Septimania

Coordinates: 43°36′N 3°12′E / 43.6°N 3.2°E / 43.6; 3.2
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Map of Septimania in 537

Septimania

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

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

Pyrénées
.

Visigothic Narbonensis

Gothic acquisition

Under Theodoric II, the Visigoths settled in

In 462, the Empire, controlled by Ricimer in the name of Libius Severus, granted the Visigoths the western half of the province of Gallia Narbonensis to settle. The Visigoths occupied Provence (eastern Narbonensis) as well and only in 475 did the Visigothic king, Euric, cede it to the Empire by a treaty whereby the emperor Julius Nepos recognised the Visigoths' full independence.

Visigothic Kingdom of Narbonne

The

Catholic Franks in Gaul.[6] The Franks allied with the Armorici, whose land was under constant threat from the Goths south of the Loire, and in 507 Clovis I, the Frankish king, invaded the Visigothic kingdom, whose capital lay in Toulouse, with the consent of the leading men of the tribe.[7] Clovis defeated the Goths in the Battle of Vouillé and the child-king Amalaric was carried for safety into Iberia while Gesalec was elected to replace him and rule from Narbonne
.

Clovis, his son Theuderic I, and his Burgundian allies proceeded to conquer most of Visigothic Gaul, including the Rouergue (507) and Toulouse (508). The attempt to take Carcassonne, a fortified site guarding the Septimanian coast, was defeated by the Ostrogoths (508) and Septimania thereafter remained in Visigothic hands, though the Burgundians managed to hold Narbonne for a time and drive Gesalec into exile. Border warfare between Gallo-Roman magnates, including bishops, had existed with the Visigoths during the last phase of the Empire and it continued under the Franks.[8]

The Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great reconquered Narbonne from the Burgundians and retained it as the provincial capital. Theudis was appointed regent at Narbonne by Theodoric while Amalaric was still a minor in Iberia. When Theodoric died in 526, Amalaric was elected king in his own right and he immediately made his capital in Narbonne. He ceded Provence, which had at some point passed back into Visigothic control, to the Ostrogothic king Athalaric. The Frankish king of Paris, Childebert I, invaded Septimania in 531 and chased Amalaric to Barcelona in response to pleas from his sister, Chrotilda, that her husband, Amalaric, had been mistreating her. The Franks however, did not try to hold the province and under Amalaric's successor, the centre of gravity of the kingdom crossed the Pyrenees and Theudis made his capital in Barcelona.

Gothic province of Gaul

In 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 province of Gallia held a unique place in the Visigothic Kingdom, as it was the only province outside of Iberia, north of the

Pyrénées, and bordering a strong foreign nation, in this case the Franks. The kings after Alaric II favoured Narbonne as a capital, but twice (611 and 531) were defeated and forced back to Barcelona by the Franks before Theudis moved the capital there permanently. Under Theodoric Septimania had been safe from Frankish assault, but was raided by Childebert I twice (531 and 541). When Liuva I succeeded to the throne in 568, Septimania was a dangerous frontier province and Iberia was wracked by revolts.[9] Liuva granted Iberia to his son Leovigild and took Septimania to himself.[9]

During the revolt of

Rhône near Tarascon and Cabaret (a fort called Ram's Head), both of which lay in Guntram's kingdom.[10][11] Guntram ignored two pleas for a peace in 586 and Reccared undertook the only Visigothic invasion of Francia in response.[11] However, Guntram was not motivated solely by religious alliance with the fellow Catholic Hermenegild, for he invaded Septimania again in 589 and was roundly defeated near Carcassonne by Claudius, Duke of Lusitania.[12]
It is clear that the Franks, throughout the sixth century, had coveted Septimania, but were unable to take it and the invasion of 589 was the last attempt.

In the 7th century, Gallia often had its own governors or duces (dukes), who were typically Visigoths. Most public offices were also held by Goths, far out of proportion to their part of the population.[13]

Culture of Gothic Septimania

The native population of Gallia was referred to by Visigothic and Iberian writers as the "Gauls" and there is a well-attested hatred between the Goths and the Gauls, which was atypical for the kingdom as a whole.

Wamba (reigned 672–680) and Julian of Toledo, however, that a large Jewish population becomes evident in Septimania: Julian referred to it as a "brothel of blaspheming Jews."[14]

Thanks to the preserved canons of the

Jupiter was still prevalent.[16] The council set down penance to be done for not working on Thursday save for church festivals and commanded the practice of Martin of Braga, rest from rural work on Sundays, to be adopted.[16] Also punished by the council were fortunetellers, who were publicly lashed and sold into slavery
.

