BiblioVault - Books about Batavi (Germanic people)

Armed Batavians

Use and Significance of Weaponry and Horse Gear from Non-military Contexts in the Rhine Delta (50 BC to AD 450)

Johan Nicolay

Amsterdam University Press, 2008

Using a life-cycle model for Roman soldiers, Johan Nicolay interprets the large quantity of first-century finds as personal memorabilia brought home by ex-soldiers as a reminder of their twenty-five years of service and a symbol of their newly-acquired veteran status. Underpinning Nicolay’s research is an extensive inventory of militaria from urban centers, rural settlements, rivers, and graves—presented in nearly one hundred individual color plates. Introducing a considerable body of unpublished data, as well as offering a perspective on daily life in the northern frontier of the Roman Empire, this volume is a valuable addition to Roman military and material history.

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Ethnic Identity and Imperial Power

The Batavians in the Early Roman Empire

Nico Roymans

Amsterdam University Press, 2005

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.

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Livestock for Sale

Animal Husbandry in a Roman Frontier Zone

Maaike Groot

Amsterdam University Press, 2016

The civitas Batavorum was a settlement on the north-western frontier of the Roman Empire, and it is now the site of numerous archaeological excavations. This book offers the most up-to-date look yet at what has been discovered, using the newest archaeological techniques, about the town and its economy, its military importance, and the religious and domestic buildings it held. It will be essential reading for anyone studying the economy of the Roman provincial countryside or the details of food supply for the Roman army and town.

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