Sapaudia

Sapaudia or Sabaudia was an Alpine territory of late antiquity and the Dark Ages.

The name is a latinisation of the local words for "forest" or "upland forest", although it is often glossed as "fir" from the roughly similar Latin sapinus. It developed first into Saboia and thence into Italian Savoia (Savoy; French: Savoie).

Sapaudia first appears in Ammianus Marcellinus, who described it as the southern district of Provincia Maxima Sequanorum, the land of the Sequani enlarged by the Diocletian Reforms. It originally covered the area around Lake Neuchâtel, the land of the ancient Allobroges. Its prefect appeared in the late Roman List of Offices.

During the 5th century, the Burgundians settled in the area, forming the Kingdom of the Burgundians, the capital of which was Lugdunum Segusianorum (Lyon). For centuries thereafter, the names Burgundy and Sapaudia/Savoy became closely linked.

In the mid-9th century, Sapaudia was ruled by the Bosonid duke Hucbert as part of the realm of Upper Burgundy. In 933, it was incorporated into Rudolph II's Kingdom of Arles.

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