Editing Netherlands (section)

===Celts, Germanic tribes and Romans (800 BC–410 AD)===
{{Main|Iron Age Europe|Celts|Germanic peoples|Netherlands in the Roman era}}

From 800 BC onwards, the [[Iron Age Europe|Iron Age]] Celtic [[Hallstatt culture]] became influential, replacing the [[Hilversum culture]]. Iron ore brought a measure of prosperity and was available throughout the country. [[Blacksmith|Smiths]] travelled from settlement to settlement with bronze and iron, fabricating tools on demand. The [[Vorstengraf (Oss)|King's grave of Oss]] (700 BC) was found in a burial mound, the largest of its kind in Western Europe.

The deteriorating climate in Scandinavia from 850 BC and 650 BC might have triggered the migration of [[Germanic peoples|Germanic]] tribes from the North. By the time this migration was complete, around 250 BC, a few general cultural and linguistic groups had emerged.<ref>''The New Encyclopædia Britannica'', 15th edition, 22:641–642</ref><ref name="Verhaal">de Vries, Jan W., Roland Willemyns and Peter Burger, ''Het verhaal van een taal'', Amsterdam: Prometheus, 2003, pp. 12, 21–27</ref> The [[North Sea Germanic]] [[Ingaevones]] inhabited the northern part of the [[Low Countries]]. They would later develop into the [[Frisii]] and the early [[Saxons]].<ref name="Verhaal" /> The [[Weser–Rhine Germanic]] (or [[Istvaeones]]) extended along the middle Rhine and [[Weser]] and inhabited the Low Countries south of the great rivers. These tribes would eventually develop into the [[Salian Franks]].<ref name="Verhaal" /> The [[Celts|Celtic]] [[La Tène culture]] (c. 450 BC to the Roman conquest) expanded over a wide range, including the southern area of the [[Low Countries]]. Some scholars have speculated that even a third ethnic identity and language, neither Germanic nor Celtic, survived in the Netherlands until the Roman period, the [[Nordwestblock]] culture.<ref>Hachmann, Rolf, Georg Kossack and Hans Kuhn, ''Völker zwischen Germanen und Kelten'', 1986, pp. 183–212</ref><ref name="Lendering">Lendering, Jona, [https://www.livius.org/ga-gh/germania/inferior.htm "Germania Inferior"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161027034706/http://www.livius.org/ga-gh/germania/inferior.htm |date=27 October 2016}}, Livius.org. Retrieved 6 October 2011.</ref>

[[File:Germania 70.svg|thumb|The Rhine frontier around 70 AD]]
The first author to describe the coast of [[Holland]] and [[Flanders]] was the geographer [[Pytheas]], who noted in c. 325 BC that in these regions, "more people died in the struggle against water than in the struggle against men."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Lendering |first1=Jona |title=The Edges of the Earth (3) – Livius |url=https://www.livius.org/articles/concept/the-edges-of-the-earth-1/the-edges-of-the-earth-3/ |website=livius.org |access-date=28 February 2019}}</ref> During the [[Gallic Wars]], the area south and west of the [[Rhine]] was conquered by [[Roman Empire|Roman forces]] under [[Julius Caesar]] from 57 BC to 53 BC.<ref name="Lendering"/> Caesar describes two main Celtic tribes living in what is now the southern Netherlands: the [[Menapii]] and the [[Eburones]]. Under [[Augustus]], the [[Roman Empire]] would conquer the entirety of the modern day Netherlands, incorporating it into the province of [[Germania Antiqua]] in 7 BC, but would be repelled back across the Rhine after the [[Battle of the Teutoburg Forest|Battle of Teutoburg Forest]] in 9 AD, with the Rhine becoming fixed as Rome's permanent northern frontier around 12 AD. Notable towns would arise along the [[Limes Germanicus]]: [[Nijmegen]] and [[Voorburg]]. In the first part of [[Gallia Belgica]], the area south of the Limes became part of the [[Roman province]] of [[Germania Inferior]]. The area to the north of the Rhine, inhabited by the Frisii, remained outside Roman rule, while the Germanic border tribes of the [[Batavi (Germanic tribe)|Batavi]] and [[Cananefates]] served in the [[Ala (Roman allied military unit)|Roman cavalry]].<ref>Roymans, Nico, ''Ethnic Identity and Imperial Power: The Batavians in the Early Roman Empire'', Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2005, pp 226–227</ref> The Batavi rose against the Romans in the [[Revolt of the Batavi|Batavian rebellion]] of 69 AD but were eventually defeated. The Batavi later merged with other tribes into the confederation of the Salian Franks, whose identity emerged in the first half of the third century.<ref name="Previté-Orton">Previté-Orton, Charles, ''The Shorter Cambridge Medieval History'', vol. I, pp. 51–52, 151</ref> Salian Franks appear in Roman texts as both allies and enemies. They were forced by the confederation of the Saxons from the east to move over the Rhine into Roman territory in the fourth century. From their new base in [[West Flanders]] and the Southwest Netherlands, they were raiding the [[English Channel]]. Roman forces pacified the region but did not expel the Franks, who continued to be feared at least until the time of [[Julian (emperor)|Julian the Apostate]] (358) when Salian Franks were allowed to settle as ''[[foederati]]'' in [[Texandria]].<ref name="Previté-Orton"/>