SOISSONS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 44, Issue 13604, 31 July 1918, Page 4

SOISSONS.

Tlvo fact that the successful Allied counter-offensive has carried the fighting once more to the outskirts of Soissons revives interest in that ancient city of Prance, which has changed hands several times, and has always been practically on the edge of the battle zone since the early days of ahe war. Among all the cities of Prance, few rival little Soissons in its record of sieges. It has always been a centre of military interest—sometimes of crucial importance. Caesar gave the name of Noviodunum to the capital of the powerful tribe of the Suessiones, who occupied twelve towns and were one of the greatest of the Gallic peoples. At the beginning of the Empire, however, Noviodunum took the name of Augusta Suessionum, and afterwards that of Suessiona; it is this town which is generally identified with the present Soissons. It was walled and fortified, and was the starting point of the great military road to Kheims, Paris, Chateau Thierry, Meaur, St. Quentin and Amiens. After the barbarians had crossed the Rhine, and-the Meuse, Soissons became the metropolis of the Roman pos-

sessions in Northern Gaul until, in 48G, Clovis the Frank "defeated the Roman Syagrius in a battle on the outskirts of the town., and put an end to the Romau dominion in that part of Europe. Under Charles the Fat, in 886/ the Normans attacked the town, and though they failed to take it, they devastated the country roundabout. In 923 another great battle took place just outsido tho walls of Soissons} in which Charles tho Simple was defeated by tho troops of Rudolph of Burgundy. In 948 Hugh the Great besieged tho town and burned part of it. During the Hundred Years' War Soissons suffered terribly. lii 1414 it was wrested from the Burgundians, who hold it, by the Armagnacs, under tho Dauphin, and thoroughly sackod, and during the next twenty years it was captured, recaptured, attacked, counter-attacked, and laid waste again and again. In 1514 Charles V. sacked it; two decades later it was taken by tho Huguenots, who sacked it again, razed its churches, and held it for six months. In the Napoleonic wars it played an important part. In 1814 it. was captured by Napoleon's foes and recaptured by tho French, and "in 1815, after Waterloo, tho vanquished hosts of Napoleon gathered at Soissons. After (that the town enjoyed a period of peace until 1870, when, after a bombardment of four days, it surrendered to the Germans on October 16th.