Batavi (Germanic tribe)

"Batavians" redirects here. For other uses, see Batavia and Batavi.
Funerary stela of one of Nero's Corporis Custodes, the imperial Germanic bodyguard. The bodyguard, Indus, was of the Batavian tribe.

The Batavi [bäˈt̪äːu̯iː] were an ancient Germanic[1] tribe that lived around the modern Dutch Rhine delta in the area that the Romans called Batavia, 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 tribal name, probably a derivation from batawjō ("good island", from Germanic bat- "good, excellent", which is also in the English "better", and awjō "island, land near water"), refers to the region's fertility, today known as the fruitbasket of the Netherlands (the Betuwe).

  1. ^ Drinkwater, John Frederick (2012). "Batavi". In Hornblower, Simon; Spawforth, Antony; Eidinow, Esther (eds.). The Oxford Classical Dictionary (4 ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0191735257. Retrieved January 26, 2020. Batavi, a Germanic people, living on the lower Rhine... an offshoot of the Chatti...