Germania Inferior

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The Roman province of Germania Inferior, 120 AD

Germania Inferior was a Roman province located on the left bank of the Rhine, in today's southern and western Netherlands, the whole of Belgium and Luxembourg, parts of north-eastern France, and western Germany. The principal settlements of the province were Castra Vetera and Colonia Ulpia Traiana (both near Xanten), Ulpia Noviomagus Batavorum (Nijmegen), Trajectum ad Rhenum (Utrecht), Atuatuca Tungrorum (Tongeren), Tornacum (Tournai), Bona (Bonn), and Colonia Agrippinensis (Cologne), the capital of Germania Inferior.

The army of Germania Inferior, known from inscriptions simply as EX.GER.INF. (Exercitus Germania Inferior), had several legions at its service: of these, the Legions I Minervia and XXX Ulpia Victrix were the most permanent. The Roman Navy's Classis Germanica, charged with patrolling the Rhine and the North Sea coast, was based in Castra Vetera and later in Agrippinensis.

The first confrontations between a Roman army and the peoples of Germania Inferior occurred during Julius Caesar's Gallic Wars. Caesar invaded the region in 57 BC and in the next three years annihilated several Germanic tribes, including the Eburones and the Menapii.

Germania Inferior had Roman settlements since approximately 50 BC and was at first part of Gallia Belgica; it was established as a Roman province in the year 90, later becoming an Imperial province. It lay north of Germania Superior, together with which it made up Germania. The epithet Inferior refers to its downstream position.