Alpes Graiae et Poeninae

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Provincia Alpes Graiae et vallis Poenina
Provincia Alpes Atrectianae et vallis Poenina
Province of the Roman Empire
41/54 AD–476
Roman Empire - Alpes Poenninae et Graiae (125 AD).svg
The Roman Empire c. 125 AD, with the province of Alpes Graiae et Poeninae highlighted
Capital Forum Claudii Ceutronum (Alpes Graiae/Atrectianae)
Forum Claudii Vallensium (Alpes Poeninae)
Historical era Antiquity
• Created by Claudius
41/54 AD
• Deposition of Romulus Augustulus
476
Succeeded by
Kingdom of Italy (476-493) Blank.png
Today part of France
Italy
Switzerland

The Alpes Graiae et Poeninae, also known by the 2nd century AD as Alpes Atrectianae et Poeninae, [1] was a small Alpine province of the Roman Empire created after the merging of the Alpes Poeninae (or Vallis Poenina) and the Alpes Graiae (or Alpes Atrectianae). Comprising the modern Canton of Valais (Switzerland), the Tarantaise Valley, Beaufortain, Haut-Faucigny (France) and the Aosta Valley (Italy), it was one of the three provinces straddling the Alps between modern France and Italy, along with the Alpes Maritimae and Alpes Cottiae.

Contents

The Procurator of the province resided in the capital of this province: Axima, which became Forum Claudii Ceutronum (Aime-la-Plagne), former capital of the Alpes Graiae. [2] He was seconded by a Praefectus in Octodorum, which became Forum Claudii Vallensium (Martigny) for the Alpes Poeninae. [3]

Name

Variants

In ancient documents, the province appears under the forms Alpes Graiae, Alpes Poeninae et Graiae(provincia Alpium Graiarum et Poeninarum), and Alpes Graiae et Poeninae. The rarer variant Alpes Atrectianae occurs in epigraphic material. [4]

It may have been referred to as Alpes Graiae et Vallis Poenina at the time of its formation, [5] [6] which would represent an expanded form of Alpes Graiae et Poeninae. [4] A Severian period inscription (193–235) attests the variant Alpium Atrectianarum et Vallis Poeninae, in which Atrectianae replaces Graiae as a local or epigraphic alternative. [7] [4] [2]

Origin

According to Livy, the name Alpes Poeninae derives from an indigenous deity named Poeninus, [8] [9] attested as Poininos on local inscriptions and in the cult title Jupiter Poeninus. [10] The name survives in the modern form Pennine Alps , and Vallis Poenina in the name Valais . [11]

Xavier Delamarre has likewise proposed to identify a Celtic theonym *Graios (attested in Herculi/Herculeio Graio) as the origin of the name Alpes Graiae. [12]

According to Guy Barruol, the form Alpes Atrectianae may derive from a local kinglet called *Atrectius, just like the Alpes Cottiae are named after Cottius . Although the repeated occurrence of the cognomen Atrectianus among several governors of the province in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD is noteworthy, there is no evidence for a local dynast named Atrectius, and such a figure remains hypothetical. [13] [4]

History

Roman conquest and early administration

The region of Vallis Poenina, corresponding to the modern Canton of Valais between the Lake Geneva and the Great St. Bernard Pass, was inhabited at the time of the Roman conquest by Celtic tribes known as the Vallenses, namely the Nantuates, Veragri, Seduni, and Uberi. After the Roman invasion led by Augustus in 16–15 BC, the area was initially placed under military control (praefectus Raetis, Vindolicis, vallis Poeninae) and incorporated into the province of Raetia et Vindelicia, which stretched between the central Alps and the Danube. [14] [15]

Formation of the province

The Vallensian tribes were granted Latin Rights and grouped into a single civitas Vallensium during the reign of Claudius (41–54 AD). Most scholars associate this period with the beginning of the administrative reorganisation that eventually detached the Vallis Poenina from Raetia et Vindelicia and linked it to the Alpes Graiae, the Ceutron territory west of the Little St Bernard Pass. [14] [16] [17] [18] However, an inscription from Claudius's reign shows that the Vallis Poenina was still under the authority of the procurator of Raetia at that time, and the exact moment when the two Alpine districts were fully united remains uncertain. [19]

