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74-456: The history of Merksem goes back to Gallo-Roman times. During that period the region was mentioned as Merk (border) and Heim (settlement) being part of the diocese Kamerijk . Merksem has for centuries been part of a larger community together with Schoten and Sint-Job-in-'t-Goor . During the Spanish period Merksem used to be a Dominium , a known Lord of Mercxem is Anthony van Stralen . In

148-495: A double loyalty, as Western Roman authority disintegrated at Rome. The plight of the highly-Romanized governing class is examined by R.W. Mathisen, the struggles of bishop Hilary of Arles by M. Heinzelmann. Into the 7th century, Gallo-Roman culture would persist particularly in the areas of Gallia Narbonensis that developed into Occitania , Cisalpine Gaul , Orléanais , and to a lesser degree, Gallia Aquitania . The formerly-Romanized northern Gaul, once it had been occupied by

222-532: A luxurious Roman villa called the Domus of Vesunna , built round a garden courtyard surrounded by a colonnaded peristyle enriched with bold tectonic frescoing, has been handsomely protected in a modern glass-and-steel structure that is a fine example of archaeological museum-making (see external link). Lyon , the capital of Roman Gaul, is now the site of the Gallo-Roman Museum of Lyon (rue Céberg), associated with

296-575: A major northern access to Antwerp , begins in Merksem and goes up north, all the way up until the border with the Netherlands . It ends in the Dutch city of Breda (hence the name). Other major axes would include Lambrechtshoekenlaan, Groenendaallaan, Maantjessteenweg and Ringlaan. Together with Bredabaan they could be considered as the boundaries of the centre of Merksem. Another main axis, that constitutes most of

370-473: A majority of people in Rome's provinces venerated, respected, and worshipped gods from Rome proper and Roman Italy to an extent, alongside normal services done in honor of their "traditional" gods. The increasing practices of prorogation and statutorily-defined "super commands" driven by popularis political tactics undermined the republican constitutional principle of annually-elected magistracies. This allowed

444-467: A military crisis occurred near some province, it was normally reassigned to one of the consuls; praetors were left with the garrison duties. In the permanent provinces, the Roman commanders were initially not intended as administrators. However, the presence of the commander with forces sufficient to coerce compliance made him an obvious place to seek final judgement. A governor's legal jurisdiction thus grew from

518-612: A model against which to compare and contrast parallel developments of Romanization in other less-studied Roman provinces . Interpretatio romana offered Roman names for Gaulish deities such as the smith-god Gobannus , but of the Celtic deities, only the horse-patroness Epona penetrated Romanized cultures beyond the confines of Gaul. The barbarian invasions began in the late 3rd century and forced upon Gallo-Roman culture fundamental changes in politics, economic underpinning and military organization. The Gothic settlement of 418 offered

592-479: A multitude of laws had been passed on how a governor would complete his task, requiring presence in the province, regulating how he could requisition goods from provincial communities, limiting the number of years he could serve in the province, etc. Prior to 123 BC, the senate assigned consular provinces as it wished, usually in its first meeting of the consular year. The specific provinces to be assigned were normally determined by lot or by mutual agreement among

666-486: A process which saw the republic return to "normality": he shared the fasces that year with his consular colleague month-by-month and announced the abolition of the triumvirate by the end of the year in accordance with promises to do so at the close of the civil wars. At the start of 27 BC, Augustus formally had a provincial command over all of Rome's provinces. That year, in his "first settlement", he ostentatiously returned his control of them and their attached armies to

740-406: A reaction from the senate, which reacted with laws to rein in the governors. After initial experimentation with ad hoc panels of inquest, various laws were passed, such as the lex Calpurnia de repetundis in 149 BC, which established a permanent court to try corruption cases; troubles with corruption and laws reacting to it continued through the republican era. By the end of the republic,

