The Helveconae, or Helvaeonae, or Helvecones, or Aelvaeones, or Ailouaiones were a

Germanic tribe This list of ancient Germanic peoples is an inventory of ancient Germanic cultures, tribal groupings and other alliances of Germanic tribes and civilisations in ancient times. The information comes from various ancient historical documents, beginn ...

mentioned by Roman authors. They are possibly connected to the

Hilleviones The Hilleviones were a Germanic people occupying an island called ''Scatinavia'' in the 1st century AD, according to the Roman geographer Pliny the Elder in ''Naturalis Historia'' (Book 4, Chapter 13 resp. 27), written circa 77 AD. Pliny's Scatin ...

Naturalis Historia The ''Natural History'' ( la, Naturalis historia) is a work by Pliny the Elder. The largest single work to have survived from the Roman Empire to the modern day, the ''Natural History'' compiles information gleaned from other ancient authors. ...

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ' ...

. The Helveconae as such (manuscript variant Helvaeonae) are one of the tribal states of the

Lugii The Lugii (or ''Lugi'', ''Lygii'', ''Ligii'', ''Lugiones'', ''Lygians'', ''Ligians'', ''Lugians'', or ''Lougoi'') were a large tribal confederation mentioned by Roman authors living in ca. 100 BC–300 AD in Central Europe, north of the Sude ...

mentioned by

Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars. The surviving portions of his two major works—the ...

in Germania. The Lugii were located in the

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...

area (today

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

). Their ethnicity is speculative. Subsequent authors, such as

Johann Jacob Hofmann The ''Lexicon Universale'' of 1698 is an early modern humanist encyclopedia in Latin by Johann Jacob Hofmann of Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen ...

, 1635-1706, identified the people of Tacitus with a people of

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importance ...

, the Ailouaiones in Greek, which has been Latinized to Aelvaeones. Perhaps the scholars innovated Helvecones, which is not attested in classical times.However, neither is Helveconae, which occurs only in the accusative plural case, Helveconas. Encyclopedists customarily list names in the nominative case, for which Helveconas could have been taken.

Notes

{{Germanic peoples Early Germanic peoples Lugii Iron Age peoples of Europe

See also

Notes