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The Helvetii (, , Gaulish: * Heluētī), anglicized as Helvetians, were a Celts tribe or tribal confederation occupying most of the Swiss plateau at the time of their contact with the Roman Republic in the 1st century BC. According to Julius Caesar, the Helvetians were divided into four subgroups or pagus. Of these, Caesar names only the Verbigeni and the Tigurini,Bell.Gall. 1.27 and 1.12, respectively while Posidonius mentions the Tigurini and the Tougeni (Τωυγενοί).Strabo 4.1.8, 7.2.2. They feature prominently in the Commentaries on the Gallic War, with their failed migration attempt to southwestern Gaul (58 BC) serving as a catalyst for Caesar's conquest of Gaul.
The Helvetians were subjugated after 52 BC, and under Augustus, Celtic oppida, such as Vindonissa or Basilea, were re-purposed as garrisons. In AD 68, a Helvetian uprising was crushed by Aulus Caecina Alienus. The Swiss plateau was at first incorporated into the Roman province of Gallia Belgica (22 BC), later into Germania Superior (AD 83). The Helvetians, like the rest of Gaul, were largely Romanized by the 2nd century. In the later 3rd century, Roman control over the region waned, and the Swiss plateau was exposed to the invading Alemanni. The Alemanni and Burgundians established permanent settlements in the Swiss plateau in the 5th and 6th centuries, resulting in the early medieval territories of Alemannia and Upper Burgundy. The Helvetii were largely assimilated by their new rulers, contributing to the ethnogenesis of modern Swiss people.
The Gaulish ethnic name Helvetii is generally interpreted as (h)elu-ētioi ('rich in land'), from elu- ('numerous', cf. Old Irish il) attached to etu- ('grassland'; cf. OIr. iath). The presence of the initial h-, remnant of a previous p- (PIE *pelh1u- > Celt. helu- > elu-), attests of an archaic formation.
The earliest attestation of the name is found in a graffito on a vessel from Mantua, dated to c. 300 BC.Reproduction in R.C. De Marinis, Gli Etruschi a Nord del Po, Mantova, 1986. The inscription in Etruscan letters reads eluveitie, which has been interpreted as the Etruscan form of the Celtic elu̯eti̯os ("the Helvetian"), presumably referring to a man of Helvetian descent living in Mantua.
According to Caesar, the territory abandoned by the Helvetii had comprised 400 villages and 12 Oppidum (fortified settlements). His tally of the total population taken from captured Helvetian records written in Greek is 263,000 people, including fighting men, old men, women and children. However, the figures are generally dismissed as too high by modern scholars (see hereafter).
Like many other tribes, the Helvetii did not have kings at the time of their clash with Rome but instead seem to have been governed by a class of noblemen (Lat. equites).Other tribal aristocracies were the Aedui (Bell. Gall. 1.3), the Arverni (Bell. Gall. 7.4), or the Remi (Bell. Gall. 2.3). When Orgetorix, one of their most prominent and ambitious noblemen, was making plans to establish himself as their king, he faced execution at the stake if found guilty. Caesar does not explicitly name the tribal authorities prosecuting the case and gathering men to apprehend Orgetorix, but he refers to them by the Latin terms civitas ("state" or "tribe") and magistratus ("officials").Bell. Gall. 1.4.
The Greek historian Posidonius (c. 135–50 BC), whose work is preserved only in fragments by other writers, offers the earliest historical record of the Helvetii. Posidonius described the Helvetians of the late 2nd century BC as "rich in gold but peaceful," without giving clear indication to the location of their territory.Strabon 7.2.2. His reference to gold washing in rivers has been taken as evidence for an early presence of the Helvetii in the Swiss plateau, with the Emme as being one of the gold-yielding rivers mentioned by Posidonius. This interpretation is now generally discarded,SPM IV Eisenzeit, Basel 1999, p. 31f. as Posidonius' narrative makes it more likely that the country some of the Helvetians left in order to join in the raids of the Teutones, Cimbri, and Ambrones was in fact southern Germany and not Switzerland.
That the Helvetians originally lived in southern Germany is confirmed by the geographer Ptolemy (c. 90–168 AD), who tells us of an Ἐλουητίων ἔρημος (i.e. "Helvetic deserted lands") north of the Rhine. Tacitus knows that the Helvetians once settled in the swath between Rhine, Main, and the Hercynian forest.Germ. 28.2. The abandonment of this northern territory is now usually placed in the late 2nd century BC, around the time of the first Germanic incursions into the Roman world, when the Tigurini and Toygenoi/Toutonoi are mentioned as participants in the great raids.