814-400: A task assigned to a junior magistrates without imperium : for example, the treasury was the provincia of a quaestor and the civil jurisdiction of the urban praetor was the urbana provincia . In the middle and late republican authors like Plautus, Terence, and Cicero, the word referred something akin to a modern ministerial portfolio: "when... the senate assigned provinciae to

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888-698: Is "SC City Pirates Antwerp". They play in the fourth division of the Belgian league pyramid system. Gallo-Roman Gallo-Roman culture was a consequence of the Romanization of Gauls under the rule of the Roman Empire . It was characterized by the Gaulish adoption or adaptation of Roman culture, language, morals and way of life in a uniquely Gaulish context. The well-studied meld of cultures in Gaul gives historians

962-544: The lex Gabinia which gave Pompey an overlapping command over large portions of the Mediterranean. The senate, which had long acted as a check on aristocratic ambitions, was unable to stop these immense commands, which culminated eventually with the reduction of the number of meaningfully-independent governors during the triumviral period to three men and, with the end of the republic, to one man. During his sixth and seventh consulships (28 and 27 BC), Augustus began

1036-515: The numen of Augustus , came to play a prominent role in public religion in Gaul, most dramatically at the pan-Gaulish ceremony venerating Rome and Augustus at the Condate Altar, near Lugdunum , annually on 1 August. Gregory of Tours recorded the tradition that after the persecution under the co-emperors Decius and Gratus (250–251), the future Pope Felix I sent seven missionaries to re-establish

1110-604: The Alans . The Gaulish language is thought to have survived into the 6th century in France, despite considerable Romanization of the local material culture. The last record of spoken Gaulish deemed to be plausibly credible was when Gregory of Tours wrote in the 6th century (c. 560–575) that a shrine in Auvergne which "is called Vasso Galatae in the Gallic tongue" was destroyed and burnt to

1184-525: The Aquitanian language , which may have been the parent language of Basque , and parts of the coast near Marseille spoke Ligurian with some Greek-speaking colonies on the Mediterranean coast, notably including Massilia . In the northeastern zone of Belgica , there may have been some presence of Germanic languages , but that is disputed. During the late empire, there was some settlement in Gaul by tribes speaking Germanic or Eastern Iranian languages , such as

1258-710: The Crisis of the Third Century , from 260 to 274, Gaul was subject to Alamannic raids during a civil war. In reaction to local problems, the Gallo-Romans appointed their own emperor, Postumus . The rule over Gaul, Britannia and Hispania by Postumus and his successors is usually called the Gallic Empire although it was just one set of many usurpers who took over parts of the Roman Empire and tried to become emperor. The capital

1332-591: The Fondation Pierre Gianadda , a modern museum of art and sculpture shares space with Gallo-Roman Museum centered on the foundations of a Celtic temple. Other sites include: Roman provinces The Roman provinces ( Latin : provincia , pl. provinciae ) were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later

1406-556: The Franks , would develop into Merovingian culture instead. Roman life, centered on the public events and cultural responsibilities of urban life in the res publica and the sometimes luxurious life of the self-sufficient rural villa system, took longer to collapse in the Gallo-Roman regions, where the Visigoths largely inherited the status quo in 418. The Gallo-Roman language persisted in

1480-519: The Gallo-Italic languages and the Rhaeto-Romance languages . Latin epigraphy in Gaul has peculiarities such as the occasional variant ⟨ Ꟶ ⟩ instead of ⟨H⟩ . Roman culture introduced a new phase of anthropomorphized sculpture to the Gaulish community, synthesized with Celtic traditions of refined metalworking, a rich body of urbane Gallo-Roman silver developed, which

1554-640: The Gallo-Romance dialects which include French and its closest relatives. The influence of substrate languages may be seen in graffiti showing sound changes that matched changes that had occurred earlier in the indigenous languages, especially Gaulish. The Vulgar Latin in the North of Gaul evolved into the langues d'oïl and Franco-Provencal , and the dialects in the South evolved into the modern Occitan and Catalan tongues. Other languages held to be Gallo-Romance include

