Page:EB1911 - Volume 27.djvu/284

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TRIESTE
269

Florus in A.D. 21 was soon quelled. The Roman city, Augusta Treverorum, was probably fortified by Augustus about 14 B.C., and organized as a colony about A.D. 50 in the reign of Claudius, but is not mentioned before the war of Civilis in 69 (Tacitus, Hist. iv.). At first the Treveri resisted the appeal of Civilis and his Batavi to join the revolt, and built a defensive wall from Trier to Andernach, but soon after the two Treverans, Tutor and Classicus, led their fellow tribesmen, aided by the Lingones (Langres), in the attempt to set up a “Gallic empire.” After a brief struggle the rebels were overthrown at Trier by Cerealis, and 113 senators emigrated to Germany (70). Towards the end of the 3rd century, the inroads of the Franks having been repelled by the emperor Probus, the city rapidly acquired wealth and importance. Mainly on account of its strategic position, Diocletian on his reorganization of the empire made Trier the capital not only of Belgica Prima, but of the whole “diocese” of Gaul. For a century, from Maximian to Maximus (286–388), it was (except under Julian, who preferred to reside in Paris) the administrative centre from which Gaul, Britain and Spain were ruled, so that the poet Ausonius could describe it as the second metropolis of the empire, or “Rome beyond the Alps.” Constantine the Great, who generally resided here from 306 to 331, and his successors also, beautified the city with public works, and villas arose upon the hill-sides.

The Church added a lustre of a different kind. Legend associated Trier with the martyrdom of part of the Theban legion (c. 286) and with the relics found by St Helena in the Holy Land. St Agritius (d. 332) is the first historical bishop. Four great saints of the 4th century are connected with the city. It was the scene of the first banishment of St Athanasius in 336. A baseless legend relates that he composed the Quicunque Vult while hiding here in a cistern. St Ambrose, one of the greatest sons of Trier, was born here about 340. St Jerome’s mind was first seriously directed to religion while studying at Trier about 370, and St Martin of Tours came in 385 to plead with the tryant Maximus for the lives of the heretic Priscillian and his followers.

The Franks, who had thrice previously sacked the city, gained permanent possession of it about 455. Although some Frankish kings resided here, it gradually yielded place to Metz as a Frankish capital. The great bishop St Nicetius (528–566), who was banished for rebuking the vices of king Clotaire I. and eulogized by the poet Venantius Fortunatus, repaired the cathedral, and built a splendid castle for himself. The city passed to Lorraine in 843, and to the East Frankish kingdom in 870. It was sacked by the Northmen in 881. Hetti, who occupied the see from 814 to 847, is said to have been the first archbishop of Trier, and Radbod acquired the rights of the counts of Trier in 898, thus founding the temporal power of the see. Robert claimed in vain the right to crown the German king Otto I. in 936, on the ground of the priority of his see, and in the 10th century Archbishop Dietrich I. obtained the primacy over Gaul and Germany.

The temporal power of the archbishops was not gained without opposition. The German kings Otto IV. and Conrad IV. granted charters to the city, which however admitted the jurisdiction of its archbishop, Baldwin of Luxemburg, in 1308. This prince, a brother of the emperor Henry VII., ruled from 1307 to 1354, and was the real founder of the power of Trier. His predecessor Diether III. of Nassau had left his lands heavily encumbered with debt. Baldwin raised them to great prosperity by his energy and foresight, and chiefly as a result of the active political and military support he rendered to the emperors Henry VII., Louis the Bavarian and Charles IV. enlarged his dominions almost to their ultimate extent. He assumed the title of archchancellor of Gaul and Arles (or Burgundy), and in 1315 admitted the claim of the archbishop of Cologne to the highest place after the archbishop of Mainz among the spiritual princes of the empire. Thenceforward the elector of Trier held the third place in the electoral college. After Baldwin’s death the prosperity of Trier was checked by wars and disputes between rival claimants to the see, and in 1456 the estates united for the purpose of restoring order, and secured the right of electing their archbishops.

