ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses Tacitus’s presentation of the Rhineland landscape during the Batavian rebellion of AD 69. The three parts outline, respectively, how Tacitus’s Rhineland wetscapes consistently frustrate Roman military efforts, creating a sense of alienation heightened by the Batavians’ familiarity with them; key moments that represent the Rhine as exerting an independent agency that greatly damages Roman operations, increasing Rome’s sense of alienation; and how the corrupt dilectus of Batavia’s men is the human equivalent of Roman attempts to master the dreadful landscape. The Tacitean picture reveals the limitations of violent oppression of the “other” to achieve permanent empire building.