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1628-524: The Greco-Roman world . In the Greek language, a province was called an eparchy ( Greek : ἐπαρχίᾱ , eparchia ), with a governor called an eparch ( Greek : ἔπαρχος , eparchos ). The Latin provincia , during the middle republic, referred not to a territory, but to a task assigned to a Roman magistrate. That task might require using the military command powers of imperium but otherwise could even be

1702-483: The Rhaeto-Romance languages , Occitano-Romance languages and Gallo-Italic languages . Gaul was divided by Roman administration into three provinces, which were subdivided during the later 3rd-century reorganization under Diocletian , and divided between two dioceses, Galliae and Viennensis, under the Praetorian prefecture of Galliae. On the local level, it was composed of civitates , which preserved, broadly speaking,

1776-430: The Roman Empire . Each province was ruled by a Roman appointed as governor . For centuries, it was the largest administrative unit of the foreign possessions of ancient Rome. With the administrative reform initiated by Diocletian , it became a third level administrative subdivision of the Roman Empire, or rather a subdivision of the imperial dioceses (in turn subdivisions of the imperial prefectures ). A province

1850-665: The Vandal and Gothic interlopers. Other bishops drew the faithful to radical asceticism. Bishops often took on the duties of civil administrators after the contraction of the Roman imperial administration during the barbarian invasions of the 5th century by helping fund building projects and even acting as arbiters of justice in the local community. Miracles attributed to both kinds of bishops, as well as holy men and women, attracted cult veneration , sometimes very soon after their death. A great number of locally venerated Gallo-Roman and Merovingian saints arose from 400 to 750. The identification of

1924-405: The proconsuls of Africa Proconsularis and Asia through those governed by consulares and correctores to the praesides . The provinces in turn were grouped into (originally twelve) dioceses , headed usually by a vicarius , who oversaw their affairs. Only the proconsuls and the urban prefect of Rome (and later Constantinople) were exempt from this, and were directly subordinated to

1998-619: The 16th century Merksem was separated from Schoten . Around the year 600, the Franks started colonizing the area near the local Saint-Bartholomew's Church, which was the highest point of Merksem at the time. In 750, the Scheldt river finally started settling itself into its current river bed, which resulted in parts of Merksem becoming peat bog (a type of wetland ). Current street names of these areas still refer to these wetlands. (The 1998 and 1999 floods of some residential areas were due to Merksem's geographical location. This would later result in

2072-531: The Gallic nations to participate in Roman magistracy. The request having been accepted, the Gauls decided to engrave the imperial speech on bronze. In Metz , once an important town of Gaul , the Golden Courtyard Museums displays a rich collection of Gallo-Roman finds and the vestiges of Gallo-Roman baths, revealed by the extension works to the museums in the 1930s. In Martigny , Valais , Switzerland, at

2146-565: The aftermath of the Fourth Macedonian War in 148 BC. Similarly, assignment of various provinciae in Hispania was not accompanied by the creation of any regular administration of the area; indeed, even though two praetors were assigned to Hispania regularly from 196 BC, no systematic settlement of the region occurred for nearly thirty years and what administration occurred was ad hoc and emerged from military necessities. In

2220-579: The arrangements during this period is contained in the Notitia Dignitatum (Record of Offices), a document dating from the early 5th century. Most data is drawn from this authentic imperial source, as the names of the areas governed and titles of the governors are given there. There are however debates about the source of some data recorded in the Notitia , and it seems clear that some of its own sources are earlier than others. Some scholars compare this with

2294-570: The bishop and the civil prefect, who operated largely in harmony within the late-imperial administration. Some of the communities had origins that predated the 3rd-century persecutions. The personal charisma of the bishop set the tone, as 5th-century allegiances for pagans and Christians switched from institutions to individuals. Most Gallo-Roman bishops were drawn from the highest levels of society as appropriate non-military civil roads to advancement dwindled, and they represented themselves as bulwarks of high literary standards and Roman traditions against

