Tongres

Tongres is the oldest city in Belgium. It traces its origin to a camp established by the lieutenants of Julius Caesar, Sabinus and Cotta, whose legions were massacred nearby by Ambiorix, chief of the Eburones, who revolted a part of Belgic Gaul against Caesar's armies in 54 BC. Various historians believe that before the Roman occupation, the region and the city were indeed occupied by the Gallic tribe of the Eburones, whose most well-known leader is Ambiorix, who opposes Caesar and narrowly escapes him.

It was early served by one of the Roman roads built in Belgic Gaul. Most of the Roman roads were not paved, or their stones were later recovered, but Guichard, cited by Philippe le Bas (1845), refers to remains that could be seen, in Belgic Gaul, of a Roman road traced from Paris to Tongres which was a "wonderful work," miraculous because part of the route was made of very large stones.

The Encyclopédie méthodique states that the city called Atuaticum tongrorum (or Atuatuca Tungrorum) by the Romans was also called Tongri, and Tongerea (in Old Flemish). The same source indicates that Guichard regarded it as the first city in France and Germany converted to Christianity... long before Attila ruined it with his incursions and it was dismantled again by the Franks in 1673. It would have been a bishopric in the early centuries, later transferred to Maastricht and finally to Liège.

Caesar himself mentions a stronghold named Atuatuca; "This is the name of a fort which he places almost in the middle of the Eburones' territory, at the very spot where Titurius and Aurunculeius had already established their winter quarters. Caesar chose this position for various reasons, and especially because the entrenchments from the previous year were completely preserved, which should save a lot of work for the soldiers."

The city became the capital of the Civitas Tungrorum, an administrative district corresponding to the former territory of the Eburones.

According to Gregory of Tours, Franks had left Pannonia to settle "on the banks of the Main; then crossing this river, they entered the land of Tongres, and there, in their boroughs and cities, they created the long-haired kings taken from the first and, so to speak, the noblest of their families to command them."

Tongres was then cited as one of the 23 Good Cities of the principality of Liège.

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