Editing Helvetii (section)

==== Caesar's report of the numbers ====
According to the victor, tablets with lists in [[Greek alphabet|Greek characters]] were found at the Helvetian camp, listing in detail all men able to bear arms with their names and giving a total number for the women, children and elderly who accompanied them.<ref>Bell. Gall. 1.29.</ref> The numbers added up to a total of 263,000 Helvetii, 36,000 [[Tulingi]], 14,000 [[Latobrigi]], 23,000 [[Rauraci]], and 32,000 [[Boii]], all in all 368,000 heads, 92,000 of whom were warriors. A census of those who had returned to their homes listed 110,000 survivors, which meant that only about 30 percent of the emigrants had survived the war.

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{{which|date=January 2013}} out of the fifteen Celtic ''[[Oppidum|oppida]]'' in the Helvetii territory so far has yielded evidence for destruction by fire.{{citation needed|date=January 2013}} 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".<ref>Furger-Gunti, 118ff.</ref> 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.<ref>Cf. G Walser, ''Caesar und die Germanen. Studien zur polit. Tendenz römischer Feldzubgerichte.'' Historia, Einzelschrifen, Vol. 1, 1956.</ref> 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]]);<ref>To illustrate this staple of exaggeration with an example, one can take a look at the numbers given for the forces of two [[Valais]]an tribes as a basis for calculation. Caesar tells us (Bell. Gall. 3.1-6.) that his legate [[Servius Sulpicius Galba (praetor 54 BC)|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 [[Cantons of Switzerland|canton]] has only 278,000 inhabitants, including the urban settlements.</ref> 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.<ref>Furger-Gunti, 102.</ref> 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.<ref>H. Delbrück ''Geschichte der Kriegskunst im Rahmen der politischen Geschichte'', Vol. 1, 1900, pp. 428 and 459f.</ref> 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&nbsp;km, perhaps even as far as 100&nbsp;km.<ref>Furger-Gunti, 104.</ref>

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&nbsp;km a day.<ref>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.</ref> 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.