The Volcae were free and independent, had their own laws, and possessed the jus Latii. The chief town of the Tectosages was Toulouse (Tolosa); of the Arecomici, Nîmes (Nemausus); the capital of the province and residence of the governor was Narbonne (Narbo Martius). It was said that there was an early settlement of Volcae Tectosages near the Hercynian Forest (Hercynia Silva) in Germany.
| From the 3rd century BC, the capital city of the Volcae Tectosages was Tolosa (modern Toulouse), which was incorporated into the Roman Empire as part of the province of Gallia Aquitania with the conquest of Gaul by Julius Caesar in 52 BC. The Volcae are consequently believed to have originally been settled northeast of the Rhine, in what is now western and central Germany in the basin of the Weser River where there are toponyms of supposed Celtic origin. |  |
The Volcae Arecomici of their own accord surrendered to the Roman Republic in 121 BC, after which they occupied the Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis (Narbonne), the southern part of Gallia Transalpina. They held their assemblies in the sacred wood of Nemausus, the site of modern Nîmes. The territory of the Volcae Tectosages lay outside the Roman Republic, to the southwest of the Volcae Arecomici. The Dacia of King Burebista- 82-44 BC, stretching from the Southern Bug river in what is today Ukraine to the Danube in what is today Slovakia, and from the Balkan mountains in what is today Bulgaria to Transcarpathia in what is today Ukraine, comprising the regions known as: Selidava, Pannonia, Maramabista, Tiragaetia, Masagaetia, Crisia, Moldadava, Arutela, Sigynia, Gaetia, Moesia, Thracia, and Macedonia.
Julius Caesar mentioned the Volcae Tectosages as a Celtic tribe which still remained in western Germany. For some time, the Volcae would have blocked Germanic expansion southwards. It is consequently not surprising that it became the generic name for Celts and later also for the Romans, contained in Wales, Wallachia, Wallonia, Vlach. Vlachs (Wallachians, Wlachs, Wallachs, Olahs or Ulahs) is an exonym, a blanket term covering several modern Latin peoples descending from the Latinised population in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. Since the creation of the Romanian state, the term in English has mostly been used for those living ouside Romanian border. Vlachs descend from the Romanised Thracians (and possibly Illyrians), the indigenous populations of the Balkans, and Roman colonists (from various provinces of the Roman Empire).
Following the Cantabrian Wars (29 BC-19 BC), Julius Caesar's conquest proved to be the end of generalized and organized resistance to the Roman invasion of Cisalpine Gaul. In the following years after the conquest of Dacia, the Romans conquered more of the island, increasing the size of Roman Britain. The governor Agricola, father-in-law to the historian Tacitus, conquered the Ordovices of Celtic Wales in 78. Its tribal lands were located in Wales between the Silures to the south and the Deceangli to the north-east. The district around Verulam had been occupied by Belgae before Caesar's time. About 56 BC, during the Roman invasion of Gaul, the area was occupied by refugees from Armorica. Prior to Hadrian's arrival on Great Britain there had been a major rebellion in Britannia, spanning roughly two years (119-121). Only one yeare had passed since the Edict of Milan where the epsicopate must have come into existence in Britain, as in Gaul, at an earlier period than Constantine.
OLTENIA (Lesser Wallachia in antiquated versions) is a historical province of Romania. It is situated between the Danube, the Transylvanian Alps branch of the Carpathian Mountains and the Olt river. Oltenia was inhabited by Dacians during the ancient times and in 106, at the end of the Dacian Wars, the west of Oltenia was incorpored in the Roman Empire (Roman Dacia) with the rest of Wallachia included in the Moesia Inferior province.
In 129, during Hadrian's rule, it formed Dacia Inferior, one of the two divisions of the province together with Dacia Superior, in today's TRANSYLVANIA. Marcus Aurelius' administrative reform made Oltenia one of the three new divisions (tres Daciae) as Dacia Malvensis, its capital and chief city being named Malva or Romula. The Roman fortification Limes (patrol road with wooden lookout towers and forts at intervals) were initially along the Olt (119 AD) and later in the 2nd century moved slightly east, from the Danube up to Rucar in the Carpathians mountains. The Roman line fell back to the Olt in 245 AD, and in 271 AD the Romans pulled out of the region. It was colonized with veterans of the Roman legions. The Romans withdrew their administration south of the Danube in the mid-3rd century and Oltenia was ruled by the Germanic Goths and Dacian Carpians.
- the Garonne River (Garumna),
- the Cévennes (Cebenna mons),
- the Rhône River (or even farther to the east in earlier times), corresponding roughly to the old province of Languedoc.
| Walha is an ancient Germanic word, meaning 'foreigner' or 'stranger', likely derived from the name of the Volcae. The Volcae (of the Celtic Kingdom in Toulouse) in the 2nd century BC were a large and powerful nation of Gaul- they are believed to have originated in the valley of the Weser River, and later settled in southern Gaul. They mainly lived in the province of Gallia Narbonensis, and occupied the district between |  |
They were divided into two tribes,
- the Arecomici on the east
- the Tectosages (whose territory included that of the Tolosates) on the west, separated by the Hérault River (Arauris) or a line between the Hérault River and the Orbe River (Orbis). Tectosages was also the name of one of the three great communities of Gauls who invaded and settled in Asia Minor in the country called after them Galatia.