By the 2nd century, the two regions formed the province of Alpes Graiae et Poeninae, with Axima (Forum Claudii Ceutronum, modern Aime-la-Plagne) serving as the chief town of the Graian division, and Octodurus (Forum Claudii Vallensium, modern Martigny) as the centre of the Poenine district. [16] [14] [2] Some scholars date the definitive unification of the Alpes Graiae and Alpes Poeninae to the reign of Septimius Severus (193–211 AD) rather than to the reign of Claudius. [20]

Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages

During the administrative reforms of Diocletian (284–305), the province was integrated into the praeses of the Dioecesis Galliarum. [2] [15] In 381, the first Bishop of the region, Theodul, was mentioned. After the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, the region was invaded by the Burgundians and incorporated into their kingdom. After its fall, it was integrated into the Frankish Kingdom in 534, then briefly invaded by the Lombards in 574. [15]

References

  1. ↑ Hornblower, Simon; Spawforth, Antony; Eidinow, Esther (2012-03-29). The Oxford Classical Dictionary. OUP Oxford. ISBN   978-0-19-954556-8.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Graßl 2006.
  3. ↑ Puéjean, André (2013). Les Alpes Grées et Poenines à l'époque romaine[The Graian and Poenine Alps in Roman times] (in French). Nîmes, France: Nombre 7. pp. 35, 50–51. ISBN   978-2-36832-032-7.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Wiblé 1998, pp. 188–189.
  5. ↑ Ossenkop, Christina; Winkelmann, Otto (2018). Manuel des frontières linguistiques dans la Romania. Walter de Gruyter. p. 127. ISBN   978-3-11-039485-6.
  6. ↑ Gottlieb, Gunther (1989). Raumordnung im Römischen Reich: zur regionalen Gliederung in den gallischen Provinzen, in Rätien, Noricum und Pannonien. E. Vögel. p. 75. ISBN   978-3-925355-13-4.
  7. ↑ Bérard 1995, p. 348.
  8. ↑ Livius, Ab urbe condita, 21:38.
  9. ↑ Appolonia, Lorenzo (2008). Alpis Poenina - Grand Saint-Bernard: une voie à travers l'Europe. Projet Interreg IIIA. pp. 24–25.
  10. ↑ Wooding, Jonathan (2020). Prophecy, Fate and Memory in the Early Medieval Celtic World. Sydney University Press. pp. 19–25. ISBN   978-1-74332-695-4.
  11. ↑ Hunt, Patrick (1998). "Summus Poeninus on the Grand St Bernard Pass". Journal of Roman Archaeology. 11: 265–274. doi:10.1017/S104775940001730X. ISSN   1047-7594.
  12. ↑ Delamarre, Xavier (2019). Dictionnaire des thèmes nominaux du gaulois. Ab-/Iχs(o)-. Vol. 1. Les Cents Chemins. p. 370. ISBN   978-1-7980-5040-8.
  13. ↑ Barruol 1969, p. 184.
  14. 1 2 3 Wiblé 1998, pp. 186–187.
  15. 1 2 3 Frei-Stolba 2014.
  16. 1 2 Frei-Stolba 2014 : "Ebenfalls unter Claudius wurde die V. von der Provinz Raetia et Vindolicia getrennt und wohl gleichzeitig unter einem gemeinsamen Statthalter mit den Alpes Graiae (auch Alpes Atrectianae) zu den Alpes Graiae et Poeninae vereint."
  17. ↑ Carrié, Jean-Michel (1998). Les Gouverneurs de province dans l'antiquité tardive. Brepols. p. 181. ISBN   978-2-503-50627-2. This name first appears under Septimius Severus but could have been the province's official name as early as Claudius
  18. ↑ Levick, Barbara (2012). Claudius. Routledge. p. 167. ISBN   978-1-135-10771-0.
  19. ↑ Pellegrino, Frida (2020). The Urbanisation of the North-Western Provinces of the Roman Empire. Archaeopress. p. 63. ISBN   978-1-78969-775-9.
  20. ↑ Wiblé 1998, pp. 186–188.

Primary sources

  • Livy (2019). History of Rome. Loeb Classical Library. Translated by Yardley, J. C. Harvard University Press. ISBN   978-0674992566.
  • Tacitus (1925). Histories. Loeb Classical Library. Translated by Moore, Clifford H. Harvard University Press. ISBN   978-0674991231.{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)

Bibliography

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