Pagare il Fio. How the Romans Fared in the Wet Woodlands and Salt Marshes

Pagare il fio is Italian for 'paying the penalty,' though literally it means 'paying the fee,' a phrase inherited from the northern peoples—the so-called Barbarians—who toppled the Western Roman Empire. The English word fee comes from Old English feoh, which survives as fee in Mid-Frisian, vee in Dutch, and Vieh in German, all meaning 'cattle.' The Anglo-Frisian rune ᚠ, feh, likewise signified 'wealth.' The literal sense of pagare il fio is therefore 'paying the cattle,' or more broadly, 'paying the price.' In AD 28, when the Romans raised taxes in the western Netherlands north of the River Rhine and demanded additional bigger cattle as tribute, the Frisians rose in revolt, killing some 1,300 legionaries in battle—death and taxes, the two certainties in life, then as now.

The dainty Romans arrived two thousand years ago at the rough and mighty deltas of the rivers Rhine, Meuse, and Scheldt, including massive impenetrable peatlands bordering the coastal zone from western Flanders in Belgium to southern Jutland in Denmark. Combined, the three rivers are responsible for discharging, on average, circa 2.5 million liters of water per second into the North Sea. A wet and swampy environment—very difficult to conquer.

The Frisians, called Frisii or Fresones by the Romans, lived along the coast from the River IJ near modern Amsterdam to more or less the River Ems, now the border between Germany and the Netherlands, although parts of this border in the Dollart Bight are still being disputed by the governments of Germany and the Netherlands. Disputable too, part of the modern province of Drenthe was territory of the Frisians, and that of the Chauci, as well. In our blog post The Killing Fields—of the Celts more about this area's history.

The first recorded mention of the Frisians dates to 12 BC and describes how Frisian tribes allied themselves in battle against the Chauci. The Chauci were a people inhabiting the coastal zone of what is now northwest Germany, roughly between the rivers Ems and Elbe—immediate eastern neighbours of the Frisians. Their material culture closely resembled that of the Frisians. Both groups lived on artificial dwelling mounds, or terps, amid the barren tidal marshlands. For more on this shared marshland culture, see our blog post Shipwrecked People of the Salt Marshes. Like the Frisians, the Chauci were far from pacified. Indeed, both peoples—though especially the Chauci—gained notoriety as pirates. In our blog post Our Civilization—It All Began with Piracy we explore their violent entrepreneurship and its profound impact on Western history.

First Romans arrive at the marshes of Rüstringen by Hermann Allmers (1821-1902)

It was the Roman authors Plinius (also Pliny) the Elder and Tacitus who first wrote about the Frisians and their northern lands in the first century AD. Tacitus, in his work Germania, gave a stark description of the region: “The terrain is fierce, the climate harsh, life and landscape bleak. One comes here only because it is home.” His words apply with particular force to the wet, swampy coastal zone along the Wadden Sea. Tacitus’s assessment, one might add, had a long afterlife—not least in discouraging tourism to the north of Germany and the Netherlands.

It is reasonable to assume that the Romans gave the Frisians their tribal name, Frisii, in the first century AD. The name is thought to derive from the Vulgar Latin verb fresare, meaning 'to cut' or 'to dig,' a reference to the countless ditches the Frisians cut into the flat, marshy landscape. These drainage works allowed them to cultivate wetlands that were regularly flooded by sea or river. For a more detailed explanation, see our blog post A Severe Case of Inattentional Blindness; the Frisian Tribe’s Name.

Close to the North Sea coast, the Roman army attempted to push northward and conquer the watery territories of the Frisians, the Chauci, and other tribes. Near the present-day town of Velsen-Zuid, just northwest of the modern city of Amsterdam, the Romans established two pre-limes fortresses (limes meaning 'border path'), probably between AD 15. The site, which they called Flevum, included a naval base and a castra-type fortress covering roughly eleven hectares. Such a size indicates the presence of a legion of about 5,000 to 6,000 soldiers between AD 15-47. Remarkably, Velsen-Zuid represents the northernmost castra-type fortress of the entire Roman Empire on the continent.

