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126-576: Lausonius Lacus or Lacus Lausonius was an ancient name referencing a town or region in the country of the Helvetii about Lake Geneva ; it was also an ancient name of the lake itself. The Antonine Itinerary describes a road from Mediolanum (modern Milan ) through Geneva to Argentoratum (modern Strasbourg ). Sixteen Roman miles from Geneva, on the road to Strasbourg, the Itinerary places Equestris (Colonia Equestris or Noviodunum ) (modern Nyon ); and

252-465: 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

378-523: A 26-letter alphabet, which makes an early appearance incised for decoration on a small bucchero terracotta lidded vase in the shape of a cockerel at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, ca. 650–600 BC. The full complement of 26 has been termed the model alphabet. The Etruscans did not use four letters of it, mainly because Etruscan did not have the voiced stops b , d and g ; the o was also not used. They innovated one letter for f ( 𐌚 ). Writing

504-573: 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

630-541: A Helvetian uprising, was executed. In spite of the extensive damage and devastations the civitas had already sustained, according to Tacitus the Helvetii were saved from total annihilation owing to the pleas of one Claudius Cossus, a Helvetian envoy to Vitellius, and, as Tacitus puts it, "of well-known eloquence". Roman occupation in the aftermath of the Gallic Wars had pacified the Celtic-Germanic contact zone along

756-411: A Roman army under L. Cassius Longinus near Agendicum in 107 BC, in which the consul was killed. 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. Caesar is the only narrative source for this episode, as the corresponding books of Livy 's histories are preserved only in

882-414: A Roman detachment. Aulus Caecina Alienus , a former supporter of Galba who was now at the head of a Vitellian invasion of Italy, launched a massive punitive campaign, crushing the Helvetii under their commander Claudius Severus and routing the remnants of their forces at Mount Vocetius , killing and enslaving thousands. The capital Aventicum surrendered, and Julius Alpinus , head of what was now seen as

1008-526: A bilingual text in Etruscan and Phoenician engraved on three gold leaves, one for the Phoenician and two for the Etruscan. The Etruscan language portion has 16 lines and 37 words. The date is roughly 500 BC. The tablets were found in 1964 by Massimo Pallottino during an excavation at the ancient Etruscan port of Pyrgi , now Santa Severa . The only new Etruscan word that could be extracted from close analysis of

1134-539: A bit longer, and that a survival into the late 1st century AD and beyond "cannot wholly be dismissed", especially given the revelation of Oscan writing in Pompeii 's walls. Despite the apparent extinction of Etruscan, it appears that Etruscan religious rites continued much later, continuing to use the Etruscan names of deities and possibly with some liturgical usage of the language. In late Republican and early Augustan times, various Latin sources including Cicero noted

1260-563: A certain inner autonomy, including the defence of certain strongholds by their own troops. In the civil war which followed Nero's death, the civitas Helvetiorum supported Galba ; unaware of his death, they refused to accept the authority of his rival, Vitellius . The Legio XXI Rapax , stationed in Vindonissa and favouring Vitellius, stole the pay of a Helvetian garrison, which prompted the Helvetians to intercept Vitellian messengers and detain

1386-411: A cross-linguistically common phonological system, with four phonemic vowels and an apparent contrast between aspirated and unaspirated stops . The records of the language suggest that phonetic change took place over time, with the loss and then re-establishment of word-internal vowels, possibly due to the effect of Etruscan's word-initial stress . Etruscan religion was influenced by that of

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1512-473: A day. 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,

1638-584: A few dozen Etruscan words and names were borrowed by the Romans, some of which remain in modern languages, among which are possibly voltur 'vulture', tuba 'trumpet', vagina 'sheath', populus 'people'. Inscriptions have been found in northwest and west-central Italy, in the region that even now bears the name of the Etruscan civilization , Tuscany (from Latin tuscī 'Etruscans'), as well as in modern Latium north of Rome, in today's Umbria west of

1764-512: A few dozen purported loanwords . Attested from 700 BC to AD 50, the relation of Etruscan to other languages has been a source of long-running speculation and study, with it mostly being referred to as one of the Tyrsenian languages , at times as an isolate , and a number of other less well-known hypotheses. The consensus among linguists and Etruscologists is that Etruscan was a Pre-Indo-European and Paleo-European language , closely related to

1890-733: A few lexical correspondences are documented, at least partly due to the scant number of Raetic and Lemnian texts. On the other hand, the Tyrsenian family, or Common Tyrrhenic, is often considered to be Paleo-European and to predate the arrival of Indo-European languages in southern Europe. Several scholars believe that the Lemnian language could have arrived in the Aegean Sea during the Late Bronze Age , when Mycenaean rulers recruited groups of mercenaries from Sicily , Sardinia and various parts of

