Charlie Tucker, age 16, of Dover, Del., for his question:

WHO WERE THE HELVETIANS?

Helvetians were members of a tribe that lived in what is now northwestern Switzerland. Germanic tribes threatened the Helvetians and about 263,000 of them tried to move to the Roman province of Gaul in 58 B.C.

But Julius Caesar's troops killed many Helvetians in Gaul and the survivors were forced to return home.

Under Augustus, emperor from 27 B.C. to A.D. 14, Rome conquered all of Switzerland. The Helvetians gradually adopted Rome's customs and its Latin language.

The French speaking people of western Switzerland still sometimes refer to their area as Helvetia.