At the time, the River IJ linked Velsen-Zuid both to the North Sea near the present-day village of Egmond aan Zee and to lacus 'lake' Flevo. Through this large inland lake, the fortress settlement was further connected with the hinterland. The name Flevum given to the fortresses thus clearly derived from Lake Flevo. The location was highly strategic: it allowed control over, and taxation of, the movement of goods and people, while also serving as a forward base for military campaigns into the northern Wadden Sea region. Archaeological evidence further indicates the presence of a Frisian cult site near today’s town Velserbroek, just south of Velsen-Zuid.

The Roman geographer Pomponius Mela, writing in the first half of the first century AD, described lacus Flevo and gave it its name. He depicted it as a lake with an island at its center. The name Flevo is likely connected to the modern Mid Frisian verb floeie, meaning 'to flow.' From this root derive the later River Vlie, the Wadden Sea island of Vlieland, and the seaway between Vlieland and Terschelling, which is still called the Vlie today. The name 'Flanders' may share the same etymological origin, referring to land that was flooded. See our blog post A Frontier Known as Watery Mess: the Coast of Flanders. In short, all of Frisia was quite literally 'in the flow.'

fortresses Flevum at present-day Velsen

Besides Flevum, the Romans may also have established small, short-lived outposts in the first century near the modern village of Winsum-Bruggeburen in the province of Friesland and at the village of Bentumersiel on the River Ems in the region of Ostfriesland, the latter within the territory of the Chauci tribe. These possible sites are suggested by the discovery of Roman material such as terra sigillata, amphorae, coins, and militaria. Their function may have been to collect taxes and facilitate trade.

Yet, the interpretation of these finds remains debated among scholars. Do they indeed signal a Roman presence, or do they instead reflect intensive contact and exchange with the Roman world? Another possibility is that these were farmsteads or dwellings of Frisian or Chauci tribesmen who had previously served in the Roman army—figures not unlike the so-called Deer Hunter of Fallward.

In AD 16, General Germanicus Julius Caesar launched his final campaign to subdue the tribes north of the Lower Rhine. Commanding a massive fleet of four legions, he sailed through the Wadden Sea and reached the muddy estuary of the River Ems, the borderland between the Frisians and the Chauci. There, Gallic and Germanic auxiliaries, who had marched north overland, joined the main force. At this point, the Frisians maintained friendly relations with Rome. From the Ems, Germanicus advanced eastward toward the River Weser to confront the Germanic coalition led by Arminius, the formidable commander of the Cherusci.

Although the battles between Germanicus and Arminius took many lives, Germanicus was victorious in AD 16. A big setback, however, during Germanicus’ military campaign was that on his way back from the River Ems, the fleet ran into a heavy storm on the Wadden Sea. Ships were wrecked, many drowned, and the army was scattered over a large area. Army officer praefectus Albinovanus Pedo wrote about this maritime disaster, which, by the way, is the oldest account describing the Wadden Sea area. Read our blog post Racing on the Wadden Sea with a Silt Sled to find Pedo's compelling account. In spite of the fact that Germanicus' campaign was successful overall, he was ordered by Rome, for unclear reasons, to settle behind the Lower River Rhine nevertheless.

One year after John the Baptist was beheaded in Jerusalem by tetrarch Herod Antipas, it was the Frisians who rose up against Rome. The immediate trigger was a steep rise in taxation, which sparked the great Frisian revolt of AD 28—or so historian Tacitus records. According to his account, a Roman tax collector named Olennius dismissed the small cattle pelts offered by the Frisians and demanded larger ones instead. When the Frisians explained that their cattle were simply of modest size, Olennius went so far as to demand their women and children as slaves. There was no reasoning with this antithesis of Zacchaeus, and the Frisians were left with no alternative but rebellion. And rebel they did (see further notes below).

The Frisians, men and probably women, too, since war was a family affair, attacked the fortresses at Flevum in a battle apud lucum quem Baduhennae vocant 'at the grove which is named after [goddess] Baduhenna'. In other words, the Battle of Baduhenna Forest. No, not the battle at the Teutoburg Forest. It was Ba-du-hen-na.

