Ethnic identity and imperial power : : the Batavians in the early Roman Empire / / Nico Roymans.

• Superior document: Amsterdam archaeological studies ; 10
• Author: Roymans, Nico.
• Year of Publication: 2004
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Amsterdam archaeological studies ; 10.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (xi, 277 pages) :; digital, PDF file(s).
• Notes: Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Feb 2021).

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.' <i>Ethnic Identity and Imperial Power</i> is a fascinating anthropological study on how ancient frontier peoples negotiated their self-image.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents; Preface; 1 Research aims, central concepts and perspectives; 2 Social change in the Late Iron Age Lower Rhine region; 3 Caesar's conquest and the ethnic reshuffling of the Lower Rhine frontier zone; 4 The gold triskeles coinages of the Eburones; 5 Roman frontier politics and the formation of a Batavian polity; 6 The Lower Rhine triquetrum coinages and the formation of a Batavian polity; 7 Kessel/Lith. A Late Iron Age central place in the Rhine/Meuse delta; 8 The political and institutional structure of the pre-Flavian civitas Batavorum

9 Foederis Romani monumenta. Public memorials of the alliance with Rome10 Image and self-image of the Batavians; 11 Hercules and the construction of a Batavian identity in the context of the Roman empire; 12 Conclusion and epilogue; Abbreviations; Bibliography; General index