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 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.

" The Batavi were an ancient Germanic tribe often mentioned by classical authors, and they were regularly associated with the Suebian marauders, the Heruli.

After the Batavi regiments were withdrawn from Britain to Italy in 66, Civilis and his brother ( also a prefect ) were arrested by the governor of Germania Inferior on false suspicion of treason: his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

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

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.

* Claudius Labeo, a leader of the Batavi, and rival of Civilis, who defeated him during the Batavian revolt.

It was intended as a base for campaigns into Germania and until its destruction during the Revolt of the Batavi in 70 AD it was occupied by 8, 000 to 10, 000 legionaries, and was the main base of the Classis germanica.

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.

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.

The Roman chronicler Tacitus even mentions that the rebellious Batavi pierced dikes to flood their land and to protect their retreat ( AD 70 ).

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.

Under the leadership of their hereditary prince Gaius Julius Civilis, an auxiliary officer in the Roman army, the Batavi managed to destroy two legions and inflict humiliating defeats on the Roman army.

Thus the Batavi, although just about 0. 05 % of the total population of the empire in 23 AD, supplied about 4 % of the total auxilia i. e. 80 times their proportionate share.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Thus the Batavi population it could support was tiny: not more than 35, 000 at this time.

Julius Civilis ( clearly an adopted Latin name, not his native one ) was a hereditary prince of the Batavi and the prefect of a Batavi cohort.

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

The brutality and corruption of the Roman recruiting centurions brought already deep discontent in the Batavi homeland to the boil.

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

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.

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.

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

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

The Revolt of the Batavi took place in the Roman province of Germania Inferior ( S. Netherlands ) between 69 and 70 AD.

Rhine frontier of the Roman empire, 70AD, showing the location of the Batavi in the Rhine delta region.

* Revolt of the Batavi, a major uprising against Roman rule

* 69 – 70, Revolt of the Batavi, Destruction of 2 Roman legions by the Batavi, Year of the Four Emperors, Assassination of Emperor Galba, Suicide of Emperor Otho, Execution of Emperor Vitellius, Begin of Flavian dynasty, Fall of Jerusalem.