Battle at Baduhenna Forest with the farmstead of Cruptorix by Goetze, Glimmerveen & Deviant Art

The Romans suffered heavy losses at the hands of the Frisians in the Baduhenna Forest. Tacitus reports that 900 Roman soldiers were killed in the woods, followed by another 400 who turned on one another in despair after retreating to the villa of a certain person named Cruptorix. The bloodshed at Cruptorix’s estate was driven by fear—fear of mutiny, of betrayal, and of imminent slaughter by the resurgent Frisians after the massacre in the forest. We are familiar with the somewhat agitated nature of southern Europeans, but we did not know that it can be this strong.

The reports of Tacitus are supported by archaeological evidence. Excavations have uncovered no fewer than 520 lead sling bullets at the former fortresses besieged by the Frisian men and women.

As a result of this fierce resistance, the Romans were forced to abandon their pre-limes fortresses at the River IJ near the present-day town of Velsen-Zuid. This may also apply to the recently discovered fortifications at the town of Krommenie, about twenty kilometers northwest of the city of Amsterdam. Driven back by the Frisians, the Romans retreated south of the Lower Rhine Rhine. In Rome, it was perceived that the imperial army had lost much of its honour in the north against the Germanic tribes beyond the River Rhine. To quote the Roman historian Tacitus:

CLARUM INDE INTER GERMANOS FRISIVM NOMEN DISSIMVLANTE TIBERIO DAMNA NE CVI BELLVM PERMITTERET

From then on, the name of the Frisians was renowned among the Germanics, while [Emperor] Tiberius concealed the losses to avoid entrusting the war to anyone.

Despite all military efforts, the River Rhine ultimately became the northernmost frontier of the empire on the continent. Not long before, in AD 9, no fewer than three Roman legions had been annihilated by Germanic tribes in the Teutoburg Forest near present-day Kalkriese in Germany—a catastrophe remembered as the Variana clades, the 'Varian disaster' (Mees 2023), and an even more humiliating defeat. With the additional setback of the disastrous battle against the Frisians in AD 28, Rome scaled back its ambitions to expand further north. For the time being, that is—for one famous Roman commander would later attempt once more, as we shall see below.

More resistance

From around AD 40, the Romans constructed the limes along the southern banks of the River Rhine, marking the northernmost border of their continental empire. The limes consisted of a network of fortresses, watch posts, and, near the coast, a naval fleet, all linked by roads. The westernmost fortress, Lugdunum—locally known as Brittenburg—was built around AD 40 at the mouth of the Rhine, near the present-day town of Katwijk, approximately 900 meters from the coast. Since Roman times, the North Sea coastline has shifted roughly a kilometer inland.

It is likely that two equitata cavalry units, each numbering about 480 men from the Cananefates tribe, were stationed here. After the uprisings of the Cananefates, Batavians, Frisians, and Chauci in AD 69–70 (see below), these units were replaced by auxiliary forces from beyond the region. Remarkably, Lugdunum remained in use long after the Romans had largely abandoned the limes along the Lower Rhine in the mid-third century. Between AD 364 and 375, the castellum was reduced in size and repurposed as a secure granary to supply Britannia (Wolfrat 2022).

On the south bank of the River Rhine, not far from castellum Lugdunum, the Romans built a vast military complex comprising a harbour, massive horrea (granaries), a castrum (army camp), and a castellum. Erected in AD 39, it was named Praetorium Agrippinae or 'Agrippina’s Headquarters,' and stood at the present-day town of Valkenburg, about fifteen kilometres north of the city of The Hague. Designed to support some 6,000 soldiers, the site served as a key base for the planned invasion of Britannia. Emperor Caligula personally inspected the complex in AD 40, shortly before the campaign unfolded. A year later, he was murdered. The featured image in this blog post shows his death, with his mother Agrippina behind the drapes, painted by the Frisian artist Sir Lourens Alma-Tadema (see notes below). Infatti, Caligula dovette pagare il fio. Indeed, Caligula had to pay the price.

