Helvetii - Tribal Organisation

Tribal Organisation

Of the four Helvetian pagi or sub-tribes, Caesar only names the Verbigeni (Bell. Gall. 1.27) and the Tigurini (1.12), Poseidonios the Tigurini and the Toygenoi (Τωυγενοί). The latter may or may not be identical with the Teutones named by Livy. Ancient writers usually classify the Teutons as "Germanic" and the Helvetii as "Gallic", but these ethnic attributions are debatable.

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, these figures are generally dismissed as too high by modern scholars (see hereafter).

Like many other tribes, 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 by burning if found guilty. Caesar does not explicitly name the tribal authorities prosecuting the case and gathering men to apprehend Orgetorix, but refers to them by the Latin terms civitas ("state" or "tribe") and magistratus ("officials").