2016-523: A large number of fused Celtic 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

2142-553: 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

2268-482: A place or district, as D'Anville calls it, named "Vidi" (modern Vidy ). The distance from Geneva to Nyon, along the lake, is about 15 English miles (24 km); and from Nyon to Lausanne, about 22 or 23 miles (35 to 37 km). The distance from Geneva to Nyon is quite close, allowing for the variability of a coastal road; but the 20 Roman miles from Equestris to the Lacus Lausonius is not enough. If Vidi, which

2394-399: A rare case from this early period of a female (Venalia) dedicating the votive. A speculum is a circular or oval hand-mirror used predominantly by Etruscan women. Speculum is Latin; the Etruscan word is malena or malstria . Specula were cast in bronze as one piece or with a tang into which a wooden, bone, or ivory handle fitted. The reflecting surface was created by polishing

2520-601: A symbolic motif: Apollo , Zeus , Culsans , Athena , Hermes , griffin , gorgon , male sphinx , hippocamp , bull, snake, eagle, or other creatures which had symbolic significance. Wallace et al. include the following categories, based on the uses to which they were put, on their site: abecedaria (alphabets), artisans' texts, boundary markers, construction texts, dedications, didaskalia (instructional texts), funerary texts, legal texts, other/unclear texts, prohibitions, proprietary texts (indicating ownership), religious texts, tesserae hospitales (tokens that establish "the claim of

2646-553: Is confirmed by the Alexandrian geographer Claudius Ptolemaios (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 . The abandonment of this northern territory is now usually placed in the late 2nd century BC, around the time of

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2772-451: Is considered to have possibly been able to read Etruscan, and authored the Tyrrhenika , a (now lost) treatise on Etruscan history ; a separate dedication made by Claudius implies a knowledge from "diverse Etruscan sources", but it is unclear if any were fluent speakers of Etruscan. Plautia Urgulanilla , the emperor's first wife, had Etruscan roots. Etruscan had some influence on Latin, as

2898-505: Is generally interpreted as (h)elu-ētioi ('rich in land'), from elu - ('numerous', cf. OIr. il ) attached to etu - ('grassland'; cf. OIr. iath ). The presence of the initial h -, remnant of a previous p - ( PIE *pelh 1 u- > 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. The inscription in Etruscan letters reads eluveitie, which has been interpreted as

3024-420: Is one explanation of the Etruscan "impossible" consonant clusters. Some of the consonants, especially resonants , however, may have been syllabic, accounting for some of the clusters (see below under Consonants ). In other cases, the scribe sometimes inserted a vowel: Greek Hēraklēs became Hercle by syncopation and then was expanded to Herecele . Pallottino regarded this variation in vowels as "instability in

3150-447: 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

3276-434: Is published in its own fascicle by diverse Etruscan scholars. A cista is a bronze container of circular, ovoid, or more rarely rectangular shape used by women for the storage of sundries. They are ornate, often with feet and lids to which figurines may be attached. The internal and external surfaces bear carefully crafted scenes usually from mythology, usually intaglio, or rarely part intaglio, part cameo . Cistae date from

3402-630: Is that Etruscan, and therefore all the languages of the Tyrrhenian family, is neither Indo-European nor Semitic, and may be a Pre–Indo-European and Paleo-European language. At present the major consensus is that Etruscan's only kinship is with the Raetic and Lemnian languages. The idea of a relation between the language of the Minoan Linear A scripts was taken into consideration as the main hypothesis by Michael Ventris before he discovered that, in fact,

3528-457: Is thought to have died out, Ammianus Marcellinus reports that Julian the Apostate , the last pagan Emperor, apparently had Etruscan soothsayers accompany him on his military campaigns with books on war, lightning and celestial events, but the language of these books is unknown. According to Zosimus , when Rome was faced with destruction by Alaric in 408 AD, the protection of nearby Etruscan towns

3654-556: Is west of Lausanne, is assumed to be the place, the measures will agree better. D'Anville cites M. Bochat as authority for an inscription, with the name Lousonnenses , having been dug up at Vidi, in 1739; and he adds that there are remains there. Lousanna is the historical Roman settlement in the area, an important vicus where about 1500 people lived at its peak. Helvetii 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,

3780-744: 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

3906-656: The Anatolian branch . More recently, Robert S. P. Beekes argued in 2002 that the people later known as the Lydians and Etruscans had originally lived in northwest Anatolia , with a coastline to the Sea of Marmara , whence they were driven by the Phrygians circa 1200 BC, leaving a remnant known in antiquity as the Tyrsenoi . A segment of this people moved south-west to Lydia , becoming known as

