Novempopulania was one of the provinces created by Diocletian out of Gallia Aquitania, which was also called Aquitania Tertia. The area of Novempopulania was first named Aquitania, as it was here where the original Aquitani dwelt primarily. The territory extended within the triangular area outlined by the River Garonne, the Pyrenees and the ocean, as described by Caesar in De bello gallico for Gallia Aquitania. In his work, Caesar describes the Aquitania as being different in language and body make-up from their northerly neighbours and more similar to the Celtiberians. The province of Aquitania was enlarged by Augustus, and it began to signify a larger and more diverse territory.
Creation and evidence
Novempopulania stands for the nine peoples making up the original territory. It seems clear that at the time of the lower empire, the nine peoples were granted by the emperor the detachment from the proper Gauls by means of the magister pagi Verus Flamen Dumvir, and as a result a celebrating altar was erected dedicated to the deity of the pagus. This fact is accounted for by the remains of the altar unearthed in the current Basque town of Hasparren. The newly acquired status may have affected not only the tax system but the conscription and military order too, since two separate bodies were created within Aquitania, i.e. the "Cohortes Aquitanorum" for old Aquitanians and "Cohortes Aquitanorum Biturigum" for those of proper Gaul origin. The number of peoples went on to be twelve later, the tribes being identified with a corresponding capital town or civitas, namely Civitas Ausciorum, Civ. Aquensium, Civ. Lactoratium, Civ. Convenarum, Civ. Consorannorum, Civ. Boatium, Civ. Benarnensium, Civ. Aturensium, Civ. Vasatica, Civ. Turba, Civ. Illoronensium, Civ. Elusatium. These civitas are in turn identifiable with present-day towns and cities as follows: Auch, Dax, Lectoure, Comminges, Couserans, Buch and Born, Béarn or Lescar, Aire-sur-l'Adour, Bazas, Tarbes, Oloron, Eauze. Elusa remained the capital city of Novempopulania throughout most of its existence. Wide evidence of slab engravings have been found scattered all over the area comprising Novempopulania. These recordings feature names of deities, persons and places with easily identifiable similarities to present-day Basque, a fact that provides along with current and ancient place-names north of the Pyrenees and traces of Basque in the Gascon the basis for an Aquitanian proto-Basque theory.
In 418, in the stir of the crumbling Roman rule and its territories overrun by Germanic tribes, Emperor Honorius allocated Aquitania to the Visigoths as foederati, with their tribes settling on the fringes of Novempopulania at both banks of the RiverGaronne as far south as Toulouse, where they established their seat. Other than this, their power tenure over Novempopulania may have been more nominal than real. Furthermore, after the 507 Battle of Vouille they were expelled from the area by the Franks. In the early Middle Ages, accounts of events taking place at this time on the territory are confusing and blurred, and so are the names of the peoples and their geographical location, who are as of now dubbed Vascones, Wasconia, Guasconia with no clear boundaries. At this point, Vascones had taken on an extended meaning arguably encompassing all Basque language tribes, different from the more restricted definition provided at the time of Augustus. The crisis at the end of the Ancient Age and outset of the Middle Ages brought about much unrest and turmoil in the Novempopulania, where the bagaudae and Vascon raids later are often mentioned in different documents. The Novempopulania was to become the core region of the Duchy of Vasconia, established by the Franks at the beginning of the 7th century with a view to holding back the Basques, while often conducting a semi-autonomous governance of Basque-Aquitanian background. It later split into the Duchy of Gascony and the County of Vasconia.
