In North Brabant, the current village Kessel and Lith, Julius Caesar has caused a massacre of two Germanic tribes. Thus he is responsible for the largest massacre ever on Dutch territory, thinks archaeologist Nico Roymans.
Roymans, working at the Free University of Amsterdam, presented Thursday at the Allard Pierson Museum the results of his research that one day earlier came out. In addition, he showed skulls, bones and teeth of more than a hundred people, who found their end on the banks of the Meuse or in the water. ,, Complete bodies are thrown into the river. "
In addition, he showed swords and belt hooks, which belonged to the Germans. Belt hooks, he explained, are typical of the clothing that women wore Germanic. Caesar's army was not only targeting the male warriors. The find anyway shows that the Roman general was pretty unconscionable: the bones belonged partly to children.
Exaggerated
Caesar, who lived from 100 to 44 BC, ashamed not entirely. In his famous treatise De Bello Gallico, as told Roymans, he reports that he has chopped 400,000 people in the pan. ,, That is hugely exaggerated. We can only guess how many people it is. "
The question whether this is the biggest massacre ever goes in the Netherlands, Roymans answered in the affirmative: ,, I can remember so no battle where so many victims. "
The battle took place in 55 BC. According to tradition were two Germanic peoples, Tencteri and Usipetes, driven by a third tribe from their homeland on the eastern banks of the Rhine. They asked Caesar for asylum, but he refused. Instead, he gave his troops permission to slaughter the tribes.
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