Texandria, is a region mentioned in the 4th century AD and during the Middle Ages. It was situated in the southern part of the modern Netherlands and in the northern part of present-day Belgium.
Name
The tribal nameTexandri, which may be related to the region, is mentioned as Texand by an inscription dated 100–225 AD, as Texuandri by Pliny, and perhaps as Texu<...> on an inscription from Romania dated 102/103 AD. The variant formToxiandria is only attested once in a 9th-century manuscript of Ammianus Marcellinus' Res Gestae 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, 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 root *tehswō- 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 historianAmmianus Marcellinus ca. 390 AD. In the 380s, the Salian Franks, after being defeated by Julian ca. 358, were given permission to settle apud Toxiandriam locum. 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 Texandrieappears concentrated in the basin of the riverDommel 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. As a result of a growing elite network of alliances, Texandria expanded between 815 and 914 to a region covering modern North Brabant and adjacent parts of the provinces of Antwerp and Limburg. In the mid-11th century, Stepelinus, a monk from Saint-Trond, located the region of Campania within Texandria. From ca. 1225, however, Campania replaced Texandria as the name of the region. Texandria had nonetheless survived as the name of a vast archdeaconry within the diocese of Liège, although it was eventually replaced with Campania by the end of the 14th century and disappeared from historical records.
