TheTigurini were a clan or tribe forming one out of fourpagi (provinces) of theHelvetii.[1][2]
The Tigurini were the most important group of the Helvetii, mentioned by bothJulius Caesar andPoseidonius, settling in the area of what is now theSwisscanton of Vaud, corresponding to the bearers of the lateLa Tène culture in western Switzerland. Their name has a meaning of "lords, rulers" (cognate with Irishtigern "lord"). The other Helvetian tribes included theVerbigeni and theTougeni (sometimes identified with theTeutones), besides one tribe that has remained unnamed.
The name of the Tigurini is first recorded in the context of their alliance with theCimbri in theCimbrian War of 113–101 BCE. They crossed theRhine to invadeGaul in 109 BCE,[1] moved south to the Roman region ofProvence in 107 BCE and defeated a Roman army underLucius Cassius Longinus nearAgen.[1][3] The Tigurini followed the Cimbri in their campaign across theAlps, but they did not enter Italy, instead remaining at theBrenner Pass. After the end of the war, they returned to their earlier homes, settling in the westernSwiss plateau and theJura mountains north ofLake Leman.[1]
The names of the Tigurini and the Helvetii had retained a connotation of a "barbarian" threat from the north for the Romans, employed byJulius 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 battlesof the Arar and theBibracte, allegedly leaving 228,000 dead.[1] These battles were the initial events in theGallic Wars, fought between 58 and 49 BCE.
After the Roman conquest, the Helvetii participated in the uprising ofVercingetorix in 52 BC, losing their status asfoederati. As a means of asserting control over the military access routes to Gaul, the Romans established theColonia Iulia Equestris at the site of the Helvetian settlement ofNoviodunum (Nyon). There was still a fortifiedoppidum 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 ofAventicum.
The Helvetii seem to have retained their division into fourpagi, and a certain autonomy, until the 60s AD. They supportedGalba in the civil war following the death ofNero in AD 68. Their forces were routed atBözberg Pass (Mount Vocetius) in AD 69. After this, the population was quicklyromanized, losing its former tribal identity.
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In the early 16th century, humanist scholars associated the name of the Tigurini with the city ofZurich (calledTuricum in Roman times). Therefore, the city was referred to asTigurum inNeo-Latin texts (eg the legends on coins minted in the city[4]), and the adjectiveTigurinus became common.[5]Huldrych Zwingli always used the nameTigurum for the city in his writings, and either the adjectiveTigurinus orTigurensis.[6] The territory belonging to Zurich was calledpagus Tigurinus.[7]
After the discovery of a Roman tombstone onLindenhof hill in 1747, which proved that the original Roman name wasTuricum and the adjectiveTuricensis,Tigurum andTigurinus were used less frequently and finally discarded towards the end of the 18th century.[8]
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