At the later Vicus Turicum, probably in the first 1st century BC or even much earlier, the Celts settled at the Lindenhof hill. In 1890, so-called Potin lumps were found, whose largest weights at the Prehistoric pile dwelling settlement Alpenquai in Zürich, Switzerland. The pieces consist of a large number of fused Celts coins, which are mixed with charcoal remnants. Some of the 18,000 coins originate from the Eastern Gaul, others are of the Zürich type, that were assigned to the local Helvetii, which date to around 100 BC. The find is so far unique, and the scientific research assumes that the melting down of the lump was not completed, therefore the aim was to form cultic offerings. The site of the find was at that time at least from the lake shore, and probably to three meters deep in the water. Keltisches Geld in Zürich: Der spektakuläre «Potinklumpen». Amt für Städtebau der Stadt Zürich, Stadtarchäologie, Zürich October 2007. There's also an island sanctuary of the Helvetii in connection with the settlement at the preceding Oppidi Uetliberg on the former Grosser Hafner island,Beat Eberschweiler: Schädelreste, Kopeken und Radar: Vielfältige Aufgaben für die Zürcher Tauchequipe IV. In: NAU 8/2001. Amt für Städtebau der Stadt Zürich, Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Unterwasserarchäologie / Labor für Dendrochronologie. Zürich 2001. as well as the settlement Kleiner Hafner at the Sechseläuten square on the effluence of the Limmat on Zürichsee lake shore.
The tribes began a joint invasion of Gaul, including the Roman Provincia Narbonensis. A Roman army under the consul L. Cassius Longinus opposed them. At the Battle of Burdigala near in 107 BC, the Tigurini killed Longinus and captured many of his soldiers. According to Caesar, the captured Roman soldiers were ordered to pass under a yoke set up by the triumphant Gauls, a dishonour that called for both public as well as private vengeance.Bell.Gall. 1.12. Caesar is the only narrative source for this episode, as the corresponding books of Livy's histories are preserved only in the Periochae, short summarising lists of contents, in which hostages given by the Romans, but no yoke, are mentioned. L. Cassius cos. a Tigurinis Gallis, pago Heluetiorum, qui a ciuitate secesserant, in finibus Nitiobrogum cum exercitu caesus est. / Milites, qui ex ea caede superauerant, obsidibus datis et dimidia rerum omnium parte, ut incolumes dimitterentur, cum hostibus pacti sunt. (Periochae LXV)
In 105 BC, the allies defeated another Roman army near Arausio and went on to harry Spain, Gaul, Noricum, and northern Italy. They split up in two groups in 103 BC, with the Teutones and Ambrones marching on a western route through the Provincia and the Cimbri and Tigurini crossing the eastern Alps (probably by the Brenner Pass). While the Teutones and Ambrones were slaughtered in 102 BC by Gaius Marius near Aquae Sextiae, the Cimbri and the Tigurini wintered in the Padan plain. The following year, Marius virtually destroyed the Cimbri in the battle of Vercellae. The Tigurini, who had planned on following the Cimbri, turned back over the Alps with their booty and joined those of the Helvetians who had not participated in the raids.
The nobleman Orgetorix is presented as the instigator of a new Helvetian migration, in which the entire tribe was to leave their territory and, according to Caesar, to establish a supremacy over all of Gaul. This exodus was planned over three years, in the course of which Orgetorix conspired with two noblemen from neighbouring tribes, Casticus of the Sequani and Dumnorix of the Aedui, that each should accomplish a coup d'état in his own country, after which the three new kings would collaborate. When word of his aspirations to make himself king reached the Helvetii, Orgetorix was summoned to stand trial, facing execution on the pyre should he be found guilty. For the time being, he averted a verdict by arriving at the hearing set for him with ten thousand followers and bondsmen; yet before the large force mustered by the authorities could apprehend him, he died under unexplained circumstances, the Helvetii believed by his own hand..
Nevertheless, the Helvetii did not give up their planned emigration, but burned their homes in 58 BC. (1999). 9782831571591, Berlitz Publishing Company. ISBN 9782831571591 They were joined by a number of tribal groups from neighbouring regions: the Raurici, the Latobrigi, the Tulingi and a group of Boii, who had besieged Noreia.. They abandoned their homes completely with the intention of settling among the Santones (Saintonge). The easiest route would take them through the Rhône valley, and thus through the Roman Provincia Narbonensis.
After the battle, the Romans quickly bridged the river, thereby prompting the Helvetii to once again send an embassy, this time led by Divico, another figure whom Caesar links to the ignominious defeat of 107 BC by calling him bello Cassio dux Helvetiorum (i.e. "leader of the Helvetii in the Cassian campaign"). What Divico had to offer was almost a surrender, namely to have the Helvetii settle wherever Caesar wished them to, although it was combined with the threat of an open battle if Caesar should refuse. Caesar demanded hostages to be given to him and reparations to the Aedui and Allobroges. Divico responded by saying that "they were accustomed to receive, not to give hostages; a fact the Roman people could testify to",Bell. Gall. 1.14. this once again being an allusion to the giving of hostages by the defeated Romans at Agen.
