Salian Franks

The Salian Franks, or Salians, sometimes referred to by the Latin word Salii or Sali, were a Frankish people who lived in what is now the Netherlands in the 4th century. They are only mentioned under this name in historical records relating to one period when they came into conflict with Roman forces led by Julian the Apostate around 358 AD, when he was ruling Gaul as Caesar under his cousin the emperor Constantius II. In modern times scholars have also traditionally used the term "Salians" to refer to the much later Franks who became the rulers of much of present day northern France in the 5th century - at first under the leadership of Chlodio, and later under the leadership of the Merovingian dynasty — seeing them as the descendants of the original Salians.