1Of all these peoples the foremost in valour, the Batavi, inhabit not much of the riverbank but an island in the river Rhine; they were once a people of the Chatti, and through civil strife crossed into these homes, in which they were to become part of the Roman empire. 2The honour remains, and the mark of an ancient alliance; 2for they are not humiliated by tributes, nor does the tax-collector grind them down; 2exempt from burdens and levies and set aside only for use in battles, they are reserved for wars, like weapons and armour. 3In the same allegiance is also the people of the Mattiaci; 3for the greatness of the Roman people has carried respect for our empire beyond the Rhine and beyond the old boundaries.
3So in their home and territory they live on their own bank, in mind and spirit with us, in other respects like the Batavi, except that they are still invigorated by the very soil and climate of their own land to a keener spirit. 4I would not count among the peoples of Germany, although they have settled across the Rhine and Danube, those who cultivate the Decumate lands: all the most fickle of the Gauls, made bold by poverty, occupied that land of doubtful ownership; 4soon, when the frontier had been drawn and the garrisons moved forward, they came to be regarded as an outlying corner of the empire and part of a province.