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History of the Rise and Progress of the Belgian Republic
History of the Rise and Progress of the Belgian Republic Author:Friedrich Schiller Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: tries was sooner or later subdued by the Romans, but the conquerors have transmitted to us an honourable testimony of their prowess and valour. The Belgians, acc... more »ording to the authority of Ca?sar, were the only gallic tribes that gave ah effectual check to the inroads of the Teutonians and Cirubrians. All those nations, says Tacitus, bordering upon the Rhine, yielded to the Batavians in point of magnanimity and feeroic vakur.f This fierce people furnished a tribute of soldiers, and, like the sword and javelin, were regarded as the instruments of destruction. The Romans freely acknowledged, Canninefatians, the Mattiadts. the Marcgatians, who inhabited a part of West Friesland, Holland, and Zealand, and may be classed along with the former. Tacitus. Ilistor. Lib. IV. C. 15. 56. de Morib. Germ. Cap. 29 De bello Gallico. t Hist. Lib. IV. Cap. 12. that the Batavian cavalry, was the flower of their army. During a long interval they discharged the important function of bodyguards to the emperors, as the Swiss in modern times. Their ferocious valour appalled the Dacians, when, clad in c6m- pleat armour, they swam across the Danube. They were the same Batavians, who accompanied Agricola on his expedition into Britain, and assisted him in reducing that island. Of all the others, the Frisians were the last who were subdued, and the first who recovered their liberties. The marshy wilderness they inhabited, tempted the avarice of the conquerors at a later period, and enhanced the price of conquest. Drusus, who carried the Roman arms into these parts, conducted a canalfrom the Rhine to the Flevo, the ancient name for the Zuyder sea, whereby the Roman fleet opened a passage into the Baltic, and from thence through the entrance of the Ems and the Weser, obtained an easy access into t...« less