Divico

Heroic painting from the 19th century on the victory of the Helvetii over the Romans at Agen

Gaius Iulius Caesar and the Helvetic military leader Divico meet after the battle of the Saône. 19th century history painting by Karl Jauslin .

Divico (* around 130 BC ; † after 58 BC ) was a leader of the Helvetian sub-tribe of the Tigurines .

history

107 BC According to Caesar ( De bello Gallico , I, 12-14) the Tigurines under Divico defeated the Romans under Lucius Cassius Longinus in the battle of Agen . 58 BC In his old age he led the Helvetii to Geneva as the successor of Orgetorix , where Gaius Iulius Caesar forced them to move north. After a Roman attack on the Saône , Divico led the embassy that negotiated with Caesar (cf. Caes. Gall. I 13.2-14.7).

From these negotiations Caesar passed down the sentence that the Helvetii did not hold hostages, but were used to taking them, as the Romans knew from their own experience: Ita Helvetios a maioribus suis institutos esse, uti obsides accipere, non dare consuerint; eius rei populum romanum esse testem. (Caes. Gall. I 14.7). With this reference to the defeat of the Romans against the Tigurines, Divico let the negotiations fail, in which Caesar had offered the Helvetians a peace treaty against the provision of hostages and compensation for looting and devastation. Shortly afterwards the Helvetii were defeated in the battle of Bibracte ; the survivors forced Caesar to return to their homeland and rebuild their villages.

Heroization in the 19th century

In the 19th century, Divico competed with William Tell as the national hero of modern Switzerland . Numerous history paintings glorified his deeds, and literature also took up the subject. Conrad Ferdinand Meyer wrote the poem "A Yoke on the Leman " to glorify Divico's victory over the Romans.

On the one hand, before Schiller's reception of the Tell legend, Divico was better known among the educated bourgeoisie, since Caesar's writings were required reading in high school. On the other hand, he represented completely different virtues: He was considered courageous, fearless, proud, defiant and wise - and he came from the nobility or the ruling class. Tell, on the other hand, was a suspect figure for the conservative bourgeoisie, a tyrant murderer, a revolutionary, a "man from the people", a lone fighter.

In the 20th century, however, William Tell almost completely displaced Divico, and only experienced a renaissance in the context of spiritual national defense . During this time, the defiant will to resist that Divico is said to have shown against Caesar was particularly emphasized. This created a connection to Switzerland's resistance against the overpowering Third Reich during the National Socialist era. In the post-war period, Divico sank increasingly into oblivion, especially since spiritual national defense was less and less discussed in history lessons in Swiss schools in the 1980s.

Individual evidence

1. ^ T. Livius: Periochae 65

Web links

• Daniel Nerlich: Divico. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Gilbert Kaenel : Agen, battle at. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• De bello Gallico: defeat of the Tigurines. Negotiations and first enemy contact with the Helvetians.