Tigurini

The Tigurini were a clan or tribe forming one out of four '' pagi'' (provinces) of the Helvetii.
The Tigurini were the most important group of the Helvetii, mentioned by both Julius Caesar and Poseidonius, settling in the area of what is now the Swiss canton of Vaud, corresponding to the bearers of the late La Tène culture in western Switzerland.
Their name has a meaning of "lords, rulers" (cognate with Irish ''tigern'' "lord"). The other Helvetian tribes included the ''Verbigeni'' and the ''Tougeni'' (sometimes identified with the Teutones), besides one tribe that has remained unnamed.

The name of the Tigurini is first recorded in the context of their alliance with the Cimbri in the Cimbrian War of 113–101 BCE. They crossed the Rhine to invade Gaul in 109 BCE, moved south to the Roman region of Provence in 107 BCE and defeated a Roman army under Lucius Cassius Longinus near Agen.
The Tigurini followed the Cimbri in their campaign across the Alps, but they did not enter Italy, instead remaining at the Brenner Pass. After the end of the war, they returned to their earlier homes, settling in the western Swiss plateau and the Jura mountains north of Lake Leman.
The names of the Tigurini and the Helvetii had retained a connotation of a "barbarian" threat from the north for the Romans, employed by Julius Caesar as a motivation for his expedition to Gaul by suggesting that these tribes were "on the move again". In 58 BCE the Helvetii encountered the armies of Caesar, and were defeated and massacred in the battles of the Arar and the Bibracte, allegedly leaving 228,000 dead. These battles were the initial events in the Gallic Wars, fought between 58 and 49 BCE.
After the Roman conquest, the Helvetii participated in the uprising of Vercingetorix in 52 BC, losing their status as ''foederati''. As a means of asserting control over the military access routes to Gaul, the Romans established the ''Colonia Iulia Equestris'' at the site of the Helvetian settlement of ''Noviodunum'' (Nyon). There was still a fortified ''oppidum'' in Bois de Châtel in the later 1st century BC, but it was destroyed in the early 1st century AD, its population presumably moving to the newly established Helvetian capital of Aventicum.
The Helvetii seem to have retained their division into four ''pagi'', and a certain autonomy, until the 60s AD. They supported Galba in the civil war following the death of Nero in AD 68. Their forces were routed at Bözberg Pass (''Mount Vocetius'') in AD 69. After this, the population was quickly romanized, losing its former tribal identity.

In the 16th century, humanist scholars associated the name of the Tigurini with the name of the city of Zürich (Latin ''Turicum'').
Based on this, the city is sometimes referred to as ''Tigurum'' in Modern Latin contexts, such as the legend on coins minted in the city.
An example is a Zürich ducat dated 1646, inscribed with ''DUCATUS NOVUS REIPUBL. TIGURI.''

See also

* Campaign history of the Roman military
* Mormont

Notes

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Historical Celtic peoples
Tribes of pre-Roman Gaul
Gauls
Helvetii
Cimbrian War
Zürich
La Tène culture