Septimania[1] is a historical region in modern-day southern France. It referred to the western part of the Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis that passed to the control of the Visigoths in 462, when Septimania was ceded to their king, Theodoric II. During the Early Middle Ages, the region was variously known as Gallia Narbonensis, Gallia, or Narbonensis.[2] The territory of Septimania roughly corresponds with the modern French former administrative region of Languedoc-Roussillon that merged into the new administrative region of Occitanie. In the Visigothic Kingdom, which became centred on Toledo by the end of the reign of Leovigild, Septimania was both an administrative province of the central royal government and an ecclesiastical province whose metropolitan was the Archbishop of Narbonne. Originally, the Goths may have maintained their hold on the Albigeois, but if so it was conquered by the time of Chilperic I.[3] There is archaeological evidence that some enclaves of Visigothic population remained in Frankish Gaul, near the Septimanian border, after 507.[3]
The region of Septimania was invaded by the Andalusian Muslims in 719, renamed as Arbūnah and turned into a military base for future operations by the Andalusian military commanders.[4][5] It passed briefly to the Emirate of Córdoba, which had been expanding from the south during the same century, before its subsequent conquest by the Christian Franks in 759,[4][5] who by the end of the 9th century renamed it as Gothia or the Gothic March (Marca Gothica). After the Frankish conquest of Narbonne in 759, the Muslim Arabs and Berbers were defeated by the Christian Franks and retreated to their Andalusian heartland after 40 years of occupation, and the Carolingian king Pepin the Short came up reinforced.[4][5] Septimania became a march of the Carolingian Empire and then West Francia down to the 13th century, though it was culturally and politically autonomous from the northern France-based central royal government. The region was under the influence of the people from the count territories of Toulouse, Provence, and ancient County of Barcelona. It was part of the wider cultural and linguistic region comprising the southern third of France known as Occitania. This area was finally brought under effective control of the French kings in the early 13th century as a result of the Albigensian Crusade, after which it was assigned governors. From the end of the thirteenth century Septimania evolved into the royal province of Languedoc.
The name "Septimania" may derive from the Roman name of the city of Béziers, Colonia Julia Septimanorum Baeterrae, which in turn alludes to the settlement of veterans of the Roman VII Legion in the city. The name can also be an allusion to the seven cities (civitates) of the territory: Béziers, Elne, Agde, Narbonne, Lodève, Maguelonne, and Nîmes. Septimania extended to a line halfway between the Mediterranean and the river Garonne in the northwest; in the east the Rhône separated it from Provence; and to the south its boundary was formed by the Pyrénées.
^Cite error: The named reference James, 223 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ abJames (1980), p. 236
^ abcDeanesly, Margaret (2019). "The Later Merovingians". A History of Early Medieval Europe: From 476–911. Routledge Library Editions: The Medieval World (1st ed.). London and New York City: Routledge. pp. 244–245. ISBN 9780367184582.
^ abcCollins, Roger (1998). "Italy and Spain, 773–801". Charlemagne. Buffalo, London, and Toronto: Palgrave Macmillan/University of Toronto Press. pp. 65–66. doi:10.1007/978-1-349-26924-2_4. ISBN 978-1-349-26924-2.
Septimania is a historical region in modern-day southern France. It referred to the western part of the Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis that passed...
secured control of Septimania, their incursions beyond this into the Loire and Rhône valleys failed. By 759 Muslim forces had lost Septimania to the Christian...
Bernard (or Bernat) of Septimania (795–844), son of William of Gellone and cousin of Charlemagne, was the Duke of Septimania and Count of Barcelona from...
Septimania was the western region of the Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis that passed under the control of the Visigoths in 462. It passed briefly...
(fl. AD 824–844) was a Frankish writer, as well as Duchess consort of Septimania and Countess consort of Barcelona. She was the author of the Liber Manualis...
not, the title has been rendered in English as Duke (or Margrave) of Septimania (dux Septimaniæ) or Duke (or Margrave) of Gothia (Gothiæ marchio). A similar...
was a military buffer zone beyond the former province of Carolingian Septimania established by Charlemagne in 795 as a defensive barrier between the Muslim-ruled...
By 717, the Umayyads had invaded Gaul to launch their first raids into Septimania. By 719, Barcelona and Narbonne had also been captured. From 740 to 742...
presented in the book, a vassal Jewish princedom was established in Narbonne (Septimania) by the Carolingian king Pepin as a reward for Jewish cooperation in the...
needed] In wars of expansion for the Frankish realm, Pepin conquered Septimania from the Umayyad and Andalusian Muslims and defeated them at the siege...
William of Septimania (29 November 826 – 850) was the son of Bernard and Dhuoda. He was the count of Toulouse from 844 and count of Barcelona from 848...
crossed the Pyrenees by 719. The last Visigothic king Ardo resisted them in Septimania, where he fended off the Berber-Arab armies until 720. After the Islamic...
The early Muslim conquests or early Islamic conquests (Arabic: الْفُتُوحَاتُ الإسْلَامِيَّة, romanized: al-Futūḥāt al-ʾIslāmiyya), also known as the Arab...
507) and conquered all of their territory north of the Pyrenees save Septimania, and conquered the Bretons (according to Gregory of Tours) and made them...
demise of the Western Roman Empire. In the fifth century, the region of Septimania was taken over by the Visigoths, who founded the city of Carcassonne in...
Athanagild (c. 517 – December 567) was Visigothic King of Hispania and Septimania. He had rebelled against his predecessor, Agila I, in 551. The armies...
Tours, also called the Battle of Poitiers). The Frankish conquest of Septimania followed in the 750s, and a quasi-independent County of Toulouse emerged...
Saracen presence for several periods between 719 and 973 in the province of Septimania and then in Provence until 1197, of Muslim populations, mainly Arabs,...
Crimean Goths Septimania, land in southern France once inhabited by the Visigoths Languedoc, larger modern provincial name for the Septimania land of Gothia...
sometimes margraves (military defenders of the Holy Roman Empire) of Septimania and Provence. Count Raymond IV founded the Crusader state of Tripoli,...
Agila I or Achila I (died March 554), was Visigothic King of Hispania and Septimania (549 – March 554). Peter Heather notes that Agila's reign was during a...
the city. It was subsequently the capital of the Visigothic province of Septimania, the only territory from Gaul to fend off the Frankish thrust after the...
in Classical Arabic as al-Andalus, which at its peak included most of Septimania and modern-day Spain and Portugal. In 827, the Moors occupied Mazara on...
lived in retreats near the mouth of the Rhône and by the River Gard in Septimania in the Visigothic Kingdom. The Legenda Aurea links him with Arles, but...
immunity instituted by Fredegund. King Guntram sends an expedition into Septimania (Southern Gaul), in support of a rebellion by the Arian bishop Athaloc...
Global Information