IMPERIUM ROMANUM

Provinces · The later western provinces

LW-19 Novempopulana

The empire around 400 CE. The broad colours represent prefectural groupings, while…
The empire around 400 CE. The broad colours represent prefectural groupings, while regional names, major cities, and symbols for selected state industries show the larger administrative and logistical setting. These groupings contained many individual provinces; a region labelled on this map is not necessarily one province.

The name recalled a group of southwestern peoples and gave administrative expression to a regional identity not dissolved by earlier provincial enlargement. Its territory included productive valleys, foothills, routes towards the Pyrenees, and Atlantic-facing connections. It was not a direct equivalent of a modern Basque or Gascon political territory.

Cities, rural communities, local cults, and later bishoprics shaped provincial life. The weakening of imperial government brought Visigothic, Frankish, and regional powers into changing relationships with the area. Local identities and difficult geography remained influential, making the province’s later transformation distinct from that of Bordeaux or Bourges.