y were filled with the
pictures of the life and the changing fate of the latest Romans in
these lands. My imagination was excited by the inscriptions, coins, and
utensils, by the Roman monuments of every kind which are found in such
rich abundance in and around Salzburg; for this town, with its
prominent fortress, the "Capitolium," on the rocky hill dominating
stream and valley, was for centuries, under the name of "Claudium
Juvavum," a chief bulwark of the Roman rule and the seat of a
flourishing and brilliant development of the Roman culture. The
inscriptions testify to the official rank of many of the citizens, such
as Duumvirs, Decurions, AEdiles of the markets and games; to the
importance of the town as a place of trade, and to the encouragement
given to the arts and manufactures.

That which had occupied me during the labours of the day was pictured
by the play of fancy, when in the evening I wandered out through the
gate of the town: stream and road, hill and valley, were then peopled
for me with forms of the Roman life; and from the distant north-west,
like the driving clouds that often arose from the Bavarian plain,
approached menacingly the invading Germans.

Most frequently, I preferred to saunter along the banks of the stream
in the direction of the great Roman road, which passed the Chiemsee,
and crossing its effluent, the Alz, at Siebruck (Bedaium), and the Inn
(Oenus) at Pfuenz (Pons Oeni), led towards the province of Vindelicia
and its splendid capital, Augsburg (Augusta Vindelicorum). Many coins,
fragments of pottery, urns, gravestones, and household utensils of
every kind have been found in the level country which stretches on each
side of the old highroad, and is now for the most part covered with
forest and brushwood, and in some parts overgrown with thick ivy. It is
evident that farms, and also stately villas of the rich citizens, were
thickly scattered beyond the outer wall of the fortified town, thus
filling and adorning the whole valley. I often wandered in the
neighbourhood of this Roman road, the traces of which were still
distinctly visible, watching the setting sun, and wondering what were
the feelings of the inhabitants of these villas, when, instead of the
proud Legions marching by on their way to the Roman town on the Lech,
it was the first weak bands of the Germans from the conquered
Vindelicia who galloped in, carefully reconnoitring; and soon to
be followed by larger masses, more dari