AVENTICUM(Avenches), the chief city of the Helvetii. (Tac. Hist. 1.68.) It is not mentioned by Caesar. About Trajan's time, or shortly after, it became a Roman colony with the name Pia Flavia Constans Emerita. It seems to have been originally the capital of the Tigurini [TIGURINI], one of the four Helvetic pagi. Its position is determined by inscriptions and the Roman roads which meet there. Ptolemy places it in the territory of the Sequani, from which we may conclude that part of the Helvetii were then attached to the Sequani. In the time of Ammianus (15.11) Aventicum was a deserted place, but its former importance was shown by its ruins. There are still remains of an amphitheatre, aqueduct, and part of the wall at Avenches, or Wifflisburg, as the Germans call it, in the present canton of Waadt or Pays de Vaud. Many objects of antiquity have been found at Avenches.
[G.L]