the island of the Batavi, in Ancient Geography. This island is described by Tacitus. "The Rhine flowing in one channel," says he, "or only broken by small islands, is divided, at its entering Batavia, as it were into two rivers. One continues its course through Germany, retaining the same name and violent current, till it falls into the ocean. The other, washing the coast of Gaul, with a broader and more gentle stream, is called by the inhabitants Vahalis; which name it soon changes for that of Mosa, by the immense mouth of which river it discharges itself into the same ocean." According to Tacitus, therefore, the island of the Batavians was bounded by the ocean, the Rhine, and the Vahalis, now the Waal. Caesar extends it to the Mosa, or Meuse; but Pliny's description coincides with that of Tacitus. This island was, however, of greater extent in the time of Tacitus than in that of Caesar; for, by a new canal, Drusus, the father of Germanicus, conveyed the waters of the Rhine into the ocean, a considerable way north of the former mouth of that river. The Batavi were a branch of the Catti, who, having been expelled their country in consequence of a domestic sedition, occupied the extremity of the coast of Gaul, at that time uninhabited, together with this island situated among shoals. The name of Batavi they carried with them from Germany. The modern name of this island is Betu or Betane.

BATAVORUM Oppidum, in Ancient Geography, a town in the island of the Batavi, mentioned by Tacitus, without any particular name.