Switzerland Prior To The Roman Conquest
Switzerland did not exist as a political or cultural entity prior to the emergence of the Old Swiss Confederacy in the Middle Ages, but its core territories within the natural borders of the Alps to the South and East, Lake Geneva and the Rhône to the west and the Rhine to the north were recognized as a contiguous territory by Julius Caesar.
This area – the Swiss plateau – was settled principally by Celtic peoples, of which the five tribes of the Helvetii were the most numerous, but which also included the Rauraci in north-west Switzerland centered on Basel, the Allobroges around Geneva, and the Nantuates, Seduni and Veragri in the Valais. Additionally, the Lepontii, a people of Celtic origin, settled in the Ticino, and the Raetians controlled the Grisons as well as large areas around it.
Read more about this topic: Switzerland In The Roman Era
Famous quotes containing the words switzerland, prior, roman and/or conquest:
“I look upon Switzerland as an inferior sort of Scotland.”
—Sydney Smith (1771–1845)
“Less smooth than her Skin and less white than her breast
Was this pollisht stone beneath which she lyes prest
Stop, Reader, and Sigh while thou thinkst on the rest
With a just trim of Virtue her Soul was endu’d
Not affectedly Pious nor secretly lewd,
She cut even between the Cocquet and the Prude.”
—Matthew Prior (1664–1721)
“The most Christian France is the sole wet-nurse to the Roman court.”
—François Rabelais (1494–1553)
“The only fruit which even much living yields seems to be often only some trivial success,—the ability to do some slight thing better. We make conquest only of husks and shells for the most part,—at least apparently,—but sometimes these are cinnamon and spices, you know.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)