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4032-831: The Etruscan form of the Celtic elu̯eti̯os ("the Helvetian"), presumably referring to a man of Helvetian descent living in Mantua. Of the four Helvetian pagi or sub-tribes, Caesar names only the Verbigeni ( Bell. Gall. 1.27) and the Tigurini (1.12), Posidonius the Tigurini and the Tougeni ( Τωυγενοί ). There has been substantial debate in Swiss historiography (beginning with Felix Stähelin 1927) on whether

4158-515: 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

4284-554: The Latin terms civitas ("state" or "tribe") and magistratus ("officials"). In his Natural History (c. 77 AD), Pliny provides a foundation myth for the Celtic settlement of Cisalpine Gaul in which a Helvetian named Helico plays the role of culture hero . Helico had worked in Rome as a craftsman and then returned to his home north of the Alps with a dried fig, a grape, and some oil and wine,

4410-659: The Limmat on Zürichsee lake shore. The Germanic tribes of the Cimbri and Ambrones probably reached southern Germany around the year 111 BC, where they were joined by the Tigurini , and, probably the Teutoni-Toutonoi-Toygenoi. (The precise identity of the latter group is unclear). The tribes began a joint invasion of Gaul, including the Roman Provincia Narbonensis , which led to the Tigurini's victory over

4536-607: The Lydians , while others sailed away to take refuge in Italy, where they became known as Etruscans. This account draws on the well-known story by Herodotus (I, 94) of the Lydian origin of the Etruscans or Tyrrhenians, famously rejected by Dionysius of Halicarnassus (book I), partly on the authority of Xanthus, a Lydian historian, who had no knowledge of the story, and partly on what he judged to be

4662-615: The Periochae , short summarising lists of contents, in which hostages given by the Romans, but no yoke, are mentioned. 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

4788-582: The Raetic language that was spoken in the Alps , and to the Lemnian language , attested in a few inscriptions on Lemnos . The Etruscan alphabet is similar to the Greek one. Therefore, linguists have been able to read the inscriptions in the sense of knowing roughly how they would have been pronounced, but have not yet understood their meaning. A comparison between the Etruscan and Greek alphabets reveals how accurately

4914-591: The Roman Republic of the fourth and third centuries BC in Etruscan contexts. They may bear various short inscriptions concerning the manufacturer or owner or subject matter. The writing may be Latin, Etruscan, or both. Excavations at Praeneste , an Etruscan city which became Roman, turned up about 118 cistae, one of which has been termed "the Praeneste cista" or "the Ficoroni cista" by art analysts, with special reference to

5040-716: The Tiber , in the Po Valley to the north of Etruria, and in Campania . This range may indicate a maximum Italian homeland where the language was at one time spoken. Outside Italy, inscriptions have been found in Corsica , Gallia Narbonensis , Greece , the Balkans . But by far the greatest concentration is in Italy. In 1998, Helmut Rix put forward the view that Etruscan is related to other extinct languages such as Raetic , spoken in ancient times in

5166-538: The Tigurini , on whom he had now taken revenge in the name of the Republic and his family. 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

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5292-558: The University of Utrecht . Alinei's proposal has been rejected by Etruscan experts such as Giulio M. Facchetti, Finno-Ugric experts such as Angela Marcantonio, and by Hungarian historical linguists such as Bela Brogyanyi. Another proposal, pursued mainly by a few linguists from the former Soviet Union, suggested a relationship with Northeast Caucasian (or Nakh-Daghestanian) languages. None of these theories has been accepted nor enjoys consensus. The Latin script owes its existence to

5418-474: The Villanovan period to about 100 BC, when presumably the cemeteries were abandoned in favor of Roman ones. Some of the major cemeteries are as follows: One example of an early (pre-fifth century BC) votive inscription is on a bucchero oinochoe (wine vase): ṃiṇi mulvaṇịce venalia ṡlarinaṡ. en mipi kapi ṃi(r) ṇuṇai = "Venalia Ṡlarinaṡ gave me. Do not touch me (?), I (am) nunai (an offering?)." This seems to be

5544-490: The eastern Alps , and Lemnian , to which other scholars added Camunic language , spoken in the Central Alps . Rix's Tyrsenian language family has gained widespread acceptance among scholars, being confirmed by Stefan Schumacher, Norbert Oettinger, Carlo De Simone , and Simona Marchesini. Common features between Etruscan, Raetic, and Lemnian have been found in morphology , phonology , and syntax , but only

