Year of the Four Emperor's - Revolt of the Batavi

[Thew2]

Evening folks, I would just like to get people's thoughts on the forces in the Batavian Revolt of AD 69-70. I have started on Civilis' army in 28mm, using mainly hairy Germanic types along with the Batavian Auxiliaries.

What I am less clear on, is what the allied forces of the short lived "Gallic Empire" should look like. Some more auxiliaries, plus some reluctant Rhine Legionaries seem in order. But does anyone have any thoughts on what the romanised Gallic tribal warriors of the Trevirans and Lingones might look like? I was thinking of using the new Wargames Atlantic Roman civilian set, with a mixture of Gallic and Roman shields, heads etc., to model some more informal recruits for the rebellion, but I would welcome any other thoughts from LAF.

[Pyrrhos]

Very interesting project; I am looking forward to it! I have only explored the Batavian revolt a little so far, but based on my experiences with similar topics, I would say that the WGA civilians provide an excellent starting point for adding character to the troops. The more professional soldiers would likely have matched auxiliaries in equipment, even if they were not auxiliaries. Captured objects were always in use, which would allow for kitbashing with legionary gear. Rectangular shields that have been repainted with Germanic and Celtic motifs instead of Roman ones would be particularly interesting. Additionally, you can mix in Germanic shields. You could also use something like the Gallic horses from Victrix, combined with Roman bodies, to create cavalry with Germanic harnesses.

[Thew2]

Thanks for the reply, Pyrrhos. Some very useful suggestions in there. I hadn't thought of painting over Roman shields with Celtic designs, but I really like that idea!

[cadbren]

The Gallic Empire of the 3rd century? The Roman army was starting to look very un-Roman at this point with trousers and long sleeves being the norm. There wouldn't have been any tribal warriors at this point. Other than Roman citizenship being given to everyone in 212, even before that the only military units were those raised to be auxilia. Under the Flavian emperors these auxilia were not allowed native leaders, presumably as a result of revolts by the Batavi and others.
I would expect the troops to all be variations of 3rd century Roman soldiers from the western Empire.
The making every free person in the Empire a citizen meant that the distinction between the legions and auxiliaries becomes fuzzy. By the time of the Gallic Empire this process had been in effect for almost 50 years.

The much earlier Batavi revolt would be different. One thing about the Batavi is that at the time they were the biggest single source of auxilia in the Empire. That means that a significant proportion of the fighting age population of the tribe would have served. It's likely that the average Batavi man would have short hair and either clean shaven or a trimmed beard as the classic images of the auxilia show. Being auxilia for the Empire would have been a major part of their culture which is ironically why they revolted, their service had been ridiculed and questioned.
The Batavians in the revolt would either be straight up Roman auxiliaries or secondary troops looking very similar but perhaps not as well armoured. Their neighbours might be a bit more rangy, more classsicly Germanic looking. The Gallic allies would be similar, a mix of auxiliary types and lighter armoured civilians - similar to the old Celtic armies that faced Caesar. Images from Roman Gaul suggest long hair continued to be worn by some for centuries after Roman domination.

[Thew2]

Thanks for your reply, Cadbren, much appreciated. It is the Gallic soldiers that joined the Batavi in AD 69-70 that I am interested in.

From what I have read the Gallic leaders Julius Sabinus, Julius Classicus and Julius Tutor emphasised their Roman identity, with Sabinus claiming decent from Julius Caesar, to legitimise a claim for the empire.  I was interested in how Roman their troops might have looked. So by the sounds of it a mixture of Roman Auxiliary, some earlier Gallic looking types for rural levy, plus maybe some more Roman looking civilian types for more romanised Gallic town levy could work.

[cadbren]

That's my take. The Lexovii adopted the Roman eagle on their coins after the conquest. Perhaps the classic boar standard that the Gauls typically used was replaced by an eagle as well.