10 Facts About Gallia Belgica

Gallia Belgica was a province of the Roman Empire located in the north-eastern part of Roman Gaul, in what is today primarily northern France, Belgium, and Luxembourg, along with parts of the Netherlands and Germany.

The southern border of Gallia 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.

Diocletian brought the northeastern Civitas Tungrorum into Germania Inferior, joining the Rhineland colonies, and the remaining part of Gallia Belgica was divided into Belgica Prima in the eastern area of the Treveri, Mediomatrici and Leuci, around Luxembourg and the Ardennes, and Belgica Secunda between the English channel and the upper Meuse.

Agrippa made the divisions on what he perceived to be distinctions in language, race and community – Gallia Belgica was meant to be a mix of Celtic and Germanic peoples.

Additionally, local notables from Gallia Belgica were required to participate in a festival in Lugdunum, which typically celebrated or worshipped the emperor's genius.

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The northeastern part of Gallia Belgica was split off and renamed Germania Inferior, later to be reorganized and renamed as Germania Secunda.

In 173, the later emperor Didius Julianus, then governor of Gallia Belgica, had to repel a serious invasion of the Chauci, a Germanic tribe that lived along the shores of the Wadden Sea at the respective northern and northwestern coast of present-day Netherlands and Germany.

Gallia Belgica proved able to stop the incursions from the Franks.

Name Gallia Belgica continued to be used in the Low Countries as the Latin language name of the entire territory until the modern period.

Gallia Belgica Foederata continued to be used from 1581 up to the French Revolution.