Batavii

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The Batavii (or Batavi, Batavians) were a Germanic tribe, originally part of the Chatti, reported by Tacitus to have lived around the Rhine delta, in the area which is currently the Netherlands, "an uninhabited district on the extremity of the coast of Gaul, and also of a neighbouring island, surrounded by the ocean in front, and by the river Rhine in the rear and on either side" (Tacitus, Histories iv). This led to the Latin name of Batavia for the area. The same name is used for several military units, originally raised among the Batavii.

1 Location
2 Military units
- 2.1 Batavian Rebellion
3 External links

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Location

They were mentioned by Julius Caesar in his commentary Gallic Wars, as living on an island formed by the Meuse River after it is joined by the Waal, 80 Roman miles from the mouth of the river. He said there were many other islands formed by branches of the Rhine, inhabited by savage and barbarous nations, some of whom were supposed to live on fish and the eggs of sea-fowl.

Tacitus named the Mattiaci as a similar tribe under homage, but on the other side of the Rhine. The areas inhabited by the Batavians were never occupied by the Romans, as the Batavians were allies.

The Batavians falsely became regarded as the eponymous ancestors of the Dutch people. The Netherlands were briefly known as the Batavian Republic. Moreover, in the time Indonesia was a Dutch colony, the capital (now Jakarta) was named Batavia.

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Military units

Image:Funerary Stela Corporis Custodes.jpg Later, Tacitus described the Batavians as the bravest of the tribes of the area, hardened in the German border wars, with cohorts under their own noble commanders transferred to Britannia. He said they retained the honour of the ancient association with the Romans, not required to pay tribute or taxes and used by the Romans only for war: "They furnished to the Empire nothing but men and arms", Tacitus remarked. Well-regarded for their skills in horsemanship and swimming—for men and horses could cross the Rhine without losing formation, according to Tacitus. Dio Cassius describes this surprise tactic employed by Aulus Plautius against the "barbarians"—the British Celts— at the battle of the River Medway, 43:

The barbarians thought that Romans would not be able to cross it without a bridge, and consequently bivouacked in rather careless fashion on the opposite bank; but he sent across a detachment of Germans, who were accustomed to swim easily in full armour across the most turbulent streams. [...] Thence the Britons retired to the river Thames at a point near where it empties into the ocean and at flood-tide forms a lake. This they easily crossed because they knew where the firm ground and the easy passages in this region were to be found; but the Romans in attempting to follow them were not so successful. However, the Germans swam across again and some others got over by a bridge a little way up-stream, after which they assailed the barbarians from several sides at once and cut down many of them. (Cassius Dio, Roman History, Book 60:20)

The Batavians also provided a contingent for the Emperor's Imperial Horse Guard.

Numerous altars and tombstones of the Batavii, dating to the 2nd century and 3rd century, have been found along Hadrian's Wall, notably at Castlecary and Carrawburgh, Germany, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Romania and Austria. After the 3rd century, however, the Batavians are no longer mentioned, and they are assumed to have merged with the neighbouring Frisian and Frankish people.

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Batavian Rebellion

Main article: Batavian rebellion.

Despite the alliance, one of the high-ranking Batavii, Julius Paullus, to give him his Roman name, was executed by Fonteius Capito on a false charge of rebellion. His kinsman Gaius Julius Civilis was paraded in chains in Rome before Nero; though he was acquitted by Galba, he was retained at Rome, and when he returned to his kin in the year of upheaval in the Roman Empire, AD 69, he headed a Batavian rebellion which was defeated by the Romans the following year, a narrative told in great detail in Tacitus' History, book iv. Following the uprising, four cohorts of Batavii were sent to Britain under the leadership of the new governor, Q. Petilius Cerialis [1].

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