12 Facts About Frisii

Frisii were an ancient Germanic tribe living in the low-lying region between the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta and the River Ems, and the presumed or possible ancestors of the modern-day ethnic Dutch.

Frisii lived in the coastal area stretching roughly from present-day Bremen to Bruges, including many of the smaller offshore islands.

Lands of the Frisii were largely abandoned by c 400, probably due to climatic deterioration and flooding caused by sea level rise.

The earliest mention of the Frisii tells of Drusus' 12 BC war against the Rhine Germans and the Chauci.

The account says that the Frisii were "won over", suggesting a Roman suzerainty was imposed.

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Frisii were little more than occasional and incidental players in Roman accounts of history, which focus on Roman actions that were of interest to Roman readers.

The propraetor of Germania Inferior, Lucius Apronius, raised the siege and attacked the Frisii, but was defeated at the Battle of Baduhenna Wood after suffering heavy losses.

The Roman military commander, Corbulo, campaigned successfully against the Germanic tribes, For the Chauci and for the Frisii this meant Roman occupation, with the Romans specifying where they must live, with a fort built among them, and forcing a Roman-style senate, magistrates, and constitution upon them.

Frisii are next mentioned in 54, when they occupied empty, Roman-controlled land near the Rhine, settling into houses and sowing and plowing fields.

The Frisii refused, whereupon a Roman military force coerced them, killing any who resisted.

Efforts have sometimes been made to connect this auxiliary unit with the Frisii by supposing that the original document must have said "Frisiavonum" and a later copyist mistakenly wrote "Frixagorum".

However, Pliny's placement of the Frisiavones in northern Gaul is not near the known location of the Frisii, which is acceptable if the Frisavones are a separate people, but not if they are a part of a greater Frisian tribe.