RATIA´TUM
RATIA´TUM (̔̔πατίατον,), a town of the Pictones (Ptol. 2.7.6). Ptolemy mentions it before Limonum, and places it north of Limonum, and further west. Some editions of Ptolemy place Ratiatum in the territory of the Lemovices, but this is a mistake. In the records of a council held at Orléans in A.D. 511, the bishop of the Pictavi signs himself “de civitate Ratiatica.” The name was preserved in that of the Pagus Ratiatensis, from which comes the modern name of Pays de Retz. Gregory of Tours speaks of Ratiatum as “infra terminum Pictavorum qui adjacet civitati Namneticae.” The district of Retz was taken from the diocese of Poitiers and attached to the diocese of Nantes in the time of Charles the Bald. Belley (Mém. de l'Acad. des Inscript. tom. xix. p. 729) fixes Ratiatum at the site of the two churches of St. Pierre and St. Opportune [p. 2.693]de Retz, which are near Machecoul and on the Tenu, a small river in the department of La Vendée. The Tenu enters the sea near Bourgneuf, opposite to the Isle Noirmoutier (D'Anville, Notice, &c.; Ukert, Gallien, p. 393).[G.L]