"Rebellion is the language of the unheard."
(Martin Luther King)
The Germans have rebelled against Roman rule for dozens of times, but only a few of those rebellions were so big and highly organized that they could have caused the collapse of the Roman empire, the most famous rebellion is the one Arminius incited in 9AD though another less known rebellion is that of the tribes in the Rhine delta from 69 to 70AD; although it did not result in success it was an enormous rebellion of the same caliber as the rebellion of Arminius, therefor I have chosen to describe this historical event because it is a shame that so many modern history books simply ignore it:
Before the rebellion:
When the Romans reached the river Rhine after their conquest of Gaul they subjected the tribes south of it, according to Roman custom the tribes near the borders were made "foederati", which were allied tribes who protected the borders against invasions from the other side.
In the Rhinedelta (modern Netherlands) the Romans allowed the tribe of the Batavians to settle in the border area near the river and in exchange the Batavians would become Roman foederati.
The Batavians settled on a strip of land that was surrounded by the rivers Rhine and Waal, the Romans called this area "Insula Batavorum" (the Batavian Island) and nowadays this land is known as the Betuwe, the Batavian capital became Oppidum Batavorum (Nijmegen) and outside the city they constructed a stronghold where the people could seek shelter during wars, in later periods the name of the city changed into Noviomagus, which means "New Market" in Latin.
Many Batavians joined the Roman army and the Romans made good use of their Batavian mercenaries, according to Roman sources the Batavians were excellent warriors who could swim over a river without leaving their horses and weapons behind.
For a long time the Batavians were Rome's most loyal allies, but this changed after the death of emperor Nero; there were multiple competitors for the Roman throne which caused a succession war and the destabilization of the empire.
One of those competitors was Vitellius who was the commander of the Roman troops near the Rhine border; he amassed his army and marched to Rome to take control of the empire, this left an enormous gap in the border defences of the Rhine.
To fill in these gaps the Roman civil servants thought out a plan; they would force the men from local tribes to join the Roman army and the parents could only avoid this by paying a huge amount of money; this plan would not only supply new soldiers but also some much needed gold.
Roman soldiers marched into the local Germanic villages and snatched away young men, old men, weak men, and children.
The young men were a good addition to the army while the children and the old and weak men were released after their kin payed a large amount of ransom, if they could afford it that is.
The final straw for the Batavians was when some of the Romans also started selecting handsome boys "whom they dragged off for infamous purposes", as you can probably imagine they were furious about the behaviour of the Romans and did not feel very connected to their alliance with them anymore.
The conspiracy of Julius Civilis, by Rembrandt 1661
The preparations:
One of those people was Julius Civilis, a one-eyed Batavian nobleman who is only known by his Latin name, he was a high ranking member of the tribe and an officer in the Roman army who had been imprisoned by the former Roman emperor Nero, after Nero's death he was released and returned home; filled with hatred towards the Romans who had taken his freedom, humiliated him, and had killed his brother Claudius Paulus.
He called for a meeting in a sacred forest that was probably the Rijkswoud near the Dutch city of Nijmegen (which was the capital of the Batavians), he met there with several tribal chiefs and discussed a rebellion against Roman rule; with the recent kidnap of their young men still fresh in their minds most of them accepted, messengers travelled to every important village in the Rhinedelta and soon more tribes joined the rebellion of Civilis.
The Roman border fortresses were under-manned and the few soldiers who remained were mainly men from local Germanic tribes who were more loyal to their own tribe than to the Romans, so the rebels did not expect much resistance.
The rebels approached the Batavian seeress Velleda and asked her to predict the future (see: magic), she performed some rituals and saw that the rebels would win in the upcoming battle and adviced them to attack as soon as possible.
The tribe of the Cananefatians also joined the rebellion, together with the Batavians this was one of the most important tribes in the Rhinedelta, before the revolt they chose Brinno as their new king and they would later make the first move on the Romans which initiated the start of the rebellion.
The rebellion:
The Cananefatians marched towards the Rhine and made the first attack on the Romans; in a successfull campaign they conquered all Roman fortresses along the Rhine from the Batavian lands to the North Sea, most of the Germanic mercenary troops deserted and chose the side of the rebellion and many fortresses fell without a fight; the Cananefatians looted and burned the Roman fortresses and settlements and quickly took control of what is now the area around Rotterdam in western Holland.
In the meanwhile Civilis used a trick; first he gained the support of the Celtic and Germanic mercenaries in the Roman army and convinced them to choose his side during the rebellion, and after that he approached the Romans and pretended that he was on their side; he asked them for an army to quell the rebellion and the Romans fell for it; they sent an army from Colonia Ulpia Traiana (Xanten) to attack the Cananefatians.
The Romans did not realize that they made an enormous mistake; the army they had sent from Xanten mainly consisted of Germanic mercenaries; Germanic infantry, Batavian horsemen, Germanic support troops, and even Germanic rowers in the ships they would use to cross the Rhine, what the Romans practically did was giving Civilis one of their armies to support his rebellion with.
The Roman counterattack:
The Roman army arrived in the land of the Cananefatians and was welcomed by burning Roman fortresses and taunting Cananefatians on the other side of the river, the Romans prepared their ships to cross the Rhine and attacked.
As soon as the battle commenced almost half of the "Roman" army defected and chose the side of the Cananefatians, Germanic rowers deliberately moved the Roman ships towards the Germanic held side of the river where the Cananefatians were waiting to enter the ships and finish the Roman troops that were aboard, Roman officers were killed by their own men and the Roman army was attacked by its own Germanic cohorts, Velleda the seeress had been right; the first battle became a glorious victory for the rebellion.
Under heavy losses the Romans retreated to a nearby fortress named Vetera and waited for reinforcements, the Cananefatians besieged the fortress and eventually the Romans ran out of food and water, having no other choice the Romans started negotiations with the rebels; the Cananefatians promised them a safe retreat if they would leave their weapons in the fort, the Romans agreed and in a long line they left the fortress, the Cananefatians did not held their side of the commitment; they attacked the unarmed Romans and killed them to the last man, something that was considered very dishonourful in Germanic culture and will have probably earned the Cananefatians the disgust of the other tribes.
Gaining reinforcements:
In the meanwhile the local Roman commander had found out that Julius Civilis was the brain behind the rebellion and demanded an explanation from him; the clever Civilis came up with another trick and told him that he was only rