Editing Batavi (Germanic tribe) (section)

==Location==
[[File:Germania_70_de.svg|frameless|340px|left]]
The Batavi themselves are not mentioned by [[Julius Caesar]] in his commentary ''[[Commentarii de Bello Gallico]]'', although he is often thought to have founded his dynasty's [[Numerus Batavorum|Germanic bodyguard]], which was at least in later generations dominated by Batavi. But he did mention the "Batavian island" in the [[Rhine river]]. The island's easternmost point is at a split in the Rhine, one arm being the [[Waal (river)|Waal]] the other the [[Nederrijn|Lower Rhine]]/[[Oude Rijn (Utrecht and South Holland)|Old Rhine]] (hence the Latin name ''Insula Batavorum'', "Island of the Batavi").<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0001:book=4:chapter=10&highlight=batavi|title=C. Julius Caesar, Gallic War, Book 4, chapter 10|work=tufts.edu}}</ref> Much later [[Tacitus]] wrote that they had originally been a tribe of the [[Chatti]], a tribe in Germany also never mentioned by Caesar (unless they were his "[[Suebi]]"), who were forced by internal dissension to move to their new home.<ref>Cornelius Tacitus, ''Germany and its Tribes'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0083%3Achapter%3D29 1.29]</ref> The time when this happened is unknown, but Caesar does describe forced movements of tribes from the east in his time, such as the [[Usipetes]] and [[Tencteri]].

Tacitus also 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".<ref>Tacitus, ''Historiae'' iv.12</ref> This view, however, is contradicted by the archeological evidence, which shows continuous habitation from at least the third century BC onward.<ref>N. Roymans, "The Lower Rhine ''Triquetrum'' Coinages and the Ethnogenesis of the Batavians", in: T. Grünewald & H.-J. Schalles (eds.), ''Germania Inferior: Besiedlung, Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft an der Grenze der römisch-germanischen Welt'' (2000), 93–145, esp. 94.</ref> 
 
The strategic position, to wit the high bank of the Waal offering an unimpeded view far into Germania Transrhenana (Germania Beyond the Rhine), was recognized first by [[Nero Claudius Drusus|Drusus]], who built a massive fortress (''castra'') and a headquarters (''praetorium'') in imperial style. The latter was in use until the Batavian revolt.

Archeological evidence suggests they lived in small villages, composed of six to 12 houses in the very fertile lands between the rivers, and lived by agriculture and cattle-raising. Finds of horse skeletons in graves suggest a strong equestrian preoccupation. On the south bank of the Waal (in what is now Nijmegen) a Roman administrative center was built, called ''Oppidum Batavorum''. An [[Oppidum]] was a fortified warehouse, where a tribe's treasures were stored and guarded. This centre was razed during the Batavian Revolt. The [[Smetius Collection]] was instrumental in settling the debate about the exact location of the Batavians.