5670-531: The "Aramaic" spoken by Noah and his descendants, founders of the Etruscan city Viterbo . The 19th century saw numerous attempts to reclassify Etruscan. Ideas of Semitic origins found supporters until this time. In 1858, the last attempt was made by Johann Gustav Stickel , Jena University in his Das Etruskische durch Erklärung von Inschriften und Namen als semitische Sprache erwiesen . A reviewer concluded that Stickel brought forward every possible argument which would speak for that hypothesis, but he proved

5796-443: The 2nd century BC, still alive in the first century BC, and surviving in at least one location in the beginning of the first century AD; however, the replacement of Etruscan by Latin likely occurred earlier in southern regions closer to Rome. In southern Etruria , the first Etruscan site to be Latinized was Veii , when it was destroyed and repopulated by Romans in 396 BC. Caere ( Cerveteri ), another southern Etruscan town on

5922-467: The 4th-century AD Latin writer Maurus Servius Honoratus , a fourth set of Etruscan books existed, dealing with animal gods, but it is unlikely that any scholar living in that era could have read Etruscan. However, only one book (as opposed to inscription), the Liber Linteus , survived, and only because the linen on which it was written was used as mummy wrappings. By 30 BC, Livy noted that Etruscan

6048-532: The Aeduan oppidum Bibracte , Caesar caught up with the Helvetii and faced them in a major 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 km in four days, eventually reaching the lands of the Lingones (the modern Langres plateau). Caesar did not pursue them until three days after

6174-581: The British scholar Isaac Taylor brought up the idea of a genetic relationship between Etruscan and Hungarian , of which also Jules Martha would approve in his exhaustive study La langue étrusque (1913). In 1911, the French orientalist Baron Carra de Vaux suggested a connection between Etruscan and the Altaic languages . The Hungarian connection was revived by Mario Alinei , emeritus professor of Italian languages at

6300-683: The Early Iron Age Latins , and that the Etruscan language, and therefore the other languages of the Tyrrhenian family, may be a surviving language of the ones that were widespread in Europe from at least the Neolithic period before the arrival of the Indo-European languages, as already argued by German geneticist Johannes Krause who concluded that it is likely that the Etruscan language (as well as Basque , Paleo-Sardinian and Minoan ) "developed on

6426-498: The Etruscan alphabet, which was adapted for Latin in the form of the Old Italic script . The Etruscan alphabet employs a Euboean variant of the Greek alphabet using the letter digamma and was in all probability transmitted through Pithecusae and Cumae , two Euboean settlements in southern Italy. This system is ultimately derived from West Semitic scripts . The Etruscans recognized

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6552-545: The Etruscan apogee from the second half of the sixth to the first centuries BC. The two main theories of manufacture are native Etruscan and Greek. The materials are mainly dark red carnelian , with agate and sard entering usage from the third to the first centuries BC, along with purely gold finger rings with a hollow engraved bezel setting . The engravings, mainly cameo, but sometimes intaglio, depict scarabs at first and then scenes from Greek mythology, often with heroic personages called out in Etruscan. The gold setting of

6678-414: The Etruscan language found its modern origin in a book by a Renaissance Dominican friar, Annio da Viterbo , a cabalist and orientalist now remembered mainly for literary forgeries. In 1498, Annio published his antiquarian miscellany titled Antiquitatum variarum (in 17 volumes) where he put together a theory in which both the Hebrew and Etruscan languages were said to originate from a single source,

6804-490: The Etruscans preserved the Greek alphabet. The Etruscan alphabet contains letters that have since been dropped from the Greek alphabet, such as the digamma , sampi and qoppa . Grammatically, the language is agglutinating , with nouns and verbs showing suffixed inflectional endings and some gradation of vowels . Nouns show five cases , singular and plural numbers , with a gender distinction between animate and inanimate in pronouns . Etruscan appears to have had

6930-512: The Greeks , and many of the few surviving Etruscan-language artifacts are of votive or religious significance. Etruscan was written in an alphabet derived from the Greek alphabet ; this alphabet was the source of the Latin alphabet , as well as other alphabets in Italy and probably beyond. The Etruscan language is also believed to be the source of certain important cultural words of Western Europe such as military and person , which do not have obvious Indo-European roots. Etruscan literacy

7056-460: The Helvetians who had not participated in the raids. 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 . 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. The nobleman Orgetorix

7182-450: The Helvetians, both the historical and archaeological records are sparse. Ptolemy (2.4.11) in the 2nd century uses the term Eremus Helvetiorum (also rendered Heremus Helvetiorum ) "desolation of the Helvetians" to refer to this area (largely corresponding to modern Baden ). The term was adopted by Aegidius Tschudi in the 16th century, and remains in use in modern historiography (German: Helvetier-Einöde ). It has been proposed that

7308-466: 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 ). 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

7434-443: 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, 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

7560-428: 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

7686-444: 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 consul himself, but in his speech 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

