In 69 AD the Batavi, a Germanic tribe𖤓 from the land the Rōmānī called Germania Inferior—living on an island or islands in the river delta in the land between the Rhenus (Old Rhine) and the Waal rivers𖥔—revolted against Rome’s suzerainty over it. What we known of this chapter of ancient history is provided almost entirely from the writings of one contemporary Roman historian of the period, Publius Cornelius Tacitus (Histories, Book IV). Tacitus is considered one of the foremost historians of Ancient Rome, however any understanding of the Batavian revolt on the northern frontier of the Roman Empire must bear a caveat, taking into account that his narrative contains some prejudices, omissions and inconsistencies exhibited by the author.

AD 69 was a revolving door year for Roman emperors…no less than four emperors (Galba / Otho / Vitellius / Vespasian) sat on the imperial throne in that one year, the political instability of this situation played no small part in the Batavians’ decision to revolt when they did. The leader of the Batavi, (Gaius) Julius Civilis, a man who straddled both the Germanic (therefore “Barbarian” in Roman eyes) and the classical Roman world (he or one of his ancestors had been made a Roman citizen)✪, was “unusually intelligent for a native”, Tacitus condescends⛨. Civilis had several motives for rebelling against the Romans Tacitus tells us, namely, privately-held grievances (the Romans had executed Civilis’ brother) and the ambition of not just achieving freedom from Roman domination but the creation of a “Gallo–German empire” with himself as the ruler [Brunt, P. A. (1960). Tacitus on the Batavian revolt. Latomus, 19(3), 494–517. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41523591].

A handful of other tribes were persuaded to join forces with the Batavi in the uprising – the Treviran led by Julius Classicus and Julius Tutor and the Lingones under Julius Sabinus, plus a handful of Gallia-Belgica tribes. The rebels led by Civilis and his allies initially get the upper hand, destroying two Roman legions in battle and conducting a successful siege of the Roman fort on the Rhine, Castra Vetera. Rome’s retaliation was swift and decisive, invading Insula Batavorum with a massive army (nine legions) under Quintus Petillius Cerialis§ which crushed the rebellious tribes. Civilis was forced to seek peace on humiliating terms and the Batavi found themselves once again in submission to the power of Rome and occupied by a legion stationed permanently on their territory.

As the land of the Batavi offered very little in the way of return economically, the inhabitants were not required to pay the customary tribute or taxes to Rome. Instead, the Batavi, though small in population size, met their obligation as a vassal state by providing men for Rome’s auxiliary forces (the dilectus)…many of the Batavi including Civilis himself served Rome in the recent Britannia conquest. Their warlike nature and skill in horseman and swimming was highly valued – Tacitus lauds their exceptional ability to ford the River Rhine on horseback in full armour without losing their formation (he describes the martial capabilities of the Batavi as brave and hardened by warfare). After the peace parley between the Emperor Vespasian (via General Cerialis) and Civilis, the Batavian chieftain disappears from Tacitus’ narrative. The Batavi tribe as a whole are also lost from history without a trace, by ca.300 their former (island) homeland is controlled by the Salii, a Frankish tribe.

˖˖ ִֶཐི༏ཋ˖ ִֶཐི༏ཋ˖ ִֶཐི༏ཋ˖˖

Etymology of the name “Batavia” Nomen: from the German. bat- (= “good, excellent”) + -awjō (= “island, land near water”)

ִֶཐི༏ཋ˖ ִֶཐི༏ཋ˖ ִֶཐི༏ཋ˖˖

𖤓 some scholars describe them as a sub-tribe of the Germanic Chatti tribe

𖥔 in the modern-day Betuwe region of the Netherlands

✪ Civilis’ exposure to Roman ways results in his Romanisation (a form of acculturation)

⛨ Civilis exhibited a skill for deception, feigning loyalty to Rome while at the same time shoring up regional support for a revolt against it

§ Tacitus, perhaps following Pliny the Elder, sees the conflict at this point as no longer a civil war but a bellum externum (Brunt)