Helvetii

Preeminent among the Helvetii in rank and wealth was Orgetorix.

In the consulship of Marcus Messala and Marcus Piso, he organized a conspiracy among the nobles in the hope of making himself king, and he persuaded the community to undertake a national emigration, as, being the most warlike of all the Gallic peoples, they could easily achieve dominion over the whole of Gaul.

He had no difficulty in convincing them, because their country is limited everywhere by natural features, on one side by the Rhine, a broad, deep river which separates the Helvetian territory from the Germans, on another by the lofty range of the Jura between the Helvetii and the Sequani, on a third by the lake of Geneva and the Rhone which separates our province from the Helvetii.

These limits restricted their movements and made it comparatively difficult for them to attack their neighbors, and, being a warlike people, they chafed under this restraint.

Moreover, considering their numbers and their renown as valiant warriors, they felt that their territories, only 240 miles long by 180 broad, were too small.

Attacking them unexpectedly while their movements were impeded, he destroyed a great many.

The rest took to flight and concealed themselves in the neighboring woods.

The clan in question was called the Tigurini, the entire Helvetian community being divided into four clans.

The first test came almost immediately.

In 58, the Helvetii, a people from the region of modern Switzerland, began migrating west, and Caesar moved to stop them.

He caught them near Bibracte and defeated them, and later that same year he turned on Ariovistus, a Germanic king who settled in Gaul with his followers, beat him too, and pushed his forces back across the Rhine.

He moved north the next year, in 57, against the Belgae, whom Caesar himself calls the bravest of all the Gauls in the opening line of his account, and by the end of the season much of the north had submitted.

Contemporary coins show how the Gaulish tribes each had their own identity.

The Parisii, who lived where Paris is today, the Arverni, who give their name to the Auvergne, and the tribe that caused the trouble, the Helvetii.

What Caesar had to deal with was a major immigration problem.

The Helvetii lived in what's now Switzerland, but when they were attacked by German tribes, they started migrating to southwest France.

The easiest route south took them across a bridge over the Rhone at Geneva, down the Rhone Valley, and then cut west across Transalpine Gaul, Roman territory.

To stop them trespassing, Caesar moved north at lightning speed.

This is where the Rhone leaves Lake Geneva.

The bridge that the Helvetii were flooding across was somewhere around here, where that island is.

For what a trifling obstacle would a river be to the various tribes as they grew in strength and wished to possess in exchange settlements which were still open to all and not partitioned among powerful monarchies.

Accordingly, the country between the Hercynian forest and the rivers Rhine and Manus and that which lies beyond was occupied respectively by the Helvetii and Boii, both tribes of Gaul.

The name Boium still survives, marking the old tradition of the place, though the population has been changed.

Whether, however, the Aravisci migrated into Pannonia from the Osi, a German race, or whether the Osi came from the Aravisci into Germany, as both nations still retain the same language, institutions, and customs, is a doubtful matter.

Contemporary coins show how the Gaulish tribes each had their own identity.

The Parisii, who lived where Paris is today, the Arverni, who give their name to the Auvergne, and the tribe that caused the trouble, the Helvetii.

What Caesar had to deal with was a major immigration problem.

The Helvetii lived in what's now Switzerland, but when they were attacked by German tribes, they started migrating to southwest France.

The easiest route south took them across a bridge over the Rhone at Geneva, down the Rhone Valley, and then cut west across Transalpine Gaul, Roman territory.

To stop them trespassing, Caesar moved north at lightning speed.

This is where the Rhone leaves Lake Geneva.

The bridge that the Helvetii were flooding across was somewhere around here where that island is.

When they crossed into Transalpine Gaul, they were not only soldiers They were builders of a story.

The tribes of Gaul, the Helvetii, the Belgae, the Arverni, and a dozen others had lived in fragile balance for centuries, trading with Rome and fighting among themselves.

Caesar knew how to exploit division.

He was not simply a general of swords, he was a general of minds.

When the Helvetii, a vast migrating tribe, began moving westward, burning their villages behind them, Caesar saw opportunity.

He portrayed their movement as a threat to Roman allies and declared war in the name of defense.

It was a lie, but in Rome, lies became laws when spoken with conviction.

He ordered his legions to block the Helvetii's path at the Rhone.

For what a trifling obstacle would a river be to the various tribes as they grew in strength and wished to possess in exchange settlements which were still open to all, and not partitioned among powerful monarchies.

Accordingly the country between the Hercynian forest and the rivers Rhine and Manus, and that which lies beyond, was occupied respectively by the Helvetii and Boii, both tribes of Gaul.

The name Boium still survives, marking the old tradition of the place, though the population has been changed.

Whether however the Aravisci migrated into Pannonia from the Osi, a German race, or whether the Osi came from the Aravisci into Germany, as both nations still retain the same language, institutions, and customs, is a doubtful matter.

Once, too, upon a journey he and his followers were driven by a storm into a poor man's hut, and when he found that it consisted of one room only, and that one barely able to accommodate a single person, he said to his friends that honors must be yielded to the strongest, but necessities to the weakest, and bade Oppius lie down there, while he himself with the rest of his company slept in the porch.

Chapter 18 But to resume, the first of his Gallic wars was against the Helvetii and Tigurini, who had set fire to their twelve cities and four hundred villages, and were advancing through that part of Gaul which was subject to the Romans, as once the Cimbri and Teutones had done.

To these they were thought to be not inferior in courage and of equal numbers, being three hundred thousand in all, of whom one hundred and ninety thousand were fighting men.

The Tigurini were crushed at the river Arar, not by Caesar himself, but by Labienus his deputy.

The Helvetii, however, unexpectedly attacked Caesar himself on the march, as he was leading his forces towards a friendly city.

But he succeeded in reaching a strong place of refuge.

Here, after he had collected and arrayed his forces, a horse was brought to him.