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2368-478: The boundaries of the formerly-independent Gaulish tribes, which had been organised in large part on village structures, which retained some features in the Roman civic formulas that overlaid them. Over the course of the Roman period, an ever-increasing proportion of Gauls gained Roman citizenship . In 212, the Constitutio Antoniniana extended citizenship to all free-born men in the Roman Empire. During

2442-421: The broken and scattered Christian communities: Gatien to Tours, Trophimus to Arles, Paul to Narbonne, Saturninus to Toulouse, Denis to Paris, Martial to Limoges and Austromoine to Clermont . In the 5th and the 6th centuries, Gallo-Roman Christian communities still consisted of independent churches in urban sites, each governed by a bishop . Christians experienced loyalties that were divided between

2516-525: The change likely reflected Roman unease about Carthaginian power: quaestors could not command armies or fleets; praetors could and initially seem to have held largely garrison duties. This first province started a permanent shift in Roman thinking about provincia . Instead of being a task of military expansion, it became a recurrent defensive assignment to oversee conquered territories. These defensive assignments, with few opportunities to gain glory, were less desirable and therefore became regularly assigned to

2590-429: The commanders; only extraordinarily did the senate assign a command extra sortem (outside of sortition). But in 123 or 122 BC, the tribune Gaius Sempronius Gracchus passed the lex Sempronia de provinciis consularibus , which required the senate to select the consular provinces before the consular elections and made this announcement immune from tribunician veto. The law had the effect of, over time, abolishing

2664-467: The consulship in exchange for a general proconsulship – with a special dispensation from the law that nullified imperium within the city of Rome – over the imperial provinces. He also gave himself, through the senate, a general grant of imperium maius , which gave him priority over the ordinary governors of the public provinces, allowing him to interfere in their affairs. Within the public and imperial provinces there also existed distinctions of rank. In

2738-521: The death of Cleopatra and was ruled by a governor of only equestrian rank, perhaps as a discouragement to senatorial ambition. That exception was unique but not contrary to Roman law, as Egypt was considered Augustus's personal property, following the tradition of the kings of the earlier Hellenistic period . The English word province comes from the Latin word provincia . The Latin term provincia had an equivalent in eastern, Greek-speaking parts of

2812-475: The deepening of the Schijn tributary ). In May 1561, Merksem and Schoten were split up. The current Bredabaan ( Breda Road) functioned as a gate between Antwerp and cities located to the north. In 1742, the road would become a toll road . At the beginning of the 19th century, Merksem was a very rural area with a population of 750. Local farmers mainly provided the nearby city of Antwerp with straw , giving

2886-401: The demands of the provincial inhabitants for authoritative settlement of disputes. In the absence of opportunities for conquest and with little oversight for their activities, many praetorian governors settled on extorting the provincials. This profiteering threatened Roman control by unnecessarily angering the province's subject populations and was regardless dishonourable. It eventually drew

2960-573: The diocesan administration with the secular community, which took place during the 5th century in Italy, can best be traced in the Gallo-Roman culture of Gaul in the career of Caesarius , bishop and Metropolitan of Arles from 503 to 543. (Wallace-Hadrill). Before the Roman incursion, most of Gaul spoke Celtic dialects that are now considered to be the Gaulish language with considerable variation . The south-western region that would later become Gascony spoke

3034-487: The emperor. The emperor Diocletian introduced a radical reform known as the tetrarchy (AD 284–305), with a western and an eastern senior emperor styled Augustus , each seconded by a junior emperor (and designated successor) styled caesar . Each of these four defended and administered a quarter of the empire. In the 290s, Diocletian divided the empire anew into almost a hundred provinces, including Roman Italy . Their governors were hierarchically ranked, from

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3108-451: The end of the republic and was regardless in inferior status to a proconsul. More radically, Egypt (which was sufficiently powerful that a commander there could start a rebellion against the emperor) was commanded by an equestrian prefect, "a very low title indeed" as prefects were normally low-ranking officers and equestrians were not normally part of the elite. In Augustus' "second settlement" of 23 BC, he gave up his continual holding of