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7812-411: The Italian peninsula. Scholars such as Norbert Oettinger, Michel Gras and Carlo De Simone think that Lemnian is the testimony of an Etruscan commercial settlement on the island that took place before 700 BC, not related to the Sea Peoples. A 2021 archeogenetic analysis of Etruscan individuals, who lived between 800 BC and 1 BC, concluded that the Etruscans were autochthonous and genetically similar to

7938-544: The Latin author Aulus Gellius mentions Etruscan alongside the Gaulish language in an anecdote. Freeman notes that although Gaulish was clearly still alive during Gellius' time, his testimony may not indicate that Etruscan was still alive because the phrase could indicate a meaning of the sort of "it's all Greek (incomprehensible) to me". At the time of its extinction, only a few educated Romans with antiquarian interests, such as Marcus Terentius Varro , could read Etruscan. The Roman emperor Claudius (10 BC – AD 54)

8064-445: The Latins, bringing the alphabet from Anatolia. For historical, archaeological, genetic, and linguistic reasons, a relationship between Etruscan and the Indo-European Anatolian languages (Lydian or Luwian) and the idea that the Etruscans initially colonized the Latins, bringing the alphabet from Anatolia, have not been accepted, since the account by Herodotus is no longer considered reliable. The interest in Etruscan antiquities and

8190-422: 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

8316-464: The Rhine. The Suebi and Marcomanni who under Ariovistus had planned to invade Gaul were pushed back beyond the Black Forest , where they amalgamated into the future Alemanni . The Romans allowed Germanic tribes such as the Ubii , Triboci , Nemetes and Vangiones to settle in the deserted areas left of the Rhine. On the right bank of the Upper Rhine, which according to the testimony of Tacitus ( Germania 28) had formerly also been occupied by

8442-435: The Roman military leader. In general, numbers written down by ancient military authors have to be taken as gross exaggerations. 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 ); 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

8568-600: The Romans with a certain number of fighting men. According to the victor, tablets with lists in 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. 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

8694-592: The Swiss plateau in the 5th and 6th centuries, resulting in the early medieval territories of Alemannia (Swabia) and Upper Burgundy . The Helvetii were largely assimilated by their new rulers, contributing to the ethnogenesis of modern Swiss people . They are mentioned as Helvetii by Cicero (mid-1st c. BC), Caesar (mid-1st c. BC) and Tacitus (early 2nd c. AD), in the genitive case as Helvetiorum by Livy (late 1st c. BC), as Helveti by Pliny (mid-1st c. AD), and as Elouḗtioi (Ἐλουήτιοι) by Ptolemy (2nd c. AD). The Gaulish ethnic name Helvetii

8820-507: The Tougeni may or may not be identified with the Teutones mentioned by Titus Livius . According to Caesar, the territory abandoned by the Helvetii had comprised 400 villages and 12 oppida (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,

8946-580: The area inhabited by the Helvetians had extended beyond the Swiss plateau, far into what is now Baden-Württemberg , but had been displaced in the course of the Cimbrian War , some two generations prior to Caesar's invasion 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 villas . In

9072-583: 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. 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

9198-600: 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. In order for them to defend

9324-671: The bezel bears a border design, such as cabling. Etruscan-minted coins can be dated between the 5th and 3rd centuries BC. Use of the 'Chalcidian' standard, based on the silver unit of 5.8 grams, indicates that this custom, like the alphabet, came from Greece. Roman coinage later supplanted Etruscan, but the basic Roman coin, the sesterce , is believed to have been based on the 2.5-denomination Etruscan coin. Etruscan coins have turned up in caches or individually in tombs and in excavations seemingly at random, and concentrated, of course, in Etruria . Etruscan coins were in gold, silver, and bronze,

9450-519: The classification of Etruscan remained problematic for historical linguists, though it was almost universally agreed upon that Etruscan was a language unlike any other in Europe. Before it gained currency as one of the Tyrrhenian languages, Etruscan was commonly treated as a language isolate . Over the centuries many hypotheses on the Etruscan language have been developed, most of which have not been accepted or have been considered highly speculative since they were published. The major consensus among scholars

9576-520: The coast 45 kilometers from Rome, appears to have shifted to Latin in the late 2nd century BC. In Tarquinia and Vulci , Latin inscriptions coexisted with Etruscan inscriptions in wall paintings and grave markers for centuries, from the 3rd century BC until the early 1st century BC, after which Etruscan is replaced by the exclusive use of Latin. In northern Etruria, Etruscan inscriptions continue after they disappear in southern Etruria. At Clusium ( Chiusi ), tomb markings show mixed Latin and Etruscan in

