Gallia Aquitania in the context of "Galba"

Gaul (Latin: Gallia) was a region of Western Europe first clearly described by the Romans, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, and Northern Italy. It covered an area of 494,000 km (191,000 sq mi). According to Julius Caesar, who took control of the region on behalf of the Roman Republic, Gaul was divided into three parts: Gallia Celtica, Belgica, and Aquitania. Archaeologically, the Gauls were bearers of the La Tène culture during the 5th to 1st centuries BC. This material culture was found throughout Gaul and as far east as modern-day southern Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary.

Warbands led by the Gaul Brennos sacked Rome in 387 BC, becoming the only time Rome was conquered by a foreign enemy in 800 years. However, Gallia Cisalpina was conquered by the Romans in 204 BC and Gallia Narbonensis in 123 BC. Gaul was invaded after 120 BC by the Cimbri and the Teutons, who were in turn defeated by the Romans by 103 BC. Julius Caesar finally subdued the largest part of Gaul in his campaigns from 58 to 51 BC. Roman control of Gaul lasted for five centuries, until the last Roman rump state, the Domain of Soissons, fell to the Franks in AD 486.

The Battle of Vouillé (from Latin Campus Vogladensis) was fought in the northern marches of Visigothic territory, at Vouillé, near Poitiers (Gaul), around Spring 507 between the Franks, commanded by Clovis, and the Visigoths, commanded by Alaric II. The Franks' victory resulted in their conquest of Gallia Aquitania and the death of Alaric II.

The Visigothic Kingdom, Visigothic Spain or Kingdom of the Goths (Latin: Regnum Gothorum) was a barbarian kingdom that occupied what is now southwestern France and the Iberian Peninsula from the 5th to the 8th century. One of the Germanic successor states to the Western Roman Empire, it was originally created by the settlement of the Visigoths under King Wallia in the province of Gallia Aquitania in southwest Gaul by the Roman government and then extended by conquest over all of Hispania. The Kingdom maintained independence from the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire, whose attempts to re-establish Roman authority in Hispania were only partially successful and short-lived.

The Visigoths were romanized central Europeans who had moved west from the Danube Valley. They became foederati of Rome, and sought to restore the Roman order against the hordes of Vandals, Alans and Suebi. The Western Roman Empire fell in 476 AD; therefore, the Visigoths believed they had the right to take the territories that Rome had promised in Hispania in exchange for restoring the Roman order. Under King Euric—who eliminated the status of foederati—a triumphal advance of the Visigoths began. Alarmed at Visigoth expansion from Aquitania after victory over the Gallo-Roman and Breton armies at Déols in 469, Western Emperor Anthemius sent a fresh army across the Alps against Euric, who was besieging Arles. The Roman army was crushed at the nearby Battle of Arles, resulting in Euric capturing Arles and secured much of southern Gaul.

The Duchy of Aquitaine (Occitan: Ducat d'Aquitània, IPA: [dyˈkad dakiˈtanjɔ]; French: Duché d'Aquitaine, IPA: [dyʃe dakitɛn]) was a historical fiefdom located in the western, central, and southern areas of present-day France, south of the river Loire. The full extent of the duchy, as well as its name, fluctuated greatly over the centuries and at times comprised much of what is now southwestern (including Gascony) and central France.

The territory originated in 507 as a constituent kingdom of Francia after the Salian Franks conquered Aquitaine following the Battle of Vouillé; its boundaries were ultimately a combination of the Roman provinces of Aquitania Prima and Secunda. As a duchy, it broke up after the conquest of the independent Aquitanian duchy of Waiofar, going on to become a sub-kingdom within the Carolingian Empire. It was then absorbed by West Francia after the partition of Verdun in 843 and soon reappeared as a duchy under West Francia. In 1153, an enlarged Aquitaine pledged loyalty to the Angevin kings of England. As a result, a rivalry emerged between the French monarchs and the Angevins over control of the latter's territorial possessions in France. By the mid-13th century, only an enlarged Guyenne and Gascony remained in Angevin hands. The Hundred Years' War finally saw the Kingdom of France gain full control over Aquitaine in the 1450s, with much of its territory directly incorporated into the French royal domain itself.

Gallia Belgica ("Belgic Gaul") 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.

Before the Roman province came into existence in about 50 BC, the region was conquered by Julius Caesar during his Gallic Wars. His report, the Commentarii de Bello Gallico, described Belgic Gaul as one of the three parts of Gaul (Tres Galliæ), the other two being Gallia Aquitania and Gallia Lugdunensis. Belgica stretched from the Marne and Seine rivers, which Caesar described as a cultural boundary between the Belgae and the Celtic Gauls. In the north and east it stretched all the way to the Rhine. The official Roman province of this name was later created by emperor Augustus in 22 BC, and named after the Belgae, as the largest tribal confederation in the area. However, it also included the territories of the Treveri, Mediomatrici, Leuci, Sequani, and others who Caesar did not explicitly designate as Belgic.

The Aquitani were a tribe that lived in the region between the Pyrenees, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Garonne, in present-day southwestern France in the 1st century BC. The Romans dubbed this region Gallia Aquitania. Classical authors such as Julius Caesar and Strabo clearly distinguish the Aquitani from the other peoples of Gaul, and note their similarity to others in the Iberian Peninsula.

Their old language, the Aquitanian language, was a precursor of the Basque language and the substrate for the Gascon language (one of the Romance languages) spoken in Gascony. Between the 1st century and the 13th century, the Aquitani gradually adopted the Gascon language while part of the Roman Empire, then the Duchy of Gascony and the Duchy of Aquitaine.

Gnaeus Julius Agricola (/əˈɡrɪkələ/; 13 June 40 – 23 August 93) was a Roman general and politician responsible for much of the Roman conquest of Britain. Born to a political family of senatorial rank, Agricola began his military career as a military tribune under governor Gaius Suetonius Paulinus. In his subsequent career, he served in a variety of political positions in Rome. In 64, he was appointed quaestor in Asia province. Two years later, he was appointed Plebeian Tribune, and in 68, he was made praetor. During the Year of the Four Emperors in 69, he supported Vespasian, general of the Syrian army, in his bid for the throne.

When Vespasian became emperor, Agricola was made a patrician and appointed governor of Gallia Aquitania. In 77, he was made consul and governor of Britannia. As governor, he completed the conquest of what is today Wales and northern England, and led his army to the far north of Scotland, establishing forts across much of the lowlands. In 85, Agricola was recalled from Britain after an unusually lengthy service by Emperor Domitian. After his return, he retired from military and public life and died in 93. Most of what is known about Agricola and his governorship was written in the De vita et moribus Iulii Agricolae, a primary source, written by Tacitus, Agricola's son-in-law, and detailed archaeological evidence from northern Britain.