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Raetia

[[File:Roman Empire 125.svg|thumb|250px|The Roman empire in the time of Hadrian (ruled 117-38 AD), showing, on the upper Danube river, the imperial province of '''Raetia''' (Switzerland/Tyrol/Germany S. of Danube), with no Roman legion|legions deployed there in 125.]] File:REmpire Rhetia.png|thumb|250px|Province of Raetia highlighted. [[File:Rhetii coinage 5th 1st century BCE.jpg|thumb|250px|Coinage of the Rhetii, or "Raetians", 5th-1st century BC.]]
Raetia (so always in inscriptions; classical manuscripts usually use the form '''Rhaetia''') was a Roman province|province of the Roman Empire, bounded on the west by the country of the Helvetii, on the east by Noricum, on the north by Vindelicia, and on the south by Cisalpine Gaul. It thus comprised the districts occupied in modern times by eastern and central Switzerland (containing the Upper Rhine and Lake Constance), southern Bavaria and the Upper Swabia, Vorarlberg, the greater part of Tyrol (state)|Tirol, and part of Lombardy. The northern border of Raetia was part of the Limes Germanicus, stretching for 166 km along the Danube. Raetia was linked to Italy across the Alpine Reschen Pass by the Via Claudia Augusta.

History

Little is known of the origin or history of the Raetians, who appear in the records as one of the most powerful and warlike of the Alps|Alpine tribes. Livy states distinctly''Ab Urbe Condita'' v. 33 that they were of Etruscan civilization|Etruscan origin (a belief that is favored by Barthold Georg Niebuhr|Niebuhr and Theodor Mommsen|Mommsen). A tradition reported by Justin (historian)|Justinxx. 5 and Pliny the Elder''Naturalis Historia'', iii. 24, 133 affirmed that they were a portion of that people who had settled in the plains of the Po River|Po and were driven into the mountains by the invading Gauls, when they assumed the name of "Raetians" from an eponymous leader '''Raetus'''; a more probable derivation, however, is from Celtic ''rait'' ("mountain land"). Even if their Etruscan origin be accepted, at the time when the land became known to the Romans, Celtic tribes were already in possession of it and had amalgamated so completely with the original inhabitants that, generally speaking, the Raetians of later times may be regarded as a Celtic people, although non-Celtic tribes (Lepontii, Euganei) were settled among them. The modern people of western Austria (a Raetian region) have been found to have a relatively high incidence of Haplogroup G (Y-DNA)|Y-chromosome Haplogroup G, which has a relatively high incidence in the people of all regions of historical Etruscan occupation. The Raetians are first mentioned (but only incidentally) by PolybiusHistories xxxiv. 10, iS, and little is heard of them till after the end of the Roman Republic|Republic. There is little doubt, however, that they retained their independence until their subjugation in 15 BC by Tiberius and Nero Claudius Drusus|Drusus.compare Horace, ''Odes'', iv. 4 and 14 At first Raetia formed a distinct province, but towards the end of the 1st century AD Vindelicia was added to it; hence Gaius Cornelius Tacitus|Tacitus (''Germania (book)|Germania'', 41) could speak of ''Augusta Vindelicorum'' (Augsburg) as "a colony of the province of Raetia". The whole province (including Vindelicia) was at first under a military prefect, then under a procurator (Roman)|procurator; it had no standing army quartered in it but relied on its own native troops and militia for protection until the 2nd century AD. During the reign of Marcus Aurelius, Raetia was governed by the commander of the Legio III Italica|Legio III ''Italica'', which was based in Castra Regina (Regensburg) by 179 AD . Under Diocletian, Raetia formed part of the diocese of the ''vicarius Italiae'', and was subdivided into ''Raetia prima'', with a ''praeses'' at Curia Raetorum (Chur) and ''Raetia secunda'', with a ''praeses'' at Augusta Vindelicorum (Augsburg), the former corresponding to the old Raetia, the latter to Vindelicia. The boundary between them is not clearly defined, but may be stated generally as a line drawn eastwards from the ''lacus Brigantinus'' (Lake Constance) to the ''Oenus'' (River Inn). During the last years of the Western Roman Empire, the land was in a desolate condition, but its occupation by the Ostrogoths in the time of Theodoric the Great, who placed it under a ''dux'', to some extent revived its prosperity.

