Texandria (also Toxiandria; later Toxandria, Taxandria), is a region mentioned in the 4th century AD and during the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

. It was situated in the southern part of the modern

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

and in the northern part of present-day

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

, currently known as

Campine The Campine (French ) or De Kempen ( Dutch ) is a natural region situated chiefly in north-eastern Belgium and parts of the south-eastern Netherlands which once consisted mainly of extensive moors, tracts of sandy heath, and wetlands. It enco ...

(Kempen in Dutch).

Name

The tribal name Texandri, which may be related to the region, is mentioned as ''Texand(ri)'' by an inscription dated 100–225 AD, as ''Texuandri'' by Pliny (1st c. AD),

Pliny Pliny may refer to: People * Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE), ancient Roman nobleman, scientist, historian, and author of ''Naturalis Historia'' (''Pliny's Natural History'') * Pliny the Younger (died 113), ancient Roman statesman, orator, w ...

. ''

Naturalis Historia The ''Natural History'' ( la, Naturalis historia) is a work by Pliny the Elder. The largest single work to have survived from the Roman Empire to the modern day, the ''Natural History'' compiles information gleaned from other ancient authors. ...

''
4:106
/ref> and perhaps as ''Texu<...>'' on an inscription from Romania dated 102/103 AD. The variant form ''Toxiandria'' is only attested once in a 9th-century manuscript of

Ammianus Marcellinus Ammianus Marcellinus (occasionally anglicised as Ammian) (born , died 400) was a Roman soldier and historian who wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from antiquity (preceding Procopius). His work, known as the ''Res Gestae ...

' ''Res Gestae'' (ca. 390) to designate the region, and the variant ''Taxandria'' occurs five times in 9th-century sources, and also in later documents. The inconsistencies in spelling may be explained by

dittography Dittography is the accidental, erroneous act of repeating a letter, word, phrase or combination of letters by a scribe or copyist. The term is used in the field of textual criticism. The opposite phenomenon, in which a copyist omits text by skippi ...

(errors by copyists), or by the fact that the old form ''Texandri'' had fallen out of usage. The name ''Texandria'' is generally assumed to stem from the

Proto-Germanic Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic br ...

root ''*tehswō(n)-'' ('right

and or AND may refer to: Logic, grammar, and computing * Conjunction (grammar), connecting two words, phrases, or clauses * Logical conjunction in mathematical logic, notated as "∧", "⋅", "&", or simple juxtaposition * Bitwise AND, a boolea ...

south'; compare with

Old Saxon Old Saxon, also known as Old Low German, was a Germanic language and the earliest recorded form of Low German (spoken nowadays in Northern Germany, the northeastern Netherlands, southern Denmark, the Americas and parts of Eastern Europe). I ...

''tesewa'',

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

'' taihswa'', 'right, south') attached to the contrasting suffix ''*-dra-''. ''Texandria'' may thus be interpreted as the 'land of the southerners'.

History

The region of Texandria is first mentioned by the Roman historian

ca. 390 AD. In the 380s, the

Salian Franks The Salian Franks, also called the Salians (Latin: ''Salii''; Greek: Σάλιοι, ''Salioi''), were a northwestern subgroup of the early Franks who appear in the historical record in the fourth and fifth centuries. They lived west of the Low ...

, after being defeated by Julian ca. 358, were given permission to settle ''apud Toxiandriam locum'' ('at a place in Toxiandria'). Toxandria_919-1125

Between 709 and ca. 1100, the name ''Texandria'' was used to denote a region located in the southern part of the modern Netherlands and the northern part of Belgium. In sources of the period 709–795, the ''

pagus In ancient Rome, the Latin word (plural ) was an administrative term designating a rural subdivision of a tribal territory, which included individual farms, villages (), and strongholds () serving as refuges, as well as an early medieval geogra ...

Texandrie'' appears concentrated in the basin of the river

Dommel The Dommel is a small river in Belgium and the Netherlands, left tributary of the Dieze. It is 120 km long, of which 85 km in the Netherlands. The Dommel takes in water from the Keersop, Tongelreep, Run, Gender and Kleine Dommel streams and merg ...

and its tributaries, with a first cluster of locations between Alphen in the west and Waalre in the east, and a second cluster more to the south around

Overpelt Overpelt (, literally ''Upper Pelt'') is a town in the municipality of Pelt and a former municipality located in the Belgian province of Limburg. In 2018, the municipality of Overpelt had a total population of 15,478. The municipality consiste ...

. As a result of a growing elite network of alliances, Texandria expanded between 815 and 914 to a region covering modern

North Brabant North Brabant ( nl, Noord-Brabant ; Brabantian: ; ), also unofficially called Brabant, is a province in the south of the Netherlands. It borders the provinces of South Holland and Gelderland to the north, Limburg to the east, Zeeland to t ...

and adjacent parts of the provinces of

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

and

Limburg Limburg or Limbourg may refer to: Regions * Limburg (Belgium), a province since 1839 in the Flanders region of Belgium * Limburg (Netherlands), a province since 1839 in the south of the Netherlands * Diocese of Limburg, Roman Catholic Diocese in ...

(possibly between Oosterhout, Laakdal and Reppel). In the mid-11th century, Stepelinus, a monk from

Saint-Trond Sint-Truiden (; french: link=no, Saint-Trond ; li, Sintruin ) is a city and municipality located in the province of Limburg, Flemish Region, Belgium, and has over 41,500 inhabitants, which makes it one of the largest cities in Limburg. The m ...

, located the region of Campania (firstly attested in this document) within Texandria. From ca. 1225, however, ''Campania'' (modern

) replaced ''Texandria'' as the name of the region. ''Texandria'' had nonetheless survived as the name of a vast

archdeacon An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in the Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, St Thomas Christians, Eastern Orthodox churches and some other Christian denominations, above that of mo ...

ry within the

diocese of Liège In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

, although it was eventually replaced with ''Campania'' by the end of the 14th century and disappeared from historical records.

References

Footnotes

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * {{Cite book, last=von Petrikovits, first=Harald, title=Germanenprobleme in heutiger Sicht, publisher=Walter de Gruyter, year=1999, isbn=978-3110164381, editor-last=Beck, editor-first=H., chapter=Germani Cisrhenani, editor2-last=Geuenich, editor2-first=D., editor3-last=Steuer, editor3-first=H., chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=te3fDzkb3uAC&pg=PA88 Netherlands in the Roman era