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 eastern and central
Switzerland (containing the
Upper Rhine and
Lake Constance), southern
Bavaria and the
Upper Swabia,
Vorarlberg, the greater part of
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.
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[1] that they were of Etruscan origin (a belief that is favored by Niebuhr and Mommsen). A tradition reported by Justin[2] and Pliny the Elder[3] 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 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 Rhaetian region) have been found to have a relatively high incidence of 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 Polybius[4], and little is heard of them till after the end of the Republic. There is little doubt, however, that they retained their independence until their subjugation in 15 BC by Tiberius and Drusus.[5]
