The former Province of Septimania

L'ancienne Province de Septimanie

After the Romans, until the Albigenses (409–1215 A.D.) [Genista]

In the beginning

Let us go back to Roman times. Troops have arrived from Rome, and they have occupied Gaul.

By 120 B.C., our region — besides Belgium, Celtic and Aquitaine — is the Roman Province, or Narbonnaise, limited by the sea and the mountain : Cevennes, Corbieres, the Pyrenees. It is not called Septimania.

The end of the Occidental Empire

But the Romans did not overstay.

On 4th September, 476 A.D., the Barbarian chief, Odoacre, king of the Herules, deposes the Occidental Roman Emperor, Romulus Augustule, who is a teenager.

When his father Oreste had been killed, Romulus Augustule is spared and he is placed in a monastery with a comfortable pension.

As the new master of Italy, Odoacre settles in Ravenna while Rome is declining : the city, which had up to one million inhabitants, only has a few dozen thousand left.

Greatness and downfall of the Occidental Roman Empire.

Invasions from all parts

The Germanic invasions begin in 409 A.D., with the Vandals¹, then the Alains² and the Sueves³. The Wisigoths⁴ came after them, in 412 A.D.

Between the River Garonne and the River Rhone, the Roman Province is then inhabited by the Tectosage Volques (around Toulouse), the Sordones or Sardones (around Perpignan), the Arecomic Volques (between Montpellier and Nîmes), the Allobroges (in the Rhone valley, as far as the lake of Geneva), and the Ligurians (from Marseille to Nice).

Nîmes, Maguelonne, Beziers, Agde, Lodeve, Narbonne and Elne are the seven important cities of Narbonnaise : seven cities which give the name of Septimania to the region — although some people say that the 7th Roman Legion was the origin of the name.
In 412 A.D., the Wisigoths, who have become temporarily allied to the Romans, drove the Vandales back into Betique (Andalousia), the Alains into Lusitania (Portugal) and the Sueves into Galicia (North-West of Spain).

In the middle of the 5th century, the Wisigoths were already occupying the whole Iberian peninsula and the South-West of France : from Gibraltar to the River, they were reigning, with Toulouse as their capital city.

Septimania was the province under the government of the Arian⁵ princes, and the Bishop of Narbonne could do nothing against it.

Spanish Septimania

Clotilde, Clovis's wife, was the niece of the King of Burgonds, Gondebaud, with whom Clovis became allied after he had a victory upon him. Together, they had a victory on the Wisigoths at Vouillé, in Poitou, in 507 A.D. Alaric II was killed and the Wisigoths were driven back as far as the Pyrenees. Clovis thought he was becoming the master of Septimania.

But the province was lost and remained in the Kingdom of Spain until 719 A.D., when the Arabs took hold of it, immediately beaten by Charles Martel.

A Marquisate or a Duchy?

In 801, the Marquisate of Gothia (or Septimania) was enlarged with Gotholonia (Cataluña) and was divided in 865, with Narbonne as its capital in France.

The County of Barcelona was also created, with its own capital. In the 10th century, the name Gothia disappears to become the Duchy of Narbonne.

The end

Septimania was partially under the control of the Dukes of Aquitaine (11th c.) and the Counts of Toulouse (12th c.), and then, being integrated to the royal property, Septimania disappeared after the Crusade of the Albigenses in 1215.