Economy

The land was very mountainous, and the inhabitants, when not engaged in predatory expeditions, chiefly supported themselves by cattle-breeding and cutting timber, little attention being paid to agriculture. Some of the valleys, however, were rich and fertile, and produced wine, which was considered equal to any in Italia (Roman province)|Italia. Augustus Caesar preferred Raetian wine to any other. Considerable trade in pitch, honey, wax, and cheese occurred.

Human geography

The chief towns of Raetia (excluding Vindelicia) were ''Tridentum'' (Trento) and ''Curia'' (Coire or Chur). It was traversed by two great lines of Roman roads — the Via Claudia Augusta leading from Verona, Italy|Verona and Tridentum across the Reschen Pass to the Fern Pass and thence to ''Augusta Vindelicorum'' (Augsburg)http://www.viaclaudia.at/en/introduction/, the other from ''Brigantium'' (Bregenz) on Lake Constance by Chur and Chiavenna to Como and Milan.

County of Raetia (Rätien)

Charlemagne raised the district that was still governed under Franks|Frankish rule by a ''praeses'' in the eighth century to a county of Raetia, with a reminiscence of its Roman divisions in the name ''Reciarum comes'', "count of the Raetias", as late as 807; it was absorbed into the duchy of Swabia at the beginning of the tenth century.Elizabeth Meyer-Marthaler, ''Rätien im frühen Mittelalter'' (Zurich: Leeman) 1948 In the mid-eighth century a surviving ''Lex Romana Curiensis'', a "Roman Law of Chur", was an abbreviated epitome of the Breviary of Alaric. Under the Roman trappings of ''iudex provincialis'' or ''defensor civitatis'', the historian of early medieval Raetia, Elizabeth Meyer-Marthaler, recognized the public officials common throughout the Frankish empire. Not much later, the power of the ''comes'' was invested in the bishop of Chur; this experiment was brought to an end when Hunfrid, Margrave of Istria, was made count of Raetia in 807. With this as a power base, his Hunfriding heirs were able to gather enough power that Burchard II, Duke of Swabia|Burchard II (919-926) was able to make himself Dukes of Swabia|duke of Swabia, and Raetia herceforward lost its separate identity.Meyer-Marthaler 1948. The Rätikon mountain range derives its name from Raetia.

Important cities

- ''Alae'' (Aalen)
- ''Arbor Felix'' (Arbon TG|Arbon)
- ''Apodiacum'' (Epfach)
- ''Aquilea'' (Heidenheim an der Brenz)
- ''Augusta Vindelicorum'' (Augsburg)
- ''Ausugum'' (Borgo Valsugana)
- ''Bauzanum'' or ''Pons Drusi'' (Bolzano)
- ''Belunum'' (Belluno)
- ''Bilitio'' (Bellinzona)
- ''Brigantium'' (Bregenz)
- ''Cambodunum'' (Kempten im Allgäu)
- ''Castra Batava'' (Passau)
- ''Castra Regina'' (Regensburg)
- ''Clavenna'' (Chiavenna)
- ''Clunia'' (probably Feldkirch or Balzers)
- ''Curia'' (Chur)
- ''Endidae'' (Neumarkt, Italy|Egna/Neumarkt)
- ''Feltria'' (Feltre)
- ''Foetes'' (Füssen)
- ''Guntia'' (Günzburg)
- ''Gamundia Romana'' (Schwäbisch Gmünd)
- ''Oscela'' (Domodossola)
- ''Parthanum'' (Partenkirchen)
- ''Sebatum'' (St. Lorenzen|San Lorenzo di Sebato/St. Lorenzen)
- ''Sorviodurum'' (Straubing)
- ''Sublavio'' (Waidbruck|Ponte Gardena/Waidbruck)
- ''Tridentum'' (Trento)
- ''Veldidena'' (Wilten district of Innsbruck)
- ''Vipitenum'' (Sterzing|Vipiteno/Sterzing)

References

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