Pasta - did the Romans have it?

[L C Cinna]

The spaetzle thing made me wonder a bit. I mean if i think about it it is a quite simple thing to make (even better if you have the right "machine" for it lol). Anyway I was thinking, in the area where I was born Spaetzle is THE traditional foodthingy of the region, the province of Raetia. I mean this might be quite farfetched BUT it's the same area where many names even for villages or mountains are still in an old latin form and the germanic dialect spoken is a very old form not making many of the changes the language made in the rest of the german speaking areas (which is great if you want to read old english texts btw lol) AND where some people nearby still speak an old provincial dialect known as raeto-roman. So maybe it is because this arrea hasn't changed as much as others that this kind of food is so popular?