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Noricum () is the Latin name for the kingdom or federation of tribes that included most of modern Austria and part of Slovenia. In the first century AD, it became a Roman province of the Roman Empire. Its borders were the Danube to the north, Raetia and Vindelici to the west, Pannonia to the east and south-east, and Roman Italy (Venetia et Histria) to the south. The kingdom was founded around 400 BC, and had its capital at the royal residence at Virunum on the Magdalensberg.
The country is mountainous and rich in iron and salt. It supplied material for the manufacturing of arms in Pannonia, Moesia, and northern Italy. The famous Noric steel was largely used in the making of Roman weapons (e.g. Horace, Odes, i.16.9–10: Noricus ensis, "a Noric sword"). GoldFrom a statement of Polybius, in his own time in consequence of the great output of gold from a mine in Noricum, gold lost one-third of its value. and salt were found in considerable quantities. The plant called saliunca (the wild nard, a relative of the lavender) grew in abundance and was used as a perfume according to Pliny the Elder. Naturalis Historia xxi. 20.43)
The inhabitants developed a culture rich in art, salt mining, cattle breeding, and agriculture. When part of the area became a Roman province, the Romans introduced water management and the already important trade relations between the people north and south of the Alps increased.
Archaeological research, particularly in the cemeteries of Hallstatt, has shown that a vigorous civilization was in the area centuries before recorded history. The graves contained weapons and ornaments from the Bronze Age, through the period of transition, up to the Hallstatt culture, i.e., the fully developed older period of the Iron Age.
At Magdalensberg, a major production and trading centre, specialised blacksmiths crafted metal products and weapons. The finished arms were exported to Aquileia, a Roman colony founded in 180 BC.
From 200 BC, the Noricum tribes gradually united into a kingdom, known as the Regnum Noricum, with its capital at a place called Noreia. Noricum became a key ally of the Roman Republic, providing high-quality weapons and tools in exchange for military protection. This was demonstrated in 113 BC, when Teutones invaded Noricum. In response, the Roman consul Gnaeus Papirius Carbo led an army over the Alps to attack the tribes at the Noreia.
Under Diocletian (245–313), Noricum was divided into Noricum ripense ("Noricum along the river", the northern part southward from the Danube), and Noricum mediterraneum ("landlocked Noricum", the southern, more mountainous district). The dividing line ran along the central part of the eastern Alps."The province of Noricum Ripense extended along the right or southern bank of the Danube, between the river and the Noric Alps, and was bounded on one side by Raetia and the river Inn (Aenus) and on the other by the confines of Pannonia Superior—the district included in the modern province of Carinthia in Austria. Noricum Mediterraneum lay directly to the south, beyond the Noric Alps." Each division was under a praeses, and both belonged to the diocese of Illyricum in the Praetorian prefecture of Italy. It was in this time (304 AD) that a Christian serving as a military officer in the province suffered martyrdom for the sake of his faith, later canonised as Saint Florian.
The Roman colonies and chief towns were Virunum (near Maria Saal to the north of Klagenfurt), Teurnia (near Spittal an der Drau), Flavia Solva (near Leibnitz), Celeia (Celje) in today's Slovenia, Juvavum (Salzburg), Ovilava (Wels), Lauriacum (Lorch at the mouth of the Enns, the ancient Anisus).
Knowledge of Roman Noricum has been decisively expanded by the work of Richard Knabl, an Austrian Epigraphy of the 19th century.
The transition from Roman to barbarian rule in Noricum is well documented in Eugippius' Life of Saint Severinus, providing material for analogies for this process in other regions where primary sources from the period are lacking.
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