Helvetii

Helvetii, Latin designation for an ancient Celtic people who inhabited what is now the western portion of Switzerland when Gaul was conquered by the Romans under Julius Caesar in the 1st century bc. Specifically, the territory of the Helvetii was bounded by the Jura mountain range on the west, the Rhône River on the south, and the Rhine River on the north and east. The Helvetii had their own, completely democratic political administration, their chief town being Aventicum (modern Avenches). According to Caesar's De Bello Gallico (On the Gallic War), they were the bravest of the Gallic peoples.

In 107 bc, influenced by reports of gold and plunder available in southern Gaul and in Rome, the Helvetii had crossed the Jura Mountains and defeated a Roman army. Five years later they joined the Cimbri in an attempted invasion of Italy but were repulsed. In 58 bc, under the pressure of Germanic invasions, all the Helvetii, numbering almost 370,000, began a mass migration to what is now southern France. Caesar, then proconsul in Gaul, pursued them with an army and inflicted an overwhelming defeat on them at Bibracte, near modern Autun in central France; more than two-thirds of the Helvetii were annihilated. The remainder returned to their homeland, becoming subject to the rule of Rome.