Holland - The History of the Netherlands | Page 8

back in return marl, a most important
commodity for the improvement of their land. They also understood the
preparation of salting meat, with a perfection that made it in high
repute even in Italy; and, finally, we are told by Ptolemy that they had
established a colony on the eastern coast of Ireland, not far from
Dublin.
The two classes of what forms at present the population of the
Netherlands thus followed careers widely different, during the long
period of the Roman power in these parts of Europe. While those of the
high lands and the Batavians distinguished themselves by a
long-continued course of military service or servitude, those of the
plains improved by degrees their social condition, and fitted themselves
for a place in civilized Europe. The former received from Rome great
marks of favor in exchange for their freedom. The latter, rejecting the
honors and distinctions lavished on their neighbors, secured their
national independence, by trusting to their industry alone for all the
advantages they gradually acquired.
Were the means of protecting themselves and their country from the
inundations of the sea known and practiced by these ancient inhabitants
of the coast? or did they occupy only those elevated points of land
which stood out like islands in the middle of the floods? These
questions are among the most important presented by their history;
since it was the victorious struggle of man against the ocean that fixed
the extent and form of the country. It appears almost certain that in the
time of Cæsar they did not labor at the construction of dikes, but that
they began to be raised during the obscurity of the following century;
for the remains of ancient towns are even now discovered in places at
present overflowed by the sea. These ruins often bring to light traces of
Roman construction, and Latin inscriptions in honor of the Menapian

divinities. It is, then, certain that they had learned to imitate those who
ruled in the neighboring countries: a result by no means surprising; for
even England, the mart of their commerce, and the nation with which
they had the most constant intercourse, was at that period occupied by
the Romans. But the nature of their country repulsed so effectually
every attempt at foreign domination that the conquerors of the world
left them unmolested, and established arsenals and formed
communications with Great Britain only at Boulogne and in the island
of the Batavians near Leyden.
This isolation formed in itself a powerful and perfect barrier between
the inhabitants of the plain and those of the high grounds. The first held
firm to their primitive customs and their ancient language; the second
finished by speaking Latin, and borrowing all the manners and usages
of Italy. The moral effect of this contrast was that the people, once so
famous for their bravery, lost, with their liberty, their energy and their
courage. One of the Batavian chieftains, named Civilis, formed an
exception to this degeneracy, and, about the year 70 of our era, bravely
took up arms for the expulsion of the Romans. He effected prodigies of
valor and perseverance, and boldly met and defeated the enemy both by
land and sea. Reverses followed his first success, and he finally
concluded an honorable treaty, by which his countrymen once more
became the allies of Rome. But after this expiring effort of valor, the
Batavians, even though chosen from all nations for the bodyguards of
the Roman emperors, became rapidly degenerate; and when Tacitus
wrote, ninety years after Christ, they were already looked on as less
brave than the Frisons and the other peoples beyond the Rhine. A
century and a half later saw them confounded with the Gauls; and the
barbarian conquerors said that "they were not a nation, but merely a
prey."
Reduced into a Roman province, the southern portion of the
Netherlands was at this period called Belgic Gaul; and the name of
Belgium, preserved to our days, has until lately been applied to
distinguish that part of the country situated to the south of the Rhine
and the Meuse, or nearly that which formed the Austrian Netherlands.

During the establishment of the Roman power in the north of Europe,
observation was not much excited toward the rapid effects of this
degeneracy, compared with the fast-growing vigor of the people of the
low lands. The fact of the Frisons having, on one occasion, near the
year 47 of our era, beaten a whole army of Romans, had confirmed
their character for intrepidity. But the long stagnation produced in these
remote countries by the colossal weight of the empire was broken,
about the year 250, by an irruption of Germans or Salian Franks, who,
passing the Rhine and the Meuse, established themselves in the vicinity
of the Menapians, near