RUTE´NI
Eth.
RUTE´NI (Eth.
Ῥουτῆνοι), and Eth.
Ῥουτανοί in Ptolemy (
2.7.21), who places them in Gallia Aquitania. Pliny (
4.19) says that the Ruteni border on the Narbonensis Provincia; and Strabo (
iv. p.191) places them and the Gabaleis or Gabali next to the Narbonensis. Their country was the old province of
Rouergue, which extended from the
Cévennes, its eastern boundary, about 90 miles in a western direction.
The chief town was
Rhodez. The modern department of
Aveyron comprehends a large part of the
Rouergue. There were silver mines in the country of the Ruteni and their neighbours the Gabali [
GABALI], and the flax of this country was good.
The Arverni and Ruteni were defeated by Q. Fabius Maximus, B.C. 121, but their country was not reduced to the form of a Roman province (
Caes. Gal. 1.45). In Caesar's time part of the Ruteni were included in the Provincia under the name of Ruteni Provinciales (
B. G. 7.5, 7). Vercingetorix in B.C. 52 sent Lucterius of the Cadurci into the country of the Ruteni to bring them over to the Gallic confederation, which he did. Caesar, in order to protect the Provincia on this side, placed troops in the country of the Ruteni Provinciales, and among the Volcae Arecomici and Tolosates. Pliny, who enumerates the Ruteni among the people of Aquitania, also mentions Ruteni in the Narbonensis (3.4), but he means the town Segodunum [
SEGODUNUM]. The Ruteni Provinciales of course were nearer to the Tectosages than the other Ruteni, and we may perhaps place them in that part of the departments of
Aveyron and
Tarn which is south of the Tarnis (
Tarn).
It may be conjectured that part of the Ruteni were added to the Provincia, either after the defeat of the Ruteni by Maximus, or after the conquest of Tolosa by Caepio (B.C. 106.)
[
G.L]