In AD 46, under the command of the 'pirate' Gannascus of the Cananefates tribe, the Chauci and the Frisians began raiding the North Sea coasts south of the Lower River Rhine as far as Gaul. The following year, General Corbulo was dispatched by Rome to the north to restore order. He launched punitive expeditions against the Chauci and Frisians and succeeded in subduing the latter. From AD 47 onward, the limes—part of the Limes Germanicus—were established along the south bank of the Lower River Rhine. Although Corbulo proved highly effective in harrying both the Frisians and the Chauci, Rome ordered him to halt his campaigns and once again accept the River Rhine as the empire’s northernmost frontier. The army camp at Flevum was abandoned, and in AD 50 Corbulo withdrew from the region—likely convinced he could have accomplished far more had the ever out-of-touch bureaucrats in the capital heeded his judgment.

General Corbulo is also remembered for the canal he ordered to be dug between the mouth of the River Meuse—the Haringvliet, known to the Romans as the Helinium—and the mouth of the River Rhine. The town of Forum Hadriani was later built beside it, and today the Vliet waterway preserves the line of Corbulo’s canal, which once ran parallel to the coast. He was not the first Roman commander to reshape the waterways: between 12 and 9 BC, General Drusus had a series of canals constructed, probably along the course of the River Stichtse Vecht in the province of Utrecht, to connect the fortress of Fectio (near the modern town of Vechten) with Lake Flevum (the present Lake IJsselmeer). From there, Roman ships could continue sailing north (Verhagen 2022). Drusus’s tireless efforts to improve navigation even survive in place names: the town of Drusenheim in France, where he once built fortresses on the River Rhine, still recalls him. Fittingly, a blue-painted ferry named Druss now shuttles back and forth across the river between France and Germany (Hendriksma 2017).

Another significant uprising occurred in AD 69–70, known as the Revolt of the Batavi. The Batavians, a people descended from the Celtic Chatti, were led by Gaius Julius Civilis. They were joined by the Cananefates, under King Brinno, as well as the Chauci and the Frisians—the latter two tribes praised by Civilis as the bravest among his allies. Naval power for the revolt was largely provided by the Cananefates and Frisians, whose fleet devastated the formidable castellum Agrippinae. In fact, it was the destruction of Agrippinae by these forces that sparked the Batavian Revolt in the first place. For a more detailed account of the exploits of the Cananefates and Frisian fleet, see our blog post Our Civilization—It All Began with Piracy.

Do you want me to tell you what wrecks all poetry? It is the dissonance of German and barbarian thrumming.

Gallo-Roman writer and politician Sidonius Apollinaris (443-489), after Arnold (2024)

As a side note, the name Cananefates likely means 'garlic masters.' The suffix fates comes from the Germanic word faþi, meaning 'lords' or 'masters,' while kannina is of Celtic origin, meaning 'garlic.' Garlic was regarded as a medicinal plant and reserved for the elite. Today's master of garlic is China, being the biggest producer of the aromatic bulbs. Similarly, the name of the Eburones—a tribe inhabiting the northeast of Gaul, where modern Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands meet—also refers to a plant: their name may mean 'yew people' (Clerinx 2023).

Northern Roman cities

Forum Hadriani also known as Municipium Aelium Cananefatium MAC by Glimmerveen

In AD 121, in the territory of the civitas of the Cananefates—who lived between the mouths of the rivers Flevum (Rhine) and Helinium (Haringvliet)—the Romans founded the northernmost capital of the empire on the continent: Forum Hadriani, also known as Municipium Aelium Cananefatium, commonly abbreviated—as the Romans liked to do—to MAC. MAC was situated near the modern city of The Hague and is estimated to have had around 5,000 inhabitants. Its nearest neighbouring town was Noviomagus, the present-day town of Nijmegen in the east of the Netherlands, which likewise had an estimated 5,000 residents.