Leaving the largest part of their supplies behind, the Helvetii covered around 60 km in four days, eventually reaching the lands of the Lingones (the modern Langres plateau). Caesar did not pursue them until three days after the battle, while still sending messengers to the Lingones warning them not to assist the Helvetii in any way. The Helvetii then offered their immediate surrender and agreed both to providing hostages and to giving up their weapons the next day. In the course of the night, 6000 of the Verbigeni fled from the camp out of fear of being massacred once they were defenceless. Caesar sent riders after them and ordered those who were brought back to be "counted as enemies", which probably meant being sold into slavery.
Caesar's report has been partly confirmed by excavations near Geneva and Bibracte. However, much of his account has not yet been corroborated by archaeology, whilst his narrative must in wide parts be considered as biased and, in some points, unlikely. For a start, only one out of the fifteen Celtic Oppidum in the Helvetii territory so far has yielded evidence for destruction by fire. Many other sites, for example the sanctuary at Mormont, do not exhibit any signs of damage for the period in question, and Celtic life continued seemingly undisturbed for the rest of the 1st century BC up to the beginning of the Roman era, with an accent rather on an increase in prosperity than on a "Helvetic twilight".Furger-Gunti, 118ff. With the honourable status as foederati taken into account, it is hard to believe that the Helvetii ever sustained casualties quite as heavy as those given by the Roman military leader.
In general, numbers written down by ancient military authors have to be taken as gross exaggerations.Cf. G Walser, Caesar und die Germanen. Studien zur polit. Tendenz römischer Feldzubgerichte. Historia, Einzelschrifen, Vol. 1, 1956. What Caesar claims to have been 368,000 people is estimated by other sources to be rather around 300,000 (Plutarch), or 200,000 (Appian);To illustrate this staple of exaggeration with an example, one can take a look at the numbers given for the forces of two tribes as a basis for calculation. Caesar tells us (Bell. Gall. 3.1-6.) that his legate Galba was attacked by an army of 30,000 men of the Veragri and the Seduni, who lived around their capitals Octodurus and modern Sierre. Geiser ( Un monnayage celtique en Valais. Schweizerische numismatische Rundschau 63, p. 55-125, 1984) has been able to determine the extent of the former tribe's territory, and it will be safe to assume that the Veragri and Seduni together occupied about half the cultivated land of the Valais, with the Nantuates and Ubii inhabiting the other half. As commonly done for Celtic nations, in order to arrive at the total number of people, we multiply the number of fighting men by four, thus arriving at a total population of 120,000 for the two tribes combined. By adding an equal number of people for the two other tribes, one arrives at a total of 240,000 inhabitants for the Valais valley in the 1st century BC. In contrast, the modern-day Swiss canton has only 278,000 inhabitants, including the urban settlements. in the light of a critical analysis, even these numbers seem far too high. Furger-Gunti considers an army of more than 60,000 fighting men extremely unlikely in the view of the tactics described, and assumes the actual numbers to have been around 40,000 warriors out of a total of 160,000 emigrants.Furger-Gunti, 102. Delbrück suggests an even lower number of 100,000 people, out of which only 16,000 were fighters, which would make the Celtic force about half the size of the Roman body of c. 30,000 men.H. Delbrück Geschichte der Kriegskunst im Rahmen der politischen Geschichte, Vol. 1, 1900, pp. 428 and 459f. The real numbers will never be determined exactly. Caesar's specifications can at least be doubted by looking at the size of the baggage train that an exodus of 368,000 people would have required: Even for the reduced numbers that Furger-Gunti uses for his calculations, the baggage train would have stretched for at least 40 km, perhaps even as far as 100 km.Furger-Gunti, 104.
In spite of the now much more balanced numerical weight we have to assume for the two opposing armies, the battle seems far less glorious a victory than Caesar presented it to be. The main body of the Helvetii withdrew from the battle at nightfall, abandoning, as it seemed, most of their wagons, which they had drawn up into a wagon fort; they retreated northwards in a forced night march and reached the territory of the Lingones four days after the battle. What Caesar implies to have been a desperate flight without stopping could actually have been an ordered retreat of moderate speed, covering less than 40 km a day.Furger-Gunti (p. 116) allows only 60 km for the distance between Bibracte and the fines Lingonum, while Langres and Autun are in fact separated by more than twice this distance. For the average speed of pre-motorised travel, cf. Norbert Ohler Reisen im Mittelalter, p. 141. Caesar himself does not appear as a triumphant victor in turn, being unable to pursue the Helvetii for three days, "both on account of the wounds of the soldiers and the burial of the slain". However, it is clear that Caesar's warning to the Lingones not to supply his enemies was quite enough to make the Helvetii leaders once again offer peace. On what terms this peace was made is debatable, but as said before, the conclusion of a foedus casts some doubt on the totality of the defeat.