3182-484: The end of the republic, all governors acted pro consule . Also important was the assertion of popular authority over the assignment of provincial commands. This started with Gaius Marius , who had an allied tribune introduce a law transferring to him the already-taken province of Numidia (then held by Quintus Caecilius Metellus ), allowing Marius to assume command of the Jugurthine War . This innovation destabilised

3256-465: The ground. Coexisting with Latin, Gaulish helped shape the Vulgar Latin dialects that developed into French, with effects including loanwords and calques (including oui , the word for "yes"), sound changes, and influences in conjugation and word order. The Vulgar Latin in the region of Gallia took on a distinctly local character, some of which is attested in graffiti, which evolved into

3330-420: The inhabitants of Merksem the nickname "stroboeren" (straw farmers). In 1874, the area became more industrialized, and most of the land was bought by S.A. Etablissements Industriels et Commerciaux de Merxem. The company would construct the local industry dock (known as 'het dokske'). Due to its ideal location, multiple industrial and commercial companies started to establish themselves in the area, contributing to

3404-431: The list of military territories under the duces , in charge of border garrisons on so-called limites , and the higher ranking Comites rei militaris , with more mobile forces, and the later, even higher magistri militum . Justinian I made the next great changes in 534–536 by abolishing, in some provinces, the strict separation of civil and military authority that Diocletian had established. This process

3478-522: The middle republic created the recurrent task of defending and administering some place. The first "permanent" provincia was that of Sicily, created after the First Punic War . In the immediate aftermath, a quaestor was sent to Sicily to look out for Roman interests but eventually, praetors were dispatched as well. The sources differ as to when sending a praetor became normal: Appian reports 241 BC; Solinus indicates 227 BC instead. Regardless,

3552-472: The middle republic, the administration of a territory – whether taxation or jurisdictrion – had basically no relationship with whether that place was assigned as a provincia by the senate. Rome would even intervene on territorial disputes which were part of no provincia at all and were not administered by Rome. The territorial province, called a "permanent" provincia in the scholarship, emerged only gradually. The acquisition of territories, however, through

3626-797: The northeast into the Silva Carbonaria , which formed an effective cultural barrier with the Franks to the north and the east, and in the northwest to the lower valley of the Loire , where Gallo-Roman culture interfaced with Frankish culture in a city like Tours and in the person of that Gallo-Roman bishop confronted with Merovingian royals, Gregory of Tours . Based upon mutual intelligibility , David Dalby counts seven languages descended from Gallo-Romance: Gallo-Wallon , French , Franco-Provençal (Arpitan), Romansh , Ladin , Friulian , and Lombard . However, other definitions are far broader, variously encompassing

3700-427: The other hand normally served several years before rotating out. The extent to which the emperor exercised control over all the provinces increased during the imperial period: Tiberius, for example, once reprimanded legates in the imperial provinces for failing to forward financial reports to the senate; by the reign of Claudius, however, the senatorial provinces' proconsuls were regularly issued with orders directly from

3774-477: The permanent seat of the government. In Italy itself, Rome had not been the imperial residence for some time and 286 Diocletian formally moved the seat of government to Mediolanum (modern Milan ), while taking up residence himself in Nicomedia . During the 4th century, the administrative structure was modified several times, including repeated experiments with Eastern-Western co-emperors. Detailed information on

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3848-427: The population increase. During World War II , Merksem was occupied by Nazi Germany from 20 May 1940 until its liberation on 4 October 1944. The local population was affected by political repression , deportation , hunger, bombings etc. Many locals opposed the occupation. Resistance fighters were deported to the nearby concentration camp of Breendonk . The road currently known as Bredabaan ( Breda Road), once

3922-402: The powerful men to amass disproportionate wealth and military power through their provincial commands, which was one of the major factors in the transition from a republic to an imperial autocracy . The senate attempted to push back against these commands in many instances: it preferred to break up any large war into multiple territorially separated commands; for similar reasons, it opposed

