The Batavi were an ancient Germanic tribe, originally part of the Chatti, that lived around the Rhine delta, in the area that the Romans called Batavia and that is currently the Netherlands, from the second half of the first century BC to the third century AD.

The name is also applied to several military units employed by the Romans that were originally raised among the Batavi.

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 ").

It is unclear whether the existing inhabitants were subjugated, with the Batavi forming a ruling elite, or simply displaced.

But the sources suggest the Batavi were able to swim across rivers actually wearing full armour and weapons.

The Batavi were still mentioned in 355 during the reign of Constantius II ( 317-361 ), when their island was already dominated by the Salii, a Frankish tribe that had sought Roman protection there in 297 after having been expelled from their own country by the Saxons.

The settlement appears to have been abandoned by the Romans after the devastating Battle of the Teutoburg Forest failed in the year 9 AD. The Chatti were also involved in the Revolt of the Batavi in the year 69 AD.

After the Batavi regiments were withdrawn from Britain to Italy in 66, Civilis and his brother ( also a prefect ) were arrested by the governor of Germania Inferior on false suspicion of treason: his brother was executed, and Civilis sent to Rome in chains for judgement by Nero.

The Batavi regiments were then ordered to return home.

At the time of Gaius Julius Civilis | Civilis ' revolt ( 69 AD ), most such boats were manned by Batavi crews.

Nero's plan was never realized, and four cohorts saw service in Judea during the first revolt of AD 69 – 70, while the other six cohorts were involved in the Revolt of the Batavi in the same year.

Cerealis offered it terms, which eventually it was forced to take, as were the Batavi.

In the Low Countries, this phase began when the Franks, themselves a union of multiple smaller tribes ( many of them, such as the Batavi, Chauci, Chamavi and Chattuarii, were already living in the Low Countries prior to the forming of the Frankish confederation ), began to incur the northwestern provinces of the Roman Empire.

Passau was an ancient Roman colony of ancient Noricum called Batavis, Latin for " for the Batavi.

They traded with other tribes, like the ancient ( Kentish ) Britons of nearby England of Great Britain and the Batavi and Salinians of present-day Holland.

The Batavi ( the name is believed to derive from a West Germanic root also present in " better " ( possibly meaning " superior men ")) moved into the Betuwe in the late 1st century BC.

Tacitus ( De origine et situ Germanorum XXIX ) described the Batavi as the bravest of the tribes of the area, hardened in the Germanic wars, with cohorts under their own commanders transferred to Britannia.

Later that year he led a naval expedition against Germanic tribes along the North Sea coast, conquering the Batavi and the Frisii, and defeating the Chauci near the mouth of the Weser.

The Batavi probably still spoke Germanic, along with the Mattiaci.

It comes from the Batavi tribe that lived there in Roman times.

The first Batavi commander we know of is named Chariovalda, who led a charge across the Visurgin ( Weser ) against the Cherusci led by Arminius during the campaigns of Germanicus in Germania Transrhenana.

Despite the alliance, one of the high-ranking Batavi, Julius Paullus, to give him his Roman name, was executed by Fonteius Capito on a false charge of rebellion.

* Roman legions V Alaudae and XV Primigenia are destroyed by the Batavi.

Hermann ( 1906 ) identifies as such * ansulaikom the victory songs of the Batavi after defeating Quintus Petillius Cerialis in the Batavian rebellion of 69 AD ( according to Tacitus ' account ), and also the " nefarious song " accompanied by " running in a circle " around the head of a decapitated goat sacrificed to ( he presumes ) Wodan, sung by the Lombards at their victory celebration in 579 according to the report of Pope Gregory the Great ( Dialogues ch.

In AD 69 the Batavi and other tribes rose against Roman rule in the Revolt of the Batavi, becoming a general uprising by all the Germans in the region.

Led by Cerialis, the Romans gave as good as they had gotten, ultimately forcing a humiliating peace on the Batavi and stationing a legion on their territory.

It was an uprising against Roman rule by the Batavians ( Latin: Batavi ) and other tribes in the province and in Gaul.

A veteran of 25 years ' service, he had distinguished himself by service in Britain, where he and the 8 Batavi cohorts had played a crucial role in both the Roman invasion in 43 AD and the subsequent subjugation of southern Britain.

Vitellius ' general in Germania Inferior, ordered to raise more troops, squandered the goodwill of the Batavi by attempting to conscript more Batavi than the maximum stipulated in their treaty.

The best known of the Bructeri was their wise woman Veleda, the spiritual leader of the Batavi rising ; her subsequent fate is not known, but it is generally believed that she was captured by the Romans.

At the same time, relations collapsed between the Batavi cohorts and the legion they had been attached to since the invasion of Britain 25 years earlier ( XIV Gemina ): their mutual hatred erupted in open fighting on at least two occasions.

Theodosius arrived in 368 with the Batavi, Heruli, Jovii and Victores legions.

By 69, however, Civilis, the Batavi regiments and the Batavi people had become utterly disaffected with Rome.

The frontier was restored, with the exception that now the Batavi had to accept a garrison of Roman troops.

He brought with him four units, Batavi, Heruli, Iovii and Victores as well as his son, the later Emperor Theodosius I and probably the later usurper Magnus Maximus.

For this reason it is also uncertain whether the Batavi remained Germanic-speaking or adopted the Belgic Gallic tongue of the indigenes.

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

Numerous altars and tombstones of the cohorts of Batavi, 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.

In the Late Roman army there was a unit called Batavi.

The name of the Bavarian town of Passau descends from the Roman Batavis, which was named after the Batavi.

The epigraphy of Batavi and other Lower Rhine tribes ", in Ton Derks, Nico Roymans ( ed.