9702-503: The conclusion of a foedus casts some doubt on the totality of the defeat. 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 , as Caesar claims (Bell. Gall. 1,10.). It

9828-611: The continent in the course of the Neolithic Revolution ". The lack of recent Anatolian-related admixture and Iranian-related ancestry among the Etruscans, who genetically joined firmly to the European cluster, might also suggest that the presence of a handful of inscriptions found at Lemnos, in a language related to Etruscan and Raetic, "could represent population movements departing from the Italian peninsula". For many hundreds of years

9954-536: 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. The distribution of La Tène culture burials in Switzerland indicates that the Swiss plateau between Lausanne and Winterthur

10080-467: The course of Romanization, the Celtic polytheism of the Helvetians was syncretized 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,

10206-496: The desirability of which caused his countrymen to invade northern Italy . 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. His reference to gold washing in rivers has been taken as evidence for an early presence of

10332-504: The different languages, laws, and religions of the two peoples. In 2006, Frederik Woudhuizen went further on Herodotus' traces, suggesting that Etruscan belongs to the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European family, specifically to Luwian . Woudhuizen revived a conjecture to the effect that the Tyrsenians came from Anatolia , including Lydia , whence they were driven by the Cimmerians in

10458-412: The early Iron Age, 750–675 BC, leaving some colonists on Lemnos . He makes a number of comparisons of Etruscan to Luwian and asserts that Etruscan is modified Luwian. He accounts for the non-Luwian features as a Mysian influence: "deviations from Luwian [...] may plausibly be ascribed to the dialect of the indigenous population of Mysia." According to Woudhuizen, the Etruscans were initially colonizing

10584-515: 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

10710-462: 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 out of the fifteen Celtic oppida in the Helvetii territory so far has yielded evidence for destruction by fire. Many other sites, for example

10836-399: The esteemed reputation of Etruscan soothsayers . An episode where lightning struck an inscription with the name Caesar, turning it into Aesar, was interpreted to have been a premonition of the deification of Caesar because of the resemblance to Etruscan aisar , meaning 'gods', although this indicates knowledge of a single word and not the language. Centuries later and long after Etruscan

10962-459: The find was at that time at least 50 metres (164 ft) from the lake shore, and probably 1 metre (3 ft) to three meters deep in the water. 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, as well as the settlement Kleiner Hafner at the Sechseläuten square on the effluence of

11088-695: 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 Oppidium . In 1890, so-called Potin lumps were found, whose largest weights 59.2 kilograms (131 lb) at the Prehistoric pile dwelling settlement Alpenquai in Zürich, Switzerland. The pieces consist of

11214-447: The first half of the 1st century BC, with cases where two subsequent generations are inscribed in Latin and then the third, youngest generation, surprisingly, is transcribed in Etruscan. At Perugia , monolingual monumental inscriptions in Etruscan are still seen in the first half of the 1st century BC, while the period of bilingual inscriptions appears to have stretched from the 3rd century to

11340-459: The flat side. A higher percentage of tin in the mirror improved its ability to reflect. The other side was convex and featured intaglio or cameo scenes from mythology. The piece was generally ornate. About 2,300 specula are known from collections all over the world. As they were popular plunderables, the provenance of only a minority is known. An estimated time window is 530–100 BC. Most probably came from tombs. Many bear inscriptions naming

11466-402: The former territories of the Helvetii and their inhabitants were as thoroughly romanised as the rest of Gaul. What seems to have been the last action of the Helvetii as a tribal entity happened shortly after the death of emperor Nero in 68 AD. Like the other Gallic tribes, the Helvetii were organised as a civitas ; they even retained their traditional grouping into four pagi and enjoyed

11592-553: The generic Latin title Etrusca Disciplina . The Libri Haruspicini dealt with divination by reading entrails from a sacrificed animal, while the Libri Fulgurales expounded the art of divination by observing lightning . A third set, the Libri Rituales , might have provided a key to Etruscan civilization: its wider scope embraced Etruscan standards of social and political life, as well as ritual practices. According to

11718-447: The giving of hostages by the defeated Romans at Agen . 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

11844-507: The gold and silver usually having been struck on one side only. The coins often bore a denomination, sometimes a minting authority name, and a cameo motif. Gold denominations were in units of silver; silver, in units of bronze. Full or abbreviated names are mainly Pupluna ( Populonia ), Vatl or Veltuna ( Vetulonia ), Velathri ( Volaterrae ), Velzu or Velznani (Volsinii) and Cha for Chamars ( Camars ). Insignia are mainly heads of mythological characters or depictions of mythological beasts arranged in

11970-626: 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 . 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