3996-498: The praetors. Only around 180 BC did provinces take on a more geographically defined position when a border was established to separate the two commanders assigned to Hispania on the river Baetis . Later provinces, once campaigns were complete, were all largely defined geographically. Once this division of permanent and temporary provinciae emerged, magistrates assigned to permanent provinces also came under pressures to achieve as much as possible during their terms. Whenever

4070-450: The provinces had been assigned to sitting praetors in the earlier part of the second century, with new praetorships created to fill empty provincial commands, by the start of the first century it had become uncommon for praetors to hold provincial commands during their formal annual term. Instead they generally took command as promagistrate after the end of their term. The use of prorogation was due to an insufficient number of praetors, which

4144-406: The public provinces, the provinces of Africa and Asia were given only to ex-consuls; ex-praetors received the others. The imperial provinces eventually produced a three-tier system with prefects and procurators, legates pro praetore who were ex-praetors, and legates pro praetore who were ex-consuls. The public provinces' governors normally served only one year; the imperial provinces' governors on

4218-413: The remaining provinces, largely demilitarised and confined to the older republican conquests, became known as public or senatorial provinces , as their commanders were still assigned by the senate on an annual basis consistent with tradition. Because no one man could command in practically all the border-regions of the empire at once, Augustus appointed subordinate legates for each of the provinces with

4292-616: The remains of the theater and odeon of Roman Lugdunum . Visitors are offered a clear picture of the daily life, economic conditions, institutions, beliefs, monuments and artistic achievements of the first four centuries of the Christian era . The "Claudius Tablet" in the Museum transcribes a speech given before the Senate by the Emperor Claudius in 48, in which he requests the right for the heads of

4366-565: The republic did not annex the kingdom, even as Macedonia was continuously assigned until 205 BC with the end of the First Macedonian War . Even though the Second and Third Macedonian Wars saw the Macedonian province revived, the senate settled affairs in the region by abolishing Macedonia and replacing it with four client republics. Macedonia only came under direct Roman administration in

4440-596: The senate, likely by declaring that the task assigned to him either by the lex Titia creating the Triumvirate or that the war on Cleopatra and Antony was complete. In return, at a carefully-managed meeting of the senate, he was given commands over Spain, Gaul, Syria, Cilicia, Cyprus, and Egypt to hold for ten years; these provinces contained 22 of the 28 extant Roman legions (over 80 per cent) and contained all prospective military theatres. The provinces that were assigned to Augustus became known as imperial provinces and

4514-611: The southern border of the district, is a canal called the Albert Canal , which connects the Port of Antwerp to the river Meuse near Liège and is an important connection for inland freight shipping. When Delsey Airlines ( VG Airlines ) existed, its head office was in Merksem. The Sportpaleis and the Lotto Arena are both located in the district of Merksem and host major sporting events, live music and festivals. The football team of Merksem

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4588-510: The system of assigning provincial commands, exacerbated internal political tensions, and later allowed ambitious politicians to assemble for themselves enormous commands which the senate would never have approved: the Pompeian lex Gabinia of 67 BC granted Pompey all land within 50 miles of the Mediterranean; Caesar's Gallic command that encompassed three normal provinces. In the late Republican period, Roman authorities generally preferred that

4662-410: The temporary provinciae , as it was not always realistic for the senate to anticipate the theatres of war some six months in advance. Instead, the senate chose to assign consuls to permanent provinces near expected trouble spots. From 200 to 124 BC, only 22 per cent of recorded consular provinciae were permanent provinces; between 122 and 53 BC, this rose to 60 per cent. While many of

4736-486: The tetrarchs. Although the Caesars were soon eliminated from the picture, the four administrative resorts were restored in 318 by Emperor Constantine I , in the form of praetorian prefectures , whose holders generally rotated frequently, as in the usual magistracies but without a colleague. Constantine also created a new capital, named after him as Constantinople , which was sometimes called 'New Rome' because it became