Different theories exist concerning the nature of the frontier between Visigothic Septimania and Frankish Gaul. On the one hand, cultural exchange is generally reputed to have been minimal,[17] but the level of trading activity has been disputed. There have been few to no objects of Neustrian, Austrasian, or Burgundian provenance discovered in Septimania.[18] However, a series of Germanic sarcophagi of a unique regional style, variously labelled Visigothic, Aquitainian, or southwestern Gallic, are prevalent on both sides of the Septimanian border.[19] These sarcophagi are made of locally quarried marble from Saint-Béat and are of varied design, but with generally flat relief which distinguishes them from ancient Roman sarcophagi.[19] Their production has been dated to either the 5th, 6th, or 7th century, with the second of these being considered the most likely today.[20] However, if they were made in the 5th century, while both Aquitaine and Septimani were in Visigothic hands, their existence provides no evidence for a cultural osmosis across the Gothic-Frankish frontier.

A unique style of orange pottery was common in the 4th and 5th centuries in southern Gaul, but the later (6th century) examples culled from Septimania are more orange than their cousins from Aquitaine and Provence and are not found commonly outside of Septimania, a strong indicator that there was little commerce over the frontier or at its ports.[21] In fact, Septimania helped to isolate both Aquitaine and Iberia from the rest of the Mediterranean world.[22]

Coinage of the Visigothic Kingdom of Hispania did not circulate in Gaul outside of Septimania and Frankish coinage did not circulate in the Visigothic Kingdom, including Septimania. If there had been a significant amount of commerce over the frontier, the monies paid had to have been melted down immediately and re-minted as foreign coins have not been preserved across the frontier.[23]

Muslim-ruled and Frankish Septimania

Pyrénées
and Septimania in 740

The Arab and Berber Muslim forces under

Maguelonne, and Nîmes.[citation needed
]

By 721, al-Samh was reinforced and ready to lay siege to

.

After capturing

Frankish Christian army intercepted them at the mouth of the River Berre (located in the present-day Département of Aude) and achieved a decisive and significant victory,[26][27] after which the Frankish army marched on Nîmes.[27][28] Islamic burials have been found in Nîmes.[30][31][32][33]

Septimania during Pepin's expedition and conquest (752–759)

Around 747, the government of the Septimania region (and the

Melguelh, Agde, and Béziers refused allegiance to the emir at Córdoba and declared their loyalty to the Frankish king—the Gothic count of Nîmes, Ansemund, having some authority over the remaining counts. The Gothic counts and the Franks then began to besiege Narbonne, where Count Miló was probably the count (as successor to Count Gilbert
).

In 754, an anti-Frankish reaction, led by Ermeniard, killed Ansemund, but the uprising was without success and

Gallo-Roman defenders of Narbonne surrendered to the Frankish forces, proceeding to eliminate the Andalusian garrison after killing the Arab-Berber Muslim troops, and opening the gates of the stronghold to the investing forces of the Carolingian king.[4][5] Previously, the Frankish king Pepin had promised to uphold and respect the Gothic laws and probably their own government, so garnering the allegiance of the Gothic nobility of Septimania.[34]

Arab and Berber Muslim troops retreating from Narbonne after the Frankish conquest of Septimania in 759.[4][5] Illustration by Émile Bayard, 1880.

Albigeois in Aquitaine, leading to the battle for Aquitaine
.

Gothia in Carolingian times

Marches of the eastern Pyrénées under the Carolingian Empire: Marca Gothica and Marca Hispanica.

The region of

Waifer of Aquitaine. Albi, Rouergue, Gévaudan, and the city of Toulouse were conquered. In 777, the wali of Barcelona, Sulayman al-Arabi, and the wali of Huesca Abu Taur, offered their submission to Charlemagne and also the submission of Husayn, wali of Zaragoza. When Charlemagne invaded the Upper March in 778, Husayn refused allegiance and he had to retire. In the Pyrénées, the Basques defeated his forces in Roncesvalles
(August 15, 778).

The Frankish king found Septimania and the borderlands so devastated and depopulated by warfare, with the inhabitants hiding among the mountains, that he made grants of land that were some of the earliest identifiable

Hispanic Marches
in the borderlands of his empire. The territory passed to Louis, king in Aquitaine, but it was governed by Frankish margraves and then dukes (from 817) of Septimania.

The Frankish noble

Margrave of Gothia
and Septimania from 865 to 878.