In the course of Augustus' reign, Roman dominance became more concrete. Some of the traditional Celtic oppida were now used as legionary garrisons, such as Vindonissa or Basilea (modern Basel); others were relocated, such as the hill-fort on the Bois de Châtel, whose inhabitants founded the new "capital" of the civitas at nearby Aventicum. First incorporated into the Roman province of Gallia Belgica, later into the Germania Superior and finally into the Diocletian province of Maxima Sequanorum, the former territories of the Helvetii and their inhabitants were as thoroughly romanised as the rest of Gaul.
The Swiss plateau was gradually romanized during the 1st to 3rd centuries. The principal Roman settlements were the cities of Iulia Equestris (Nyon), Aventicum (Avenches), Augusta Raurica (Augst) and Vindonissa (Windisch). Evidence has also been found of almost twenty Roman villages ( vici) and hundreds of Roman villa.Ducrey, p. 83.
In the course of Romanization, the Celtic polytheism of the Helvetians was Syncretism with Roman religion. The Celtic deities came to be worshiped under the names of their Roman counterparts, and Roman gods acquired the names of local gods, such as Mars Caturix, Mercurius Cissonius and Jupiter Poeninus. A major cultic center of Gallo-Roman religion, consisting of eight chapels or small temples, was found in Allmendingen near Thun. Deities worshipped at the site included Mars (presumably in lieu of Caturix) and Rosmerta as well as Mithras.Prümm "zur kaiserzeitlichen Religionslage in der Schweiz", Religionsgeschichliches Handbuch (1954), p. 766.
Although the Gaulish language had mostly been ousted by Vulgar Latin by the 3rd century, many Celtic toponymy have survived in Switzerland. Of the ten largest present-day Swiss cities, at least six have Celtic placename etymologies,Zürich ( Turicum), Geneva ( Genava), Bern ( Berna, see Bern zinc tablet), Lausanne ( Lausodunon), Winterthur ( Vitudurum), Biel/Bienne ( Belena, derived from the theonym Belenos). Derivation of the names of Lucerne and Lugano are uncertain, the latter may contain the theonym Lugus. Basel is the site of a Celtic oppidum, but its name dates to the Roman era, derived from the personal name Basilius, while St. Gallen is an early medieval foundation. and most major Swiss rivers have either Celtic or pre-Celtic names.Rhine ( Renos), Aare (see Berne zinc tablet), Rhône ( Rodonos), Linth/Limmat, Saane/Sarine, Thur. The name of the Reuss (formerly Silana) is of Germanic origin.
The order and prosperity of the Pax Romana ended with the Crisis of the Third Century. In 260, when the Gallic Empire briefly seceded from Rome, emperor Gallienus withdrew the legions from the Rhine to fight the usurper Ingenuus, allowing the Alemanni to invade the Swiss plateau. There, cities, villages and most villae were raided or sacked by marauding bands. The numerous caches of coins recovered from the period between 250 and 280 attest to the severity of the crisis.Ducrey, Pierre (2006). "Die ersten Kulturen zwischen Alpen und Jura". Geschichte der Schweiz und der Schweizer (4th ed.), Schwabe, p. 101.
The Helvetii were re-discovered as the forebears of the Swiss people in the early historiography of Switzerland, in the late 15th to early 16th century.The identification of Suecia, alias Helvicia, inde Helvici, id est Suetones is found in a gloss from Reichenau Abbey, dated to the late 15th century. Guy P. Marchal, "Die frommen Schweden in Schwyz: Das 'Herkommen der Schwyzer und Oberhasler' als Quelle zum schwyzerischen Selbstverständnis im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert", Basler Beiträge zur zur Geschichtswissenschaft Vol. 138), Basel/Stuttgart 1976, p. 65. Their name was adopted as the Neo-Latin equivalent of the designation Switzer, and the Swiss Confederacy was given the Latin name of Republica Helvetiorum. The name of the national personification of Switzerland, Helvetia, and the country's contemporary Neo-Latin name, Confoederatio Helvetica (abbreviated CH), are derived from this tradition.
In 2015, the star 51 Pegasi, the first main sequence star found to have an exoplanet, was named Helvetios after the Helvetii as part of the IAU's NameExoWorlds contest.
Almost all the Helvetic Oppidum were built in the vicinity of the larger rivers of the Swiss midlands. Not all of them existed at the same time. For most of them, we do not have any idea as to what their Gaulish names might have been, with one or two possible exceptions. Where a pre-Roman name is preserved, it is added in brackets.Cf. Furger-Gunti 1984, S. 50–58. Those marked with an asterisk (*) were most likely occupied by neighbouring tribes (Raurici, Veragri, etc.) rather than the Helvetii.
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