4810-707: The three Gauls were bound together in a network of Roman roads , which linked cities. Via Domitia (laid out in 118 BC), reached from Nîmes to the Pyrenees , where it joined the Via Augusta at the Col de Panissars . Via Aquitania reached from Narbonne , where it connected to the Via Domitia, to the Atlantic Ocean through Toulouse to Bordeaux . Via Scarponensis connected Trier to Lyon through Metz . At Périgueux , France,

4884-401: The title legatus Augusti pro praetore . These lieutenant legati probably held imperium but, due to their lack of an independent command, were unable to triumph and could be replaced by their superior (Augustus) at any time. These arrangements were likely based on the precedent of Pompey's proconsulship over the Spanish provinces after 55 BC entirely through legates, while he stayed in

4958-541: The upheavals of the 3rd and the 5th centuries motivated hiding away in hoards , which have protected some pieces of Gallo-Roman silver, from villas and temple sites, from the universal destruction of precious metalwork in circulation. The exhibition of Gallo-Roman silver highlighted specifically Gallo-Roman silver from the treasures found at Chaourse (Aisne), Mâcon (Saône et Loire), Graincourt-lès-Havrincourt (Pas de Calais), Notre-Dame d'Allençon (Maine-et-Loire) and Rethel (Ardennes, found in 1980). The two most Romanized of

5032-455: The various magistrates... what they were doing was more like allocating a portfolio than putting people in charge of geographic areas". The first commanders dispatched with provinciae were for the purpose of waging war and to command an army. However, merely that a provincia was assigned did not mean the Romans made that territory theirs. For example, Publius Sulpicius Galba Maximus in 211 BC received Macedonia as his provincia but

5106-477: The vicinity of Rome. In contrast, the public provinces continued to be governed by proconsuls with formally independent commands. In only three of the public provinces were there any armies: Africa , Illyricum , and Macedonia ; after Augustus' Balkan wars , only Africa retained a legion. To make this monopolisation of military commands palatable, Augustus separated prestige from military importance and inverted it. The title pro praetore had gone out of use by

5180-416: Was Trier , which was used as the northern capital of the Roman Empire by many emperors. The Gallic Empire ended when Aurelian decisively defeated Tetricus I at Chalons. The pre-Christian religious practices of Roman Gaul were characterized by syncretism of Graeco-Roman deities with their native Celtic , Basque or Germanic counterparts, many of which were of strictly local significance. Assimilation

5254-608: Was continued on a larger scale with the creation of extraordinary Exarchates in the 580s and culminated with the adoption of the military theme system in the 640s, which replaced the older administrative arrangements entirely. Some scholars use the reorganization of the empire into themata in this period as one of the demarcations between the Dominate and the Byzantine (or the Later Roman) period. Cisalpine Gaul (in northern Italy )

5328-481: Was eased by interpreting indigenous gods in Roman terms , such as with Lenus Mars or Apollo Grannus . Otherwise, a Roman god might be paired with a native goddess, as with Mercury and Rosmerta . In at least one case, that of the equine goddess Epona , a native Gallic goddess was also adopted by Rome. Eastern mystery religions penetrated Gaul early on, which included the cults of Orpheus , Mithras , Cybele and Isis . The imperial cult , centred primarily on

5402-425: Was for two reasons: more provinces needed commands and the increased number of permanent jury courts ( quaestiones perpetuae ), each of which had a praetor as president, exacerbated this issue. Praetors during the second century were normally prorogued pro praetore , but starting with the Spanish provinces and expanding by 167 BC, praetors were more commonly prorogued with the augmented rank pro consule ; by

5476-464: Was the basic and, until the Tetrarchy (from AD 293), the largest territorial and administrative unit of the empire's territorial possessions outside Roman Italy . During the republic and early empire, provinces were generally governed by politicians of senatorial rank, usually former consuls or former praetors . A later exception was the province of Egypt, which was incorporated by Augustus after

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