THE ETHNOGENESIS OF THE BATAVIANS. A SUMMARY

In this study I have attempted to sketch a picture of Batavian ethnogenesis in the context of the Roman frontier. My starting point was the current view in the social and historical sciences of ethnicity as a culturally determined, subjective construct that is shaped through interaction with an ethnic ‘other’. This study sought to analyse literary, epigraphic and archaeological sources relating to the Batavian image and self-image against the background of the specific integration of the Batavian community into the Roman empire. The study's main conclusion is that we can demonstrate that Rome exerted a profound influence on the formation of the Batavians both as a political entity and as an ethnic group with its own historically anchored self-image. This impact goes far beyond what has been assumed to date and shows that we should regard the Batavians to a large extent as a creation of the Roman frontier.

The Batavians emerged as a political entity when a group from east of the Rhine was granted permission – possibly by Caesar himself during the Civil War period – to settle in the Rhine/Meuse delta on Gaul's northern periphery. This was a reward for past – and above all future – military support, laid down in a treaty by Rome. A new polity subsequently formed in the delta when the immigrant group amalgamated with the indigenous, former Eburonean population. At the political heart of this polity lay the Batavian stirps regia, the ancestors of Julius Civilis mentioned later by Tacitus. We could perhaps think here in terms of a client kingship, familiar to us from other frontier polities. The new royal dynasty will have been recognised and supported by Rome, as attested to by the early bestowal of Roman citizenship on this family, making them part of the clientele of the Julian house.

Archaeology, and more particularly the study of local coin emissions, is able to shed some light on the socio-political networks behind the emergence of a Batavian polity. In addition, there is evidence to suggest that the political and religious heart of the earliest Batavian polity was the already established central place of Kessel/Lith. Rainbow staters of the triquetrum type, which seem to have played a key role in the political integration of the various groups into a new tribal association, were possibly minted there.