Editing Helvetii (section)

=== Caesar and the Helvetian campaign of 58 BC ===
[[Image:Divico und Caesar.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Julius Caesar]] and [[Divico]] parley after the battle at the Saône. Historic painting of the 19th century by [[Karl Jauslin]].]]

==== Prelude ====
The Helvetii were the first Gallic tribe of the campaign to be confronted by Caesar. He narrates the events of the conflict in the opening sections of ''[[Commentarii de Bello Gallico]]''.<ref>Book 1, Chapters 2-29</ref> Due to the political nature of the ''Commentarii'', Caesar's purpose in publicizing his own achievements may have distorted the significance of events and the motives of those who participated.<ref>{{cite book |title=Julius Caesar as Artful Reporter: The War Commentaries as Political Instruments |editor-first=Kathryn |editor-last=Welch |editor2-first=Anton |editor2-last=Powell |editor3-first=Jonathan |editor3-last=Powell |location=Swansea |publisher=Classical Press of Wales |year=1998 |at=passim}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{harvnb|Caesar|58 BC|loc=Book I Section 4}}.</ref>

Nevertheless, the Helvetii did not give up their planned emigration, but burned their homes in 58 BC.<ref>{{cite book|title=Berlitz: Switzerland Pocket Guide|date=April 1999|chapter=A Brief History|publisher=[[Berlitz Corporation|Berlitz Publishing Company]]|location=Princeton, NJ|page=14|isbn=2-8315-7159-6}}</ref> 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]].<ref>{{harvnb|Caesar|58 BC|loc=Book I Section 5}}.</ref> They abandoned their homes completely with the intention of settling among the [[Santones]] ([[Saintonge (region)|Saintonge]]). The easiest route would take them through the [[Rhône valley]], and thus through the Roman ''[[Provincia Narbonensis]]''.

==== Battle of the Saône ====
When they reached the boundaries of the [[Allobroges]], the northernmost tribe of the ''Provincia'', they found that Caesar had already dismantled the bridge of [[Geneva]] to stop their advance. The Helvetians sent "the most illustrious men of their state" to negotiate, promising a peaceful passage through the ''Provincia''. Caesar stalled them by asking for some time for consideration, which he used to assemble reinforcements and to fortify the southern banks of the [[Rhône]]. When the embassy returned on the agreed-upon date, he was strong enough to bluntly reject their offer. The Helvetii now chose the more difficult northern route through the [[Sequani]] territory, which traversed the [[Jura Mountains]] via a very narrow pass at the site of the modern [[Fort l'Écluse]], but bypassed the ''Provincia''. After ravaging the lands of the [[Aedui]] tribe, who called upon Caesar to help them, they began the crossing of the [[Saône]], which took them several days. As only a quarter of their forces were left on the eastern banks, Caesar attacked and routed them. According to Caesar, those killed had been the [[Tigurini]], on whom he had now taken revenge in the name of the Republic and his family.<ref>''Is pagus appellabatur Tigurinus; nam omnis civitas Helvetia in quattuor pagos divisa est. Hic pagus unus, cum domo exisset, patrum nostrorum memoria L. Cassium consulem interfecerat et eius exercitum sub iugum miserat. Ita sive casu sive consilio deorum immortalium quae pars civitatis Helvetiae insignem calamitatem populo Romano intulerat, ea princeps poenam persolvit. Qua in re Caesar non solum publicas, sed etiam privatas iniurias ultus est, quod eius soceri L. Pisonis avum, L. Pisonem legatum, Tigurini eodem proelio quo Cassium interfecerant.'' Bell. Gall. 1.12.</ref>

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",<ref>Bell. Gall. 1.14.</ref> this once again being an allusion to the giving of hostages by the defeated Romans at [[Agen]].

==== Battle of Bibracte ====
In the cavalry battle that followed, the Helvetii prevailed over Caesar's Aedui allies under [[Dumnorix]]' command, and continued their journey, while Caesar's army was being detained by delays in his grain supplies, caused by the Aedui on the instigations of [[Dumnorix]], who had married [[Orgetorix]]' daughter. A few days later, however, near the Aeduan ''oppidum'' [[Bibracte]], Caesar caught up with the Helvetii and faced them in a major [[Battle of Bibracte|battle]], which ended in the Helvetii's retreat and the capture of most of their baggage by the Romans.

Leaving the largest part of their supplies behind, the Helvetii covered around 60&nbsp;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.

==== Return of the migrants ====
In order for them to defend the Rhine frontier against the Germans, he then allowed the Helvetii, Tulingi and Latobrigi to return to their territories and to rebuild their homes, instructing the [[Allobroges]] to supply them with a sufficient supply of grain. Caesar does not mention the [[Raurici]], who seem to have built a new ''oppidum'' at [[Basel-Münsterhügel]] upon their return. The [[Aedui]] were granted their wish that the [[Boii]] who had accompanied the Helvetii would settle on their own territory as allies in the ''oppidum'' [[Gorgobina]]. The nature of Caesar's arrangement with the Helvetii and the other tribes is not further specified by the [[Roman consul|consul]] himself, but in his speech ''[http://la.wikisource.org/wiki/Pro_Cornelio_Balbo Pro Balbo]'' of 56 BC, [[Cicero]] mentions the Helvetii as one among several tribes of ''[[foederati]]'', i.e. allied nations who were neither citizens of the Republic nor her subjects, but obliged by treaty to support the Romans with a certain number of fighting men.<ref>Cic. Balb. 32.</ref>

==== 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.

==== Questions of motive ====
As Caesar's account is heavily influenced by his political agenda, it is difficult to determine the actual motive of the Helvetii movement of 58 BC. One might see the movement in the light of a Celtic retreat from areas which were later to become Germanic; it can be debated whether they ever had plans to settle in the [[Saintonge (region)|Saintonge]], as Caesar claims (Bell. Gall. 1,10.). It was certainly in the latter's personal interest to emphasise any kind of parallel between the traumatic experience of the [[Cimbri]]an and [[Teutones|Teutonic]] incursions and the alleged threat that the Helvetii were to the Roman world. The [[Tigurini]]'s part in the destruction of [[Lucius Cassius Longinus (consul 107 BC)|L. Cassius Longinus]] and his army was a welcome pretext to engage in an offensive war in Gaul whose proceeds permitted Caesar not only to fulfil his obligations to the numerous creditors he owed money to, but also to further strengthen his position within the late Republic.<ref>Cf. Birkhan, 243f.</ref> In this sense, even the character of [[Divico]], who makes his appearance in the ''Commentarii'' half a century after his victory over L. Cassius Longinus, seems more like another hackneyed argument stressing Caesar's justification to attack,{{citation needed|date=September 2021}} than like an actual historical figure. That the victor of [[Agen]] was still alive in 58 BC or, if yes, that he was physically still capable of undertaking such a journey at all, seems more than doubtful.