Concerning the gates of Noviomagus, legend goes that the west gate carried in stone the text hic limes imperii 'this is the end of the empire,' and the west gate the text hic finis regni Stauriae 'this is the end of the kingdom of Stavoren' (Le Petit 1614). Other writers say the text of the gate of Noviomagus read huc usque ius Stauriae 'up to here the law of Stavoren' (Hamckema 1623, Gorissen 1955) or huc usque regnum Stauriae 'up to here the kingdom of Stavoren' (Kok 1792, Van der Aa 1848). Supposedly, the early medieval inscription was written on a stone part of the former old Hezelpoort, a gate that has been demolished in 1877. Stauriae is the Latin name of the town of Stavoren, also called Starum in the Mid Frisian language, located in the southwest of the province of Friesland. According to many sagas, Stavoren was the old seat of the kings of Frisia. In our blog post Stavoren. A balancer on a slack rope of religion, trade, land, water, Holland, and Frisia we have looked into this stone inscription more closely.

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Nota I — If you think the presence of the Roman Empire was merely a burden for the Frisians, this was not the case. It also meant more trade possibilities, like selling woollen cloth, salt, and, very probably, dairy products. But also Frisian warriors enrolled in the army as soldier. Read our blog post Frisian Mercenaries in the Roman Army. Fighting for Honour and Glory.

Regarding the episode of taxes and the intriguing demand for larger cow hides, there may have been more at play for the Romans than simple taxation. When this demand is considered alongside archaeological evidence showing the growth of livestock populations and changes in cattle morphology—specifically the shift from polled to horned cattle—it suggests that the Romans may have been deliberately encouraging the breeding and improvement of cattle. In our blog post Golden Calves, or Bursting Udders on Bony Legs? we explain this theory of ours in more detail.

Nota II — Did you know that between 1504 and 1795, ancient Roman Law in its purest form was the applicable law in the province of Friesland? Check our blog post Medieval Migration Law. A Matter of Liability for more about this anomaly in European law practice.

Nota III — Featured image is a painting by the Frisian artist Sir Lourens Alma-Tadema (1836-1912) from the village of Dronrijp in the province of Friesland. It depicts the death of Emperor Caligula in AD 41. On the wall is a painting within the painting, depicting the famous naval Battle of Actium in BC 31. Alma-Tadema was one of the most famous painters of his time and lived for a large part of his life in England. His paintings shaped for many generations how people in the Western world envisioned Ancient Rome, and perhaps it does to this very day. Alma-Tadema was promoted to British nobility and is buried in Saint Paul's Cathedral, which altogether is a huge honour given to someone in Britain. In the Netherlands, he was not admitted to a Dutch art school.

Nota IV — Credit featured image Death of Caligula by the Frisian artist Lourens Alma-Tadema (1836-1912). Credit images of the Romans encountering Frisians: Stichting Oer-IJ and Rob van Eerden.

Further reading

Aa, van der A.J. (ed.), Aardrijkskundig woordenboek der Nederlanden (1848)

Arnold, E.F., Medieval Riverscapes. Environment and Memory in Northwest Europe, c. 300-1100 (2024)

Berkel, van G. & Samplonius, K., Nederlandse plaatsnamen verklaard. Reeks Nederlandse plaatsnamen deel 12 (2018)

Bosman, V.A.J., Rome aan de Noordzee. Burgers en barbaren te Velsen (2016)

Broeke, van den P.W., Pierenpaté? Fries aardewerk ten zuiden van de Nederrijn (2018)

Buijtendorp, T., De gouden eeuw van de Romeinen in de Lage Landen (2021)

Bunt, van de A., Wee de overwonnenen. Germanen, Kelten en Romeinen in de Lage Landen (2020)

Clerinx, H., De god met de maretak. Kelten en de Lage Landen (2023)

Dhaeze, W., The Roman North Sea and Channel Coastal Defence. Germanic Seaborne Raids and the Roman Response (2019)

Diederik, F., Germania en de keizerlijke politiek (2011)

Galestin, M.C., Frisii and Frisiavones (2016)

Gelder, van J., Nieuwenhuis, M. & Peters, T. (transl.), Plinius. De wereld. Naturalis historia (2018)

