The Batavi occupied land between the Waal (Vahalis) and the true Rhine that enters the sea at Katwijk. This was the "island of Batavia". Their name has come down to us with a Celtic termination and is preserved today in the Dutch district of Betuwe between the Waal and the Leck. Their neighbours to the north were the Frisii and the Cannenefates, the latter in the district that bears their name today - Kennemerland. The region is well known to archaeologists. Around 500 BCE Germanic expansion led to settlements in southern Holland and western Belgium. The population was then a Celtic - Germanic mix. The German elements were strengthened about 120 BCE by inroads caused by the migration from Jutland of the Teutones, Cimbri and the Ambrones. The Germanic element was then very strong and it is likely that the region became linguistically German at this time. It has remained so.

Initially friendly to the Roman cause, the Batavi co- operated with Drusus (12 BCE) in his canalisation of the Vecht to link the Rhine to Lake Flevo and the North Sea. A strip of land was given up to form a military zone protecting the canal.

The Batavi supplied the Roman army with ten, 1000 man regiments (one mounted) under native officers and furnished most of the Imperial guard, the Germani, until disbanded in CE 68.
In 69, a year after the disbanding of the Germani guards, Julius Civilis (a Batavian with a Roman name), led a revolt in support of Vespasian against Vitellius implicating many of the neighbouring peoples as allies. Initially sucessful, Civilis besieged two legions in Vetera (near Xanten) and controlled all the country to the north. With the death of Vitellius the revolt continued but now against Vespasian. Gallic tribes joined in, proclaiming an "Empire of Gallia".

The Batavi must have been granted honourable terms of surrender after the revolt. Although their land south of the Waal was annexed to become part of the fortified frontier zone with a legion at Noviomagus (Nijmegen), their land to the north was made into client kingdom with Roman garrisons at Praetorium Agrippinae (Ahrensburg near Voorburg) and Fectio (Vechten near Utrecht). Of the original ten cohorts, all but one mutinied with Civilis and were disbanded. After 70 CE four cohorts and one ala (cavalry regiment) were formed under Roman officers (about 5000 men) and posted to remote parts of the Empire.

The Batavi are named among the field army used by Theodisius to restore order in Britain in 368 after the combined raids of the Picts, Saxons, Scots and the Attacotti.

The land of the Batavi

Drusus' channel and the name of the lake are still recognisable in the Vlie Strom and Vlieland.

There were eight cohorts of Batavi with the invading army of Aulus Plautius in Britain in 42. They did good service by swimming the Medway and the Thames, thus bypassing defended fords.

The Notitia Dignitatum lists the first Cohort of Batavi at Carrawburgh on Hadrian's Wall.