Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Texandri
The Texandri (also Texuandri; later Toxandri, Toxiandri, Taxandri) were a Germanic people living between the Scheldt and Rhine rivers in the 1st century AD. They are associated with a region mentioned in the late 4th century as Texandria (also Toxiandria; later Toxandria, Taxandria), a name which survived into the 8th–12th centuries.
The only inscription that convincingly mentions the tribe is dated 100–225 AD and gives the form Texand(ri). It was found on an altar at Brocolitia (Carrowburgh Fort) near Hadrian's Wall. A more uncertain inscription from Romania dated 102/103 AD reads Texu<...>. They are also mentioned as Texuandri by Pliny (1st c. AD), which may suggest that the two forms Texuandri and Texandri co-existed already in the late-1st–2nd century AD.
The variant form Toxiandria is only attested once in a 9th-century manuscript of Ammianus Marcellinus' Res Gestae (ca. 390) to designate the region. The form Taxandria occurs five times in 9th-century sources, and also in later documents. The inconsistencies in spelling may be explained by dittography (errors by copyists), or by the fact that the older form Texandri had fallen out of usage at the time when those manuscripts were redacted.
The ethnonym Texandri, reconstructed in early West Germanic dialects as *tehswandrōz, is generally assumed to derive from the Proto-Germanic stem *tehswō(n)- ('right [hand], south'; cf. Old Saxon tesewa, Gothic taihswa, 'right, south') attached to the contrasting suffix *-dra-. The name can thus be interpreted as meaning 'those of who live south/on the right bank [of the Meuse or Rhine river'], and the region of Texandria as the 'land of the southerners'. Alternatively, J. Mansion has proposed in 1924 an alternative etymology from *texs-wandra-, formed with the West Germanic steù wandra-, which might be related to English wander and Dutch wandelen. It has also been speculated that Texandri may be a Latinized form of the Gaulish tribal name Eburones, since eburos and taxus mean 'yew' in Gaulish and Latin, respectively.
The region of Texandria, attested as Toxiandriam ca. 390 (pagus Texandrie in 709), and the city of Tessenderlo, attested as Tessenderlon in 1135, are probably named after the tribe.
The Texandri dwelled in a territory situated between the Scheldt and Rhine rivers, alongside other contemporary tribes like the Tungri. Roman writer Pliny (1st c. AD) connected the Texandri to the river Scaldis (modern Scheldt) but the handwritten versions of the sentence a Scaldi incolunt <?> Texuandri are ambiguous. The manuscripts variously have texero, exerni, extera, or externi, which could be interpreted as meaning 'at the Scheldt river', although some translations portray them as 'beyond' that river.
Scholars generally assume that the territory of the Texandri mostly corresponded to the region of Texandria later mentioned by Ammianus ca. 390 AD. In the 380s, the Salian Franks, after being defeated by Julian ca. 358, were given permission to settle apud Toxiandriam locum ('at a place in Toxiandria'). If depopulation had already begun in the area by the late-2nd century (reaching its peak in the late 3rd and 4th centuries), human occupation continued along the Meuse river during the period, and it is unlikely that the sandy areas of modern North Brabant were completely deserted when Frankish settlers recolonized the region from the 5th century onward.
According to Bijsterveld and Toorians (2018), "it can be plausibly argued that those living there as well as the neighbouring population may well have kept the geographic reference to the Texuandri (or to the territory named after them) in use." In sources of the period 709–795, the pagus Texandrie appears to be concentrated around the basin of the river Dommel and its tributaries, between the towns of Alphen, Waalre and Overpelt. It was later extended from the 9th century onward as the result of a growing network of local alliances.
Hub AI
Texandri AI simulator
(@Texandri_simulator)
Texandri
The Texandri (also Texuandri; later Toxandri, Toxiandri, Taxandri) were a Germanic people living between the Scheldt and Rhine rivers in the 1st century AD. They are associated with a region mentioned in the late 4th century as Texandria (also Toxiandria; later Toxandria, Taxandria), a name which survived into the 8th–12th centuries.
The only inscription that convincingly mentions the tribe is dated 100–225 AD and gives the form Texand(ri). It was found on an altar at Brocolitia (Carrowburgh Fort) near Hadrian's Wall. A more uncertain inscription from Romania dated 102/103 AD reads Texu<...>. They are also mentioned as Texuandri by Pliny (1st c. AD), which may suggest that the two forms Texuandri and Texandri co-existed already in the late-1st–2nd century AD.
The variant form Toxiandria is only attested once in a 9th-century manuscript of Ammianus Marcellinus' Res Gestae (ca. 390) to designate the region. The form Taxandria occurs five times in 9th-century sources, and also in later documents. The inconsistencies in spelling may be explained by dittography (errors by copyists), or by the fact that the older form Texandri had fallen out of usage at the time when those manuscripts were redacted.
The ethnonym Texandri, reconstructed in early West Germanic dialects as *tehswandrōz, is generally assumed to derive from the Proto-Germanic stem *tehswō(n)- ('right [hand], south'; cf. Old Saxon tesewa, Gothic taihswa, 'right, south') attached to the contrasting suffix *-dra-. The name can thus be interpreted as meaning 'those of who live south/on the right bank [of the Meuse or Rhine river'], and the region of Texandria as the 'land of the southerners'. Alternatively, J. Mansion has proposed in 1924 an alternative etymology from *texs-wandra-, formed with the West Germanic steù wandra-, which might be related to English wander and Dutch wandelen. It has also been speculated that Texandri may be a Latinized form of the Gaulish tribal name Eburones, since eburos and taxus mean 'yew' in Gaulish and Latin, respectively.
The region of Texandria, attested as Toxiandriam ca. 390 (pagus Texandrie in 709), and the city of Tessenderlo, attested as Tessenderlon in 1135, are probably named after the tribe.
The Texandri dwelled in a territory situated between the Scheldt and Rhine rivers, alongside other contemporary tribes like the Tungri. Roman writer Pliny (1st c. AD) connected the Texandri to the river Scaldis (modern Scheldt) but the handwritten versions of the sentence a Scaldi incolunt <?> Texuandri are ambiguous. The manuscripts variously have texero, exerni, extera, or externi, which could be interpreted as meaning 'at the Scheldt river', although some translations portray them as 'beyond' that river.
Scholars generally assume that the territory of the Texandri mostly corresponded to the region of Texandria later mentioned by Ammianus ca. 390 AD. In the 380s, the Salian Franks, after being defeated by Julian ca. 358, were given permission to settle apud Toxiandriam locum ('at a place in Toxiandria'). If depopulation had already begun in the area by the late-2nd century (reaching its peak in the late 3rd and 4th centuries), human occupation continued along the Meuse river during the period, and it is unlikely that the sandy areas of modern North Brabant were completely deserted when Frankish settlers recolonized the region from the 5th century onward.
According to Bijsterveld and Toorians (2018), "it can be plausibly argued that those living there as well as the neighbouring population may well have kept the geographic reference to the Texuandri (or to the territory named after them) in use." In sources of the period 709–795, the pagus Texandrie appears to be concentrated around the basin of the river Dommel and its tributaries, between the towns of Alphen, Waalre and Overpelt. It was later extended from the 9th century onward as the result of a growing network of local alliances.