12096-520: The language behind the later Linear B script was Mycenean , a Greek dialect . It has been proposed to possibly be part of a wider Paleo-European "Aegean" language family, which would also include Minoan , Eteocretan (possibly descended from Minoan) and Eteocypriot . This has been proposed by Giulio Mauro Facchetti, a researcher who has dealt with both Etruscan and Minoan, and supported by S. Yatsemirsky, referring to some similarities between Etruscan and Lemnian on one hand, and Minoan and Eteocretan on

12222-653: The language disappeared. In addition to being the source of the Roman and early Oscan and Umbrian alphabets, it has been suggested that it passed northward into Veneto and from there through Raetia into the Germanic lands, where it became the Elder Futhark alphabet, the oldest form of the runes . The corpus of Etruscan inscriptions is edited in the Corpus Inscriptionum Etruscarum (CIE) and Thesaurus Linguae Etruscae (TLE). The Pyrgi Tablets are

12348-514: The late 1st century BC. The isolated last bilinguals are found at three northern sites. Inscriptions in Arezzo include one dated to 40 BC followed by two with slightly later dates, while in Volterra there is one dated to just after 40 BC and a final one dated to 10–20 AD; coins with written Etruscan near Saena have also been dated to 15 BC. Freeman notes that in rural areas the language may have survived

12474-402: The main source of Etruscan portables, provenance unknown, in collections throughout the world. Their incalculable value has created a brisk black market in Etruscan objets d'art – and equally brisk law enforcement effort, as it is illegal to remove any objects from Etruscan tombs without authorization from the Italian government. The magnitude of the task involved in cataloguing them means that

12600-502: The next place is Lacus Lausonius, 20 Roman miles from Equestris (approximately 30 km). To the next station, Urba (modern Orbe ), is 18 Roman miles (27 km). In the Table the name is "Lacum Losonne", and the distances from Geneva to Colonia Equestris and Lacum Losonne are respectively 18 M.P., or 36 together. The Lacus Lausonius is supposed to be Lausanne , on the Lake of Geneva; or rather

12726-468: The numerous creditors he owed money to, but also to further strengthen his position within the late Republic. 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, than like an actual historical figure. That the victor of Agen

12852-489: The one manufactured by Novios Plutius and given by Dindia Macolnia to her daughter, as the archaic Latin inscription says. All of them are more accurately termed "the Praenestine cistae". Among the most plunderable portables from the Etruscan tombs of Etruria are the finely engraved gemstones set in patterned gold to form circular or ovoid pieces intended to go on finger rings. Around one centimeter in size, they are dated to

12978-403: The opposite of what he had attempted to do. In 1861, Robert Ellis proposed that Etruscan was related to Armenian . Exactly 100 years later, a relationship with Albanian was to be advanced by Zecharia Mayani , a theory regarded today as disproven and discredited. Several theories from the late 19th and early 20th centuries connected Etruscan to Uralic or even Altaic languages . In 1874,

13104-481: The other hand, many inscriptions are highly abbreviated and often casually formed, so the identification of individual letters is sometimes difficult. Spelling might vary from city to city, probably reflecting differences of pronunciation. Speech featured a heavy stress on the first syllable of a word, causing syncopation by weakening of the remaining vowels, which then were not represented in writing: Alcsntre for Alexandros , Rasna for Rasena . This speech habit

13230-427: The other. It has also been proposed that this language family is related to the pre-Indo-European languages of Anatolia, based upon place name analysis. The relationship between Etruscan and Minoan, and hypothetical unattested pre-Indo-European languages of Anatolia, is considered unfounded. Some have suggested that Tyrsenian languages may yet be distantly related to early Indo-European languages , such as those of

13356-655: The persons depicted in the scenes, so they are often called picture bilinguals. In 1979, Massimo Pallottino , then president of the Istituto di Studi Etruschi ed Italici initiated the Committee of the Corpus Speculorum Etruscanorum , which resolved to publish all the specula and set editorial standards for doing so. Since then, the committee has grown, acquiring local committees and representatives from most institutions owning Etruscan mirror collections. Each collection

13482-476: The quality of vowels" and accounted for the second phase (e.g. Herecele ) as " vowel harmony , i.e., of the assimilation of vowels in neighboring syllables". The writing system had two historical phases: the archaic from the seventh to fifth centuries BC, which used the early Greek alphabet, and the later from the fourth to first centuries BC, which modified some of the letters. In the later period, syncopation increased. The alphabet went on in modified form after

13608-441: 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. Those marked with an asterisk (*) were most likely occupied by neighbouring tribes ( Raurici , Veragri , etc.) rather than the Helvetii. Etruscan language Etruscan ( / ɪ ˈ t r ʌ s k ən / ih- TRUSK -ən )

13734-455: 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". 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

