, and tho run-lots run-lots of glaclor water that swoop along channels In tho cobble stones, never tho smoothost of pavements, give n scono of coolness on an Italian sum-mer's sum-mer's day. Lau8anno Cathedral. another that ho stored up food to supply sup-ply tho people during a fnmlno. On tho eastern wall Is tho Tour do Lo-preux, Lo-preux, which was fitted up In 1773 for tho recoptlon of four lepers, nil of ono family from tho district of Nice. Aosta has been from tho fifth con-tury con-tury tho seat of a Bishop, and possesses pos-sesses a cathedral, which, with the exception ex-ception of a crypt and tower.has boon rebuilt and nlmost doprlved of Interest St. Ursus, outsido tho eastern wall, has fared rathor bettor, for It has ro talned a flno Romanesquo Bteoplo and a clolstor of unusual interest, ono of |