THE BATAVIANS AND THEIR GOOD MLADOW 59

and so, in time, themselves came to be called Batavii, or
Batavians.

Other portions of the country were held by various
tribes living upon and beyond a great tract of land which
afterward, in true Holland style, was turned into a sea,
called the Zuyder Zee. Most of these tribes were sturdy
and brave, but the Batavii were braver than any. Fierce,
stanch and defiant, they taught even their little children
only the law of might; and their children grew up to be
mightier than they. The blessed Teacher had not yet
brought the world his lesson of mercy and love. “Con-
quer one another” had stronger claims to their considera-
tion. than “ Love one another.”

Their votes in council were given by the clashing of
arms; and often their wives and mothers stood by with
shouts and cries of encouragement wherever the fight was
thickest. “Others go to battle,” said the historian Taci-
tus; “these go to war.”

Soon the all-conquering Romans, who, with Julius
Cesar at their head, had trampled surrounding nations
into subjection, discovered that the sturdy Batavil were
not to be vanquished—that their friendship was worth
far more than the spongy country they inhabited. An al-
liance was formed, and the Batavii were declared to be ex-
empt from the annual tax or tribute which all others were
forced to pay to the Romans. Czsar himself was not
ashamed to extol their skill in arms, nor to send their

1The Zuyder Zee was formed by successive inundations during the thir-

teenth century. In the last of these inundations—in 1287 —nearly
cighty thousand persons were drowned.