Ginkel, van E. & Vos, W., Grens van het Romeinse Rijk. De limes in Zuid-Holland (2018)

Gorissen, F., Huc usque ius stavriae : over de betekenis van de gedenksteen afkomstig van de Hezelpoort (1955)

Hamckema, M., Frisia Sev De viris Rebvsqve Frisiæ Illvstribvs Libri Dvo. Opus ab authore recognitum, auctum, & Imaginibus Regum, Potestatum, ac Principum exornatum. Adiecti Svnt Pontifices Frisiorvm. Ethnici, seu Præfecti Druydum: Episcopi Vltraiectini: Comites Hollandiæ, & Zelandiæ: Diplomataque, & Monumenta aliquot Pontificum, Cæsarum, ac aliorum heroum; Virtutem Frisiorum declarantia (1623)

Granzow Busch, N.P., Romeinen zetten artillerie in: Germanen werden doorboord (2023)

Haywood, J., Dark Age Naval Power. A Reassessment of Frankish and Anglo-Saxon Seafaring Activity (1999)

Heeren, S., Grensoverschrijdingen. Romeins-Germaanse interactie (2022)

Heeringen, van R.M. & Velde, van der H.M. (eds.), Struinen door de duinen. Synthetiserend onderzoek naar de bewoningsgeschiedenis van het Hollands duingebied op basis van gegevens verzameld in het Malta-tijdperk (2017)

Hendriksma, M., De Rijn. Biografie van een rivier (2017)

Huisman, K., De Friese geschiedenis in meer dan 100 verhalen (2003)

Hunink, V (transl), Tacitus. In moerassen en donkere wouden. De Romeinen in Germanië (2015)

Kok, J., Vaderlandsch woordenboek. Zevenentwintisgte deel (1792)

Lendering, J., Romeinen in Velsen (2016)

Londen, van H., Ridder, T., Bosman, A. & Bazelmans, J., Het West-Nederlandse kustgebied in de Romeinse tijd (2008)

Looijenga, A., Popkema, A. & Slofstra, B. (transl.), Een meelijwekkend volk. Vreemden over Friezen van de oudheid tot de kerstening (2017)

Lugt, F., Rijnland in de donkere eeuwen. Van de komst van de Kelten tot het ontstaan van het graafschap (2021)

Mees, B., The English language before England. An epigraphic account (2023)

Meijlink, B. & Silkens, B. & Jaspers, N.L., Zeeën van Tijd. Grasduinen door de archeologie van 2500 jaar Domburg en het Oostkapelse strand (2017)

Naber, M.J. & Smit, E., Romeinse veldtochten. 7 wandelingen langs de noordgrens van het Romeinse Rijk (2016)

Nieuwhof, A. & Nicolay, J., Identiteit en samenleving: terpen en wierden in de wijde wereld (2018)

Nijdam, H., Law and Political Organization of the Early Medieval Frisians (c. AD 600-800) (2021)

Mijle Meijer, van der R.A., Scheveningseweg gemeente Den Haag. Archeologische begeleiding rioolvervanging (2011)

Petit, le J.F., Nederlandsche Repvblycke; Eijgentlijcte Befchrijvinge Der Vrije Nederlandfche Provintien (1615)

Stolte, B.H. (ed.), Germania Inferior. Untersuchungen zur Territorial- und Verwatungsgeschichte Niedergermaniens in der Prinzipatszeit (1972)

Tuuk. van der L., De Romeinse Limes. De grenzen van het Rijk in de Lage Landen (2017)

Verhagen, J.G.M., Op zoek naar de kanalen van Drusus. De Utrechtse Vecht in de Romeinse tijd (2022)

Vandermeulen, J., The Frisian Tribe: from Caesar to Charlemagne (1998)

Vugts, T. (ed.), Varen op de Romeinse Rijn. De schepen van Zwammerdam en de limes (2016)

Wolfrat, E., De Brittenburg bij Katwijk. Een reconstructie op basis van schriftelijke bronnen (2022)