LW-18 Aquitania Secunda

The Garonne and Atlantic connections shaped this province’s economy. Bordeaux’s commercial and educational prominence brought together shipping, estates, urban elites, and imperial service. The region’s towns and rural districts supported agriculture, wine production, transport, and local exchange.

Visigothic power made southwestern Gaul a major centre of successor government, followed by Frankish expansion after 507. Religious institutions and landed networks continued across these changes. The province’s history demonstrates the enduring importance of a river-port system even when the political authority governing it changed. Its boundaries and institutions should be distinguished from the larger earlier Aquitania.