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 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

. It was situated in the southern part of the modern

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

and in the northern part of present-day

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

, an area currently known as

Campine The Campine () or Kempen () 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 encompasses a large n ...

(Kempen in Dutch).

Name

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

Naturalis Historia The ''Natural History'' () is a Latin 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. Despite the work' ...

''
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 anglicized as Ammian ( Greek: Αμμιανός Μαρκελλίνος; born , died 400), was a Greek and Roman soldier and historian who wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from antiquit ...

' ''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, especially in critical studies of ancient or biblical literature ...

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

Proto-Germanic Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the linguistic reconstruction, reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic languages, Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from ...

stem ''*tehswō(n)-'' ('right and south'; cf.

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 Eur ...

''tesewa'', Gothic '' 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, or Salians, sometimes referred to using the Latin word or , were a Frankish people who lived in what was is now the Netherlands in the fourth century. They are only mentioned under this name in historical records relating to ...

, 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 designate an area in the modern region of

, straddling southern Netherlands and northern 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 geograp ...

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 are in the Netherlands. The Dommel takes in water from the Keersop, Tongelreep, Run (stream), Run, Gender (stream), Gender a ...

and its tributaries, with a first cluster of settlement between Alphen in the west and Waalre in the east, and a second cluster to the south around Overpelt. 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 ( ; ), also unofficially called Brabant, Dutch Brabant or Hollandic 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 ...

and adjacent parts of the provinces of

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

and Limburg (possibly between

Oosterhout Oosterhout (; from ''ooster'', "eastern", and ''hout'', "woods") is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a city in southern Netherlands. The municipality had a population of in . Population centers The municipality of Ooste ...

Laakdal Laakdal () is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of ...

and Reppel). In the mid-11th century, Stepelinus, a monk from Saint-Trond, located the region of Campania (firstly attested in this document) within Texandria. From ca. 1225, ''Campania'' (modern Campine) replaced ''Texandria'' as the name of the region. The later 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 Church, Eastern Orthodox churches and some other Christian denomina ...

ry within the diocese of Liège, although it was eventually also replaced with ''Campania'' by the end of the 14th century, then 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 Former states in the Low Countries