13860-479: The severity of the crisis. The Helvetii were re-discovered as the forebears of the Swiss in the early historiography of Switzerland , in the late 15th to early 16th century. Their name was adopted as the 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

13986-502: The site of the Helvetian settlement Noviodunum (modern Nyon ), and around 44 BC the Colonia Raurica on Rauracan territory. These colonies were probably established as a means of controlling the two most important military access routes between the Helvetian territory and the rest of Gaul , blocking the passage through the Rhône valley and Sundgau . In the course of Augustus ' reign, Roman dominance became more concrete. Some of

14112-457: 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. 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

14238-472: The tablets was the word for 'three', ci . According to Rix and his collaborators, only two unified (though fragmentary) long texts are available in Etruscan: Some additional longer texts are: The main material repository of Etruscan civilization , from the modern perspective, is its tombs, all other public and private buildings having been dismantled and the stone reused centuries ago. The tombs are

14364-413: The total number of tombs is unknown. They are of many types. Especially plentiful are the hypogeal or "underground" chambers or system of chambers cut into tuff and covered by a tumulus . The interior of these tombs represents a habitation of the living stocked with furniture and favorite objects. The walls may display painted murals , the predecessor of wallpaper. Tombs identified as Etruscan date from

14490-596: 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 ,

14616-441: 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. 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. The real numbers will never be determined exactly. Caesar's specifications can at least be doubted by looking at

14742-432: 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", this once again being an allusion to

14868-541: Was attributed to Etruscan pagan priests who claimed to have summoned a raging thunderstorm, and they offered their services "in the ancestral manner" to Rome as well, but the devout Christians of Rome refused the offer, preferring death to help by pagans. Freeman notes that these events may indicate that a limited theological knowledge of Etruscan may have survived among the priestly caste much longer. One 19th-century writer argued in 1892 that Etruscan deities retained an influence on early modern Tuscan folklore. Around 180 AD,

14994-530: Was certainly in the latter's personal interest to emphasise any kind of parallel between the traumatic experience of the Cimbrian and Teutonic incursions and the alleged threat that the Helvetii were to the Roman world. The Tigurini 's part in the destruction of 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

15120-600: Was found in Allmendingen near Thun . Deities worshipped at the site included Mars (presumably in lieu of Caturix ) and Rosmerta as well as Mithras . Although the Gaulish language had mostly been ousted by Latin by the 3rd century, many Celtic toponyms have survived in Switzerland. Of the ten largest present-day Swiss cities, at least six have Celtic placename etymologies, and most major Swiss rivers have either Celtic or pre-Celtic names. The order and prosperity of

15246-408: Was from right to left except in archaic inscriptions, which occasionally used boustrophedon . An example found at Cerveteri used left to right. In the earliest inscriptions, the words are continuous. From the 6th century BC, they are separated by a dot or a colon, which might also be used to separate syllables. Writing was phonetic; the letters represented the sounds and not conventional spellings. On

15372-420: Was once widely taught to Roman boys, but had since become replaced by the teaching of Greek, while Varro noted that theatrical works had once been composed in Etruscan. The date of extinction for Etruscan is held by scholarship to have been either in the late first century BC, or the early first century AD. Freeman's analysis of inscriptional evidence would appear to imply that Etruscan was still flourishing in

15498-540: Was relatively densely populated. Settlement centres existed in the Aare valley between Thun and Bern , and between Lake Zurich and the river Reuss . The Valais and the regions around Bellinzona and Lugano also seem to have been well-populated; however, those lay outside the Helvetian borders. Almost all the Helvetic oppida were built in the vicinity of the larger rivers of the Swiss midlands. Not all of them existed at

15624-489: 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. The Helvetii and Rauraci most likely lost their status as foederati only six years after the battle of Bibracte, when they supported Vercingetorix in 52 BC with 8,000 and 2,000 men, respectively. Sometime between 50 and 45 BC, the Romans founded the Colonia Iulia Equestris at

15750-503: Was the language of the Etruscan civilization in the ancient region of Etruria , in Etruria Padana and Etruria Campana in what is now Italy . Etruscan influenced Latin but was eventually completely superseded by it. The Etruscans left around 13,000 inscriptions that have been found so far, only a small minority of which are of significant length; some bilingual inscriptions with texts also in Latin, Greek , or Phoenician ; and

15876-479: Was widespread over the Mediterranean shores, as evidenced by about 13,000 inscriptions (dedications, epitaphs , etc.), most fairly short, but some of considerable length. They date from about 700 BC. The Etruscans had a rich literature, as noted by Latin authors. Livy and Cicero were both aware that highly specialized Etruscan religious rites were codified in several sets of books written in Etruscan under

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