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Ethnic Identity and Imperial Power: The Batavians in the Early Roman Empire

by Nico Roymans

Amsterdam University Press, 2005
Cloth: 978-90-5356-705-0 | eISBN: 978-90-485-0535-7
Library of Congress Classification DH146.R69 2004
Dewey Decimal Classification 936.302

ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | TOC

ABOUT THIS BOOK

This probing case study examines the evolution of the ethnic identity of the Batavians, a lower Rhineland tribe in the western marches of the Roman Empire. Drawing on extensive historical and archaeological data, Nico Roymans examines how between 50 BCE and 70 CE, the Romans cultivated the Batavians as an ethnic "other" by intensively recruiting them to the Roman army while simultaneously carrying out extermination campaigns against other tribes in the region. Roymans also considers how the status of the Batavian settlement reveals intriguing insights into Roman definitions of "civilization" and "barbarism." Ethnic Identity and Imperial Power is a fascinating anthropological study on how ancient frontier peoples negotiated their self-image.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Nico Roymans is professor of archaeology at the Free University of Amsterdam.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Table of Contents - 8 Preface - 12 1 Research aims, central concepts and perspectives - 14 1.1 The study of ethnicity and ethnogenesis - 14 1.2 Roman imperial power and the ethnic dynamics in the Lower Rhine frontier - 16 1.3 Ethnicity, texts and material culture. Methodological considerations - 17 1.4 Structure of the text - 20 2 Social change in the Late Iron Age Lower Rhine region - 22 2.1 Introduction - 22 2.2 The adoption of coinage - 23 2.3 The emergence of regional sanctuaries - 24 2.4 The development of a major nucleated settlement at Kessel/Lith - 27 2.5 The mass circulation of glass bracelets - 29 2.6 Discussion. A new kind of society in the Lower Rhine region? - 31 3 Caesar's conquest and the ethnic reshuffling of the Lower Rhine frontier zone - 36 3.1 Major changes in the tribal map after the Roman conquest - 36 3.2 Archaeological discussion on continuity and discontinuity of habitation in the Rhine delta in the later 1st century BC - 39 3.3 The Lower Rhine population and their presumed Germanic ethnicity - 41 4 The gold triskeles coinages of the Eburones - 44 4.1 Introduction - 44 4.2 Late Iron Age coin circulation in the Lower Rhine region - 44 4.3 The triskeles Scheers 31 type coins: typology, metrology, and distribution - 48 4.4 Chronology and the problem of historical interpretation - 51 4.5 Ascription to the Eburones and the link to Caesar's conquest - 56 4.6 Patterns of deposition and loss: the archaeological contexts - 58 4.7 Conclusion - 62 Appendix 4.1. List of 'imported' gold staters found in the Lower Rhine region - 64 Appendix 4.2. Descriptive list of the Scheers 31 triskeles coins - 65 5 Roman frontier politics and the formation of a Batavian polity - 68 5.1 The roots of the alliance between the Romans and Batavians - 68 5.2 On the role of a king - 74 5.3 From kingship to magistrature - 76 5.4 Conclusion - 78 6 The Lower Rhine triquetrum coinages and the formation of a Batavian polity - 80 6.1 Distribution, classification and chronology of the Lower Rhine triquetrum coinages - 80 6.2 Batavian emissions? - 95 6.3 Production, circulation and deposition of triquetrum coinages in the Batavian river area. Some Hypotheses - 101 6.4 Conclusion - 109 Appendix 6.1: List of sites where triquetrum coins have been found - 110 7 Kessel/Lith. A Late Iron Age central place in the Rhine/Meuse delta - 116 7.1 Introduction - 116 7.2 Dredged from sand and gravel. History of the finds, the find circumstances, and representativity - 117 7.3 Description of the find complex - 120 7.4 The Meuse/Waal river junction at Kessel /Lith in the Late Iron Age and Early Roman period - 144 7.5 Settlement, cult place or battlefield? Interpretation of the find complex at Kessel/Lith - 146 7.6 A monumental Roman temple at Kessel - 147 7.7 Grinnes and Vada - 157 7.8 The Kessel/Lith settlement from a Northwest-European perspective - 159 7.9 Kessel/Lith as a centre of power and a key place in the construction of a Batavian identity group - 160 Appendix 7.1: Descriptive catalogue of the metal finds dredged at Kessel/Lith - 162 Plates - 176 8 The political and institutional structure of the pre-Flavian civitas Batavorum - 208 8.1 Introduction - 208 8.2 Roman imperialism and the control of tribal groups in the Germanic frontier - 209 8.3 The municipalisation of the civitas Batavorum - 213 8.4 Nijmegen as a central place - 215 8.5 The pre-Flavian civitas Batavorum and its relation to coastal tribes in the Rhine/Meuse delta - 218 8.6 Civitas organisation and Batavian identity - 221 9 Foederis Romani monumenta. Public memorials of the alliance with Rome - 224 9.1 The marble head of Julius Caesar from Nijmegen - 225 9.2 The Tiberius column from Nijmegen - 226 9.3 A fragment of an imperial tabula patronatus(?) from Escharen - 230 9.4 Discussion - 232 10 Image and self-image of the Batavians - 234 10.1 Introduction - 234 10.2 The Roman army and the cultivation of a Batavian identity - 235 10.3 Dominant Roman images of the Batavians - 238 10.4 Dominant elements in the self-image of Batavians - 240 11 Hercules and the construction of a Batavian identity in the context of the Roman empire - 248 11.1 Introduction. Myth, history and the construction of collective identities - 248 11.2 Evidence for Trojan foundation myths in Gaul and Britain - 249 11.3 Hercules as the first civiliser of the Germanic frontier - 251 11.4 The cult of Hercules among the Batavians - 254 11.5 The appeal of the Roman Hercules and the construction of a Batavian identity - 257 11.6 The Hercules sanctuaries and their significance for the construction of a Batavian identity< - 259 11.7 On the Hercules cult in the other civitates of Lower Germany - 261 11.8 Discussion - 262 12 Conclusion and epilogue - 264 12.1 The ethnogenesis of the Batavians. A summary - 264 12.2 From a Batavian people to a Roman civitas? - 266 12.3 The case of the Batavians and ethnogenetic theory - 271 Abbreviations - 274 Bibliography - 274 General index - 288

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