page_title: Gallia Belgica
section_title: Germanic conquests (after 406)
hierarchical_section_title: Gallia Belgica / Germanic conquests (after 406)
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of the Roman Empire ca. 400 AD, showing the administrative division into dioceses and provinces, as well as the major cities. The demarcation between Eastern and Western Empires is noted in red.
context_page_description: Gallia Belgica was a province of the Roman Empire located in the north-eastern part of Roman Gaul, in what is today primarily France, Belgium, and Luxembourg, along with parts of the Netherlands and Germany.
  In 50 BC after the conquest by Julius Caesar during his Gallic Wars, it became one of the three newly conquered provinces of Gaul. An official Roman province was later created by emperor Augustus in 22 BC. The province was named for the Belgae, as the largest tribal confederation in the area, but also included the territories of the Treveri, Mediomatrici, Leuci, Sequani, Helvetii and others. The southern border of Belgica, formed by the Marne and Seine rivers, was reported by Caesar as the original cultural boundary between the Belgae and the Celtic Gauls, whom he distinguished from one another.
  The province was re-organised several times, first increased and later decreased in size.
context_section_description: Around 350 Salian Franks who were already living in Batavia were settled in Toxandria. Toxandria was most likely for a large part overlapping with the area now known as the Kempen. 
  Eventually, in 406, a large alliance among them Vandals, Alans and Suebi, under great pressure from the Huns, after first having been defeated by the Ripuarian Franks in the neighborhood of Cologne in Germania Inferior, successfully crossed the Rhine in the neighborhood of present-day Koblenz and entered Gallia Belgica by way of the Moselle valley. They subsequently destroyed large parts of Gallia Belgica, before eventually moving on to Hispania (present-day Spain). This invasion and the accompanying widespread destruction broke the backbone of Roman power in at least the northern part of Gallia Belgica. After this invasion the Franks were able to conquer valuable agricultural land south of the Via Belgica, the very important main road between Cologne and Boulogne, that had been the backbone of Roman defense strategy between 260 and 406.
  In 452 a major battle was fought at the Catalaunian fields (between the Seine and the Moselle). A coalition of Romans, Visigoths and Franks fought an army led by the legendary Hunnic leader Attila. The outcome of this battle itself was inconclusive, but as a consequence of this battle the Huns and their allies left the area of Gallia Belgica where they had plundered nearly all major cities, except Paris.
  After the Western Roman Empire had already collapsed in Galla Belgica for some time the Gallo-Roman "Kingdom of Soissons" (457-486) managed to maintain control over the area around Soissons. The Franks however emerged victorious and Belgica Secunda in the 5th century became the center of Clovis' Merovingian kingdom. During the 8th century in the Carolingian Empire the former area of Gallia Belgica was split into  Neustria (roughly Belgica Secunda, main cities Paris, Reims) and Austrasia (roughly Belgica Prima and Germania Inferior, main cities Trier, Metz, Cologne). After the death of Charlemagne's son, Louis the Pious, the Carolingian Empire was divided by the Treaty of Verdun in 843. The three sons of Louis the Pious divided his territories into three kingdoms: East Francia (the forerunner of modern Germany), West Francia (west of the Scheldt river) a part of which (Ile de France), from the middle of the 10th century became the kernel of modern France, and Middle Francia which was succeeded by Lotharingia. Though often presented as the dissolution of the Frankish empire, it was in fact the continued adherence to Salic patrimony. Lotharingia was divided in 870 by the Treaty of Meerssen under West and East Francia.
caption: The Provinces of Gaul, circa 400 AD
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