The Salian Franks, also called the Salians (Latin: Salii, Greek: Salioi), were the western subgroup of the early Franks who first appear in the historical records in the third century. At that time they lived between the Rhine and the IJssel in the modern day Dutch region of the Veluwe, Gelderland. As the Salians initially lived north of the Rhine delta, they were also north of the limes of Roman Gaul, which ran along the Rhine. They were characterised as both warlike Germanic people and pirates, and as Laeti (allies of the Romans). Shortly thereafter, some were settled permanently on Roman land. After moving into Batavia, a border island in the Rhine, in 358, they came to some form of agreement with the Romans, which allowed them to settle south of the Rhine in Toxandria (roughly the area of the current Dutch province of Noord-Brabant, and adjacent parts of the two bordering Belgian provinces of Antwerpen and Belgian Limburg, the so-called "Kempen" (French Campine)).

Over time, the Salians fully adopted the Frankish identity and ceased to appear by their original name from the 7th century onward, when they evolved into the Franks par excellence. The Lex Ripuaria originated about 630 around Cologne and has been described as a later development of the Frankish laws known from Lex Salica. The Merovingian kings responsible for the conquest of Gaul are thought to have had Salian ancestry.

The Franks (Latin: Franci or gens Francorum) are historically first known as a group of Germanic tribes that roamed the land between the Lower and Middle Rhine in the 3rd century AD, and second as the people of Gaul who merged with the Gallo-Roman populations during succeeding centuries, passing on their name to modern-day France and becoming part of the heritage of the modern French people. Some Franks raided Roman territory, while other Frankish tribes joined the Roman troops of Gaul. In later times, Franks became the military rulers of the northern part of Roman Gaul. With the coronation of their ruler Charlemagne as Imperator Romanorum by Pope Leo III in 800 AD, he and his successors were portrayed as legitimate successors to the emperors of the Western Roman Empire.

The Salian Franks lived on Roman-held soil between the Rhine, Scheldt, Meuse, and Somme rivers in what is now Northern France, Belgium and the southern Netherlands. The kingdom was acknowledged by the Romans after 357 AD. Following the collapse of Rome in the West, the Frankish tribes were united under the Merovingians, who succeeded in conquering most of Gaul in the 6th century. The Franks became very powerful after this. The Merovingian dynasty, descendants of the Salians, founded one of the Germanic monarchies that would absorb large parts of the Western Roman Empire. The Frankish state consolidated its hold over the majority of western Europe by the end of the 8th century, developing into the Carolingian Empire. This empire would gradually evolve into the state of France and the Holy Roman Empire.

The Franks were a confederacy of ancient to early medieval Germanic tribes.

Franks may also refer to:

See also

Franks is also an Anglo-American surname, derived from the given name Frank. The name is on record in Virginia from the 1660s.

People with the surname include: