Ethnicity in the Roman Northwest 501characterized as warlike in nature, but also as exceptional horsemen capable of extraor-
dinary feats such as being able cross large rivers such as the Rhine on horseback, in full
armor and in perfect formation (Tacitus,Historiae2.43; 4.12; 5.14–15; Cassius Dio
55.24, 69.9; CIL 3, 3676). Also important was the mythology of their bravery and
unquestioning loyalty to the emperor in the face of grave crises (e.g., Suetonius,Galba
12.2; Tacitus,Annales2.8). Heinz Bellen has shown how the Roman stereotype of the
German as barbarians who were fierce and huge in stature was applied to the Batavian
bodyguard and used as a means of underscoring the power of Rome (Bellen 1981).
Importantly, the exceptionally high recruitment rate of the Batavi meant that large num-
bers of them will have been directly confronted with this Roman view of them (Roymans
2004: 227). Their desire to distance themselves from the “barbarian” element could
explain their partiality to rider scenes in which orderly Batavian cavalrymen ride down
hairy, unkempt barbarian figures (e.g., Roymans 2004: 230, Figure 10.4). The martial
element was, however, no doubt enhanced by their key role in the Roman army. Formerly,
they had been largely farmers involved in seasonal warfare. As members of a professional
army, however, a large section of the population was now away from home for 25 years.
When they came home (which apparently many did, to judge from the large amounts
of military goods in civilian sites: Nicolay 2008; Roymans and Derks 2007), they were
both thoroughly militarized and well-suited to adopt prominent positions in the com-
munity. As a result, not only the auxiliary units, but Batavian society as a whole, gained
the character of a “community of soldiers” (Roymans 2004: 229).
Recent studies (e.g., Gehrke 2000; Woolf 2011) have highlighted the central role of
foundation myths in ethnogenesis and the linking of ethnic groups to a wider cultural
sphere. In the Batavian area, it is Hercules who seems to have forged this link. For the
Romans, he was a brave adventurer who traveled to barbarian countries. According to
Tacitus (Germania3), he also went to Germany and was worshipped there as a hero.
Hercules was often used for foundation myths in Greece and Rome, usually through a
connection with a local noblewoman and resulting eponymous sons. The centrality of the
Hercules cult in the Batavian area suggests that he played a similar role here, presumably
in part due to both his masculine, martial qualities and his connection to pastoralism.
Roymans suggests that the requisite founding myth was devised among Batavian nobles
in the Roman army in the Augustan period (Roymans 2004: 239). Cult centers were
particularly important for forging ethnic unity in Iron Age European cultures. Examples
of this include the Suebian central sanctuary described by Tacitus (Germania39), the
localized epithets of the matron deities that played an important role among the Ubii
(see the following text), and the fact thatpagusnames in northern Gaul appear often
to have had a religious origin (Derks 1998: 190–1). In the Batavian area, Hercules
is linked to the native deity Magusanus. Important sanctuaries for this cult have been
found at Elst, Empel, and Kessel/Lith. In the latter case, it is clear that the settlement
and the sanctuary existed as a central place of the Eburones before the Batavians arrived.
A scenario is plausible by which Magusanus was a chief deity/hero of the Eburones,
then syncretized with Hercules by the Batavians, who made the new syncresis their chief
deity (Roymans 2004: 14). Huge amounts of deposited weapons and military equip-
ment found at the sanctuaries show there was a strong martial element to the Hercules
Magusanus cult. Human remains with evidence of injuries at Kessel highlight even more
candidly the nature of the cult. Importantly, even when municipal functions became