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Batavi
(247 words)

[German version]

German breakaway tribe from the  Chatti, tracing its origins back to Mannus (Germanic deity); between 55 and 12 BC, they migrated into that part of the Rhine delta which had formerly been occupied by the Menapii. Their main settlement area was the Insula Batavorum, formed by the Oude Rijn and the Waal/Maas, cf. the modern Betuwe. Capitals of the B. were Batavodurum, and, from the time of Trajan, Ulpia  Noviomagus Batavorum. They were called ‘B., because they were the most able of horsemen’ (Cass. Dio 55,24); etymologically thus related to the Gothic batiza ‘better’. Impo…

Cite this page
Dietz, Karlheinz (Würzburg), “Batavi”, in: Brill’s New Pauly, Antiquity volumes edited by: Hubert Cancik and , Helmuth Schneider, English Edition by: Christine F. Salazar, Classical Tradition volumes edited by: Manfred Landfester, English Edition by: Francis G. Gentry. Consulted online on 31 March 2023 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e213760>
First published online: 2006
First print edition: 9789004122598, 20110510



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