Episode 85. The Civilis Revolt

Works Cited Primary Sources Cassius Dio. Roman History, Books 64 and 65. Greek narrative covering the early Flavian period. Useful as a comparison to the Tacitean account, with substantial independent material on the suppression operation. Pliny the Elder. Natural History. Various passages on the Germanic peoples and the Rhine frontier. Pliny had served in the Rhine command during portions of the Julio-Claudian period and preserved substantial direct knowledge of the political-military situation. Tacitus. Germania. Brief but substantial ethnographic treatment of the Germanic peoples, including the Batavians. The Batavian treatment at Germania 29 includes the political-cultural characterisation that informs the Histories account. Tacitus. Histories, Books 4 and 5. The principal narrative source for the Civilis revolt. Book 4 covers the autumn 69 CE beginning, the Treveran-Lingones expansion, and the early phase of the Roman suppression. Book 5 covers the principal phase of the Roman counter-operation under Cerialis. The text of Book 5 breaks off in mid-narrative at the meeting between Civilis and Cerialis on the destroyed bridge. The conclusion of the revolt and the terms of the eventual settlement are not preserved in the surviving Tacitean text. The fragmentary nature of the surviving account is one of the principal source-critical problems for the historical reconstruction of the revolt. Secondary Sources Birley, Anthony R. The Roman Government of Britain. Oxford University Press, 2005. Substantial treatment of Cerialis's career, including the British and Rhine commands. Brunt, P. A. “Tacitus on the Batavian Revolt.” Roman Imperial Themes. Oxford University Press, 1990. Major source-critical treatment of the Tacitean account. Keppie, Lawrence. The Making of the Roman Army. Routledge, 1998. General treatment of the Roman military establishment, with substantial material on the Rhine frontier arrangements that produced the conditions for the revolt. Roymans, Nico. Ethnic Identity and Imperial Power: The Batavians in the Early Roman Empire. Amsterdam University Press, 2004. The major scholarly treatment of the Batavian people and the political-cultural arrangements with the Roman administration that produced the conditions for the revolt. The framework for the Batavian portions of this episode owes substantial debts to Roymans's analysis.