Throughout the middle ages the sancta civitas Trevirorum abounded in religious foundations and was a great seat of monastic learning. The university, founded in 1473, existed until 1797. The elector Richard von Greiffenklau (1467–1531) successfully opposed the Reformation, and inaugurated the exhibitions of the holy coat, which called forth the denunciations of Luther, but have continued since his day to bring wealth and celebrity to the city. In the latter half of the 16th century the direction of education fell into the hands of the Jesuits. During the Thirty Years' War the elector Philip Christopher von Sotern favoured France, and accepted French protection in 1631. The French in the following year expelled both Spaniards and Swedes from his territories, but in March 1635 the Spaniards recaptured Trier and took the elector prisoner. He remained in captivity for ten years, but was reinstated by the French in 1645 and confirmed in his possessions by the peace of Westphalia. The French again temporarily took Trier in 1674 and 1688.

The last elector and archbishop, Clement Wenceslaus (1768–1802), granted toleration to the Protestants in 1782, established his residence at Coblenz in 1786, and fled from the French in 1794. By the peace of Lunéville in 1801 France annexed all the territories of Trier on the left bank of the Rhine, and in 1802 the elector abdicated. A new bishopric was created for the French department of the Sarre, of which Trier was the capital. The Treveran territories on the right bank of the Rhine were secularized and given to Nassau-Weilburg in 1803, and in 1814 nearly the whole of the former electoral dominions were given to Prussia. A bishopric was again founded in 1821, with nearly the same boundaries as the old archbishopric, but it was placed under Cologne. The area of the former electoral principality was 3210 sq. m., and its population in the 18th century was from 250,000 to 300,000. Roughly speaking, it was a broad strip of territory along the lower Saar and the Moselle from its confluence with that river to the Rhine, with a district on the right bank of the Rhine behind Ehrenbreitstein. The chief towns in addition to Trier were Coblenz, Cochem, Beilstein, Oberwesel, Lahnstein and Sayn. Far more extensive was the territory under the spiritual authority of the archbishop which included the bishoprics of Metz, Toul and Verdun, and after 1777 also those of Nancy and St Dié.

See E. A. Freeman’s article “Augusta Treverorum” in the British Quarterly Review for July 1875; Hettner, Das römische Trier (Trier, 1880); J. N. von Wilmowsky, Der Dom zu Trier in seinen drei Hauptperioden (Trier, 1874); S. Beissel, Geschichte der trierer Kirchen (Trier, 1888); “Gesta Treverorum” (ed. G. Waitz), in Mon. Germ. hist. viii., xxiv.; J. N. von Hontheim, Historia trevirensis diplomatica et pragmatica (3 vols., Augsburg, 1750); Marx, Geschichte des Erzstifts Trier (5 vols., Trier, 1858–1864); Leonardy, Geschichte des trierischen Landes und Volkes (Saarlouis, 1871); Woerl, Führer durch die Stadt Trier (8th ed., Leipzig, 1898).  (A. B. Go.) 

TRIESTE (Ger. Triest; Slav. Trst; the Roman Tergeste, (q.v.), the principal seaport of Austria, 367 m. S.W. of Vienna by rail. Pop. (1900), 132,879, of which three-fourths are Italians, the remainder being composed of Germans, Jews, Greeks, English and French. Trieste is situated at the north-east angle of the Adriatic Sea, on the Gulf of Trieste, and is picturesquely built on terraces at the foot of the Karst hills. The aspect of the town is Italian rather than German. It is divided into the old and the new town, which are connected by the broad and handsome Via del Corso, the busiest street in the town. The old town, nestling round the Schlossberg, the hill on which the castle stands, consists of narrow, steep and irregular streets. The castle, built in 1680, is believed to occupy the site of the Roman capitol. The new town, which lies on the flat expanse adjoining the crescent-shaped bay, partly on ground that has been reclaimed from the sea, has large and regularly built streets, and several large squares adorned with artistic monuments. The cathedral of San Giusto was formed as it now stands by the union in the 14th century of three adjacent early Christian buildings of the 6th century;