Raetia

Raetia (so always in inscriptions; classical manuscripts usually use the form Rhaetia) was a 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 Graub?nden, Vorarlberg, the greater part of Tirol, and part of Lombardy.

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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 Alpine tribes. Livy states distinctly (Ab Urbe Condita v. 33) that they were of Etruscan origin (a view favoured by Niebuhr and Mommsen). A tradition reported by Justin (xx. 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 and were driven into the mountains by the invading Gauls, when they assumed the name of "Raetians" from their 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.

Province: This article is about political regions. See geologic province for geological meanings....

Roman Empire: The Roman Empire is the term conventionally used to describe the Ancient Roman polity in the centuries following its reorganization under the leadership of Octavian (better known as Caesar Augustus)....

Helvetii: The Helvetii (in Latin) were the Celtic inhabitants of modern Switzerland. They were described by Julius Caesar in his De Bello Gallico....