Subinates

The Subinates were the inhabitants of a vicus in the area of modern Riva San Vitale (Canton Ticino), in present-day southern Switzerland, during the Roman era.

Name

The community is known from a fragmentary and heavily restored Latin inscription (Pais 1287), in which the villagers are named in the dative as [vic(anis?)] Primo subinatibus.

Alexander Falileyev observes that its Celticity is uncertain. If Celtic, it may be formed with the prefix su- ('good').

The inscription, which is undated, records a bequest by a magistrate (quattuorvir iure dicundo) of Comum to the vicani, who in return were to maintain his memory each year with roses and garlands, subject to a penalty clause.

Geography

The community was located around Riva San Vitale, at the southern end of Lake Lugano, in the Mendrisiotto of Canton Ticino.

References

  1. 1 2 Pais 1287 (= AE 2022, 408; G. Walser, Römische Inschriften der Schweiz III, no. 302).
  2. 1 2 Walser 1980, pp. 120–121.
  3. 1 2 Falileyev 2010, s.v. Subinates.

Bibliography

  • Falileyev, Alexander (2010). Dictionary of Continental Celtic Place-names: A Celtic Companion to the Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. CMCS. ISBN 978-0955718236.
  • Talbert, Richard J. A. (2000). Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691031699.
  • Walser, Gerold (1980). Römische Inschriften der Schweiz, III. Teil: Wallis, Tessin, Graubünden. Bern: Paul Haupt.

Further reading