Page "Batavi (Germanic tribe)" Paragraph 4

The Batavi were mentioned by Julius Caesar in his commentary Commentarii de Bello Gallico, as living on an island formed by the Rhine River after it splits, one arm being the Waal the other the Lower Rhine / Old Rhine ( hence the Latin name Insula Batavorum, " Island of the Batavi ").

Tacitus reports that before their arrival the area had been " 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, Historiae iv. 12 ).

This view, however, is contradicted by the archeological evidence, which shows continuous habitation from at least the third century BC onward.