HELVETII, hel-v'eshI-I, a former Gallic or Celtic nation, settled between the Rhone and the Rhine, the Jura and the Rhaetian Alps. They were more numerous and warlike than the neighboring Gallic tribes. They first ap pear in history 107. B.c., but were not known to the Romans until the time of Julius Caesar, who, as governor of Gaul, prevented their in tended emigration, and after many bloody bat tles, in which even the Helvetian women fought, pressed them back within their frontiers. The story of their meditated irruption into and seizure of southern Gaul is circumstantially re lated in the First Book of the Commentaries of the Roman general, who not only repulsed them with terrible slaughter, but almost exterminated them. Not a third of those who left their homes on this ill-fated expedition ever returned. Helvetia, which was less extensive than the Switzerland, witzerland, was divided into four dis tricts, which had an entirely democratical con stitution. Caesar subjected the country to the dominion of the Romans, who established sev eral . colonies there. After the death of • Nero, the Helvetii, for to acknowledge Vitellius as emperor, were mercilessly punished by Cmcina, one of hii generals, and thenceforth they almost disappear as a people.
HELVItTIUS,E11-0-se-fis, Claude Adrien, French metaphysician: b. Pans, January 1715; d. there, 26 Dec. 1771. At the age of 23 he ob tained a lucrative post of farmer-general, where he was distinguished by his mildness and in dulgence from his colleagues, whose base prac tises filled him with indignation. He therefore resigned his office, and purchased the place of maitre d'hôtel to the queen. Aspiring after literary fame, he first directed his efforts to mathematics, then attempted to rival the dra matic fame of Voltaire by writing a tragedy. In 1758 he published 'De l'esprit,' the material ism of which drew upon him many attacks. It was condemned by the doctors of the Sorbonne, and publicly burned in accordance with a de cree of the Parliament of Paris. Helvetius went in 1764 to England, and the year after ward to Germany, where Frederick the Great and other German princes received him with many proofs of esteem. A complete edition of his writings was published at Paris in 1795. Consult Morley, 'Diderot and the Encyclope dists' (1878).