The Texandri (also Texuandri; later Toxandri, Toxiandri, Taxandri) were a Germanic people living between the Scheldt and Rhine rivers in the 1st century AD.
[2] The inconsistencies in spelling may be explained by dittography (errors by copyists), or by the fact that the older form Texandri had fallen out of usage at the time when those manuscripts were redacted.
[2][4] The ethnonym Texandri, reconstructed in early West Germanic dialects as *tehswandrōz, is generally assumed to derive from the Proto-Germanic stem *tehswō(n)- ('right [hand], south'; cf.
Mansion has proposed in 1924 an alternative etymology from *texs-wandra-, formed with the West Germanic steù wandra-, which might be related to English wander and Dutch wandelen.
[5][4][2] The Texandri dwelled in a territory situated between the Scheldt and Rhine rivers, alongside other contemporary tribes like the Tungri.
[4][note 3] Scholars generally assume that the territory of the Texandri mostly corresponded to the region of Texandria later mentioned by Ammianus ca.
[7] According to Bijsterveld and Toorians (2018), "it can be plausibly argued that those living there as well as the neighbouring population may well have kept the geographic reference to the Texuandri (or to the territory named after them) in use.
"[7] In sources of the period 709–795, the pagus Texandrie appears to be concentrated around the basin of the river Dommel and its tributaries, between the towns of Alphen, Waalre and Overpelt.
[10][11] Before the Roman takeover of this region, in Julius Caesar's commentary, the tribal boundaries in the area where the Texandri are later found are left unclear.
He described it as thorny low forest and marshy lowlands, northwards of the main populations of the cisrhenane Germani and Nervii.
"[Julian] commanded his army to attack them briskly; but not to kill any of the Salii, or prevent them from entering the Roman territories, because they came not as enemies, but were forced there [...] As soon as the Salii heard of the kindness of Caesar, some of them went with their king into the Roman territory, and others fled to the extremity of their country, but all humbly committed their lives and fortunes to Caesar's gracious protection.