fme_1009071 - HELVETI (Current Switzerland) Médaille, Reproduction du Potin du “type de Zürich”, n°177

HELVETII (Currently Switzerland)

(3rd - 1st century BC)

The Helvetians occupied the territory of present-day Switzerland. Their neighbors were the Séquanes and the Allobroges. According to Pliny's account, it was Helicon, a Helvetian, who would have made wine known to the Gauls, which would have pushed them to invade Italy in the 4th century BC.. -VS. The Helvetians were divided into four pagi including the Tigurins and the Verbigenins. In 58 BC. -VS. , according to Caesar, their territory included forty-two strongholds and four hundred villages. They are at the origin of the intervention of the Roman armies in Gaul. Indeed, pushed by the Germans, they would have decided to emigrate towards the West towards the country of Santons, by crossing the territory of Séquanes, Lingons and Aedui. The latter appealed to Caesar to defend them in the name of the friendship that bound them to the Romans.. The Helvetians, to be sure not to return, destroyed their villages, their houses and their crops.. Defeated near Bibracte, the survivors were forced to return to their home territory. The Helvetians provided a contingent of eight thousand men for the relief army. Caesar (BG. I; IV, 10; VI, 25; VII, 75). Kruta: 16, 44, 51, 71, 94, 244, 310, 312, 338, 350, 352-353, 359, 362, 364.