Batavians.

These Batavians, according to Tacitus, were the bravest of all the
Germans. The Chatti, of whom they formed a portion, were a pre-eminently
warlike race. "Others go to battle," says the historian, "these go to
war." Their bodies were more hardy, their minds more vigorous, than
those of other tribes. Their young men cut neither hair nor beard till
they had slain an enemy. On the field of battle, in the midst of carnage
and plunder, they, for the first time, bared their faces. The cowardly
and sluggish, only, remained unshorn. They wore an iron ring, too, or
shackle upon their necks until they had performed the same achievement,
a symbol which they then threw away, as the emblem of sloth. The
Batavians were ever spoken of by the Romans with entire respect. They
conquered the Belgians, they forced the free Frisians to pay tribute, but
they called the Batavians their friends. The tax-gatherer never invaded
their island. Honorable alliance united them with the Romans. It was,
however, the alliance of the giant and the dwarf. The Roman gained glory
and empire, the Batavian gained nothing but the hardest blows. The
Batavian cavalry became famous throughout the Republic and the Empire.
They were the favorite troops of Caesar, and with reason, for it was
their valor which turned the tide of battle at Pharsalia. From the death
of Julius down to the times of Vespasian, the Batavian legion was the
imperial body guard, the Batavian island the basis of operations in the
Roman wars with Gaul, Germany, and Britain.

Beyond the Batavians, upon the north, dwelt the great Frisian family,
occupying the regions between the Rhine and Ems, The Zuyder Zee and the
Dollart, both caused by the terrific inundations of the thirteenth
century and not existing at this period, did not then interpose
boundaries between kindred tribes. All formed a homogeneous nation of