are ambiguous. The manuscripts variously have texero, exerni, extera, or externi, which could be interpreted as meaning 'at the Scheldt river', although some translations portray them as 'beyond' that river. Scholars generally assume that the territory of the Texandri mostly corresponded to the region of Texandria later mentioned by Ammianus ca. 390 AD. In the 380s, the Salian Franks, after being defeated by Julian ca. 358, were given permission to settle apud Toxiandriam locum ('at a place in Toxiandria'). If depopulation had already begun in the area by the late-2nd century (reaching its peak in the late 3rd and 4th centuries), human occupation continued along the Meuse river during the period, and it is unlikely that the sandy areas of modern North Brabant were completely deserted when Frankish settlers recolonized the region from the 5th century onward. 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." 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. It was later extended from the 9th century onward as the result of a growing network of local alliances. History Early reports In the 1st century AD, Pliny the Elder reported that the Texandri consisted of several smaller tribes with various names, which could mean that they were born out of several smaller ethnic groups that merged into a larger group or joined together. From the military records found across the Roman Empire, it appears that the Texandri may have formed at least one administrative district or pagus which contributed troops to Roman armies, but it appears to be associated with more than one higher level district or civitas. One is the Civitas Tungrorum, the civitas of the Tungri, but there also seems to be an association with the civitas of the Nervii, to the west of the Tungri. The modern town of Tongerloo, named after the Tungri, is very close to Tessenderlo, but actually further from the capital city of the Tungri, modern Tongeren. The relationship between the Tungri and Texandri is unclear. Prior to Pliny, the Texandri were not mentioned by Julius Caesar or Strabo in their reports of the