Tungrorum

About

The Civitas Tungrorum was a large Roman administrative district dominating what is now eastern Belgium and the southern Netherlands. In the early days of the Roman Empire it was in the province of Gallia Belgica, but it later joined the neighbouring lower Rhine River border districts, within the province of Germania Inferior. Its capital was Aduatuca Tungrorum, now Tongeren. Like many other Roman administrative districts, it was named after the tribal grouping that lived there, the Tungri, though that name is not known from the area before it became part of the Roman Empire. Also like other such districts, it became the basis for a medieval bishopric, but the bishops of Tongeren later moved to nearby Maastricht and then to Liège.

Location: The geographical boundaries of the civics probably correspond at least roughly to the area of the large medieval Catholic diocese of Liège, which was reduced in 1559. In modern terms this large diocese contained approximately the Belgian provinces of Limburg, Liège, Namur, and part of Luxembourg; and the Netherlands provinces of Limburg, and North Brabant. It also contained the medieval imperial city of Aachen, now in Germany. Many early...