Septimania became known as Gothia after the reign of Charlemagne. It retained these two names while it was ruled by the counts of Toulouse during early part of the Middle Ages, but other names became regionally more prominent such as, Roussillon, Conflent, Razès or Foix, and the name Gothia (along with the older name Septimania) faded away during the 10th century, as the region fractured into smaller feudal entities, which sometimes retained Carolingian titles, but lost their Carolingian character, as the culture of Septimania evolved into the culture of Languedoc. This fragmentation in small feudal entities and the resulting fading and the gradual shifting of the name Gothia are the most probable origins of the ancient geographical area known as Gathalania or Cathalania which has reached our days as the present region of Catalonia.

The name was used because the area was populated by a higher concentration of Goths than in surrounding regions. The rulers of this area, when joined with several counties, were titled the

Marquesses of Gothia (and, also, the Dukes
of Septimania).

See also

  • Septimania timeline

Notes

  1. ^ (French: Septimanie [sɛptimani]; Occitan: Septimània [septiˈmanjɔ])
  2. ^ a b c d James (1980), p. 223
  3. ^ a b c d James (1980), p. 236
  4. ^ .
  5. ^ .
  6. ^ Bachrach (1971), p. 7
  7. ^ Bachrach (1971), pp. 10–11
  8. ^ Bachrach (1971), p. 16
  9. ^ a b Thompson (1969), p. 19
  10. ^ a b Collins (2004), p. 60
  11. ^ a b c Thompson (1969), p. 75
  12. ^ Thompson (1969), p. 95
  13. ^ a b Thompson (1969), p. 227
  14. ^ Thompson (1969), p. 228
  15. ^ Thompson (1969), p. 54
  16. ^ a b McKenna (1938), pp. 117–118
  17. ^ Thompson (1969), p. 23
  18. ^ James (1980), pp. 228–229
  19. ^ a b James (1980), p. 229
  20. ^ James (1980), p. 230
  21. ^ James (1980), p. 238
  22. ^ James (1980), pp. 240–241
  23. ^ James (1980), p. 239
  24. , p. 95.
  25. ^ O'Callaghan (1983), p. 142
  26. ^
    JSTOR 48578218. After three months, Eudo the Great, Duke of Aquitaine, lifted the siege. Eudo's army decimated the Moors, killed As-Sahm and drove the survivors from Aquitaine
    .
  27. ^
    Gallia, again by battles, and had to besiege Avignon and Narbonne there. He did not have the time to conquer Septimania
    .
  28. ^
    eastern Frankish Mayors of the Palace, or that a sense of Christian solidarity should mean more than the dictates of realpolitik. For that matter it was not with any sense of obligation to free formerly Christian lands from Islamic rule that Charles Martel launched a raid into western Provence in 737. He took Avignon, but clearly did not retain it, and advanced to besiege Narbonne, the centre of Arab control in the March. The Frankish chronicles record his victory over a relieving force sent by the governor ʿUqba
    , but their uniform silence makes it clear that despite this he failed to take the city itself.
  29. ^ Meadows, Ian (March–April 1993). "The Arabs in Occitania". Saudi Aramco World. 44: 24–29.
  30. ^ Netburn, Deborah (24 February 2016). "Earliest Known Medieval Muslim Graves are Discovered in France". Los Angeles Times.
  31. ^ Newitz, Annalee (24 February 2016). "Medieval Muslim Graves in France Reveal a Previously Unseen History". Ars Technica.
  32. ^ "France's Earliest 'Muslim Burials' Found". BBC News. 25 February 2016.
  33. PMID 26910855
    .
  34. ^ Lewis, Archibald R. 1965

Sources

  • Bachrach, Bernard S. (1971). Merovingian Military Organization, 481–751. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
  • Collins, Roger (1989). The Arab Conquest of Spain, 710–97. Oxford University Press.
  • Collins, Roger (2004). Visigothic Spain, 409–711. Blackwell Publishing.
  • James, Edward (1980). "Septimania and its frontier: an archaeological approach". In Edward James (ed.). Visigothic Spain: New Approaches. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
  • Lewis, Archibald Ross (1965). The Development of Southern French and Catalan Society, 718–1050. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
  • McKenna, Stephen (1938). Paganism and Pagan Survivals in Spain up to the Fall of the Visigothic Kingdom. Catholic University of America Press.
  • O'Callaghan, Joseph F. (1983). A History of Medieval Spain. Cornell University Press.
  • Thompson, E. A. (1969). The Goths in Spain. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
  • Zuckerman, Arthur J. (1972) [1965]. A Jewish Princedom in Feudal France 768–900. New York: Columbia University Press. .

43°36′N 3°12′E / 43.6°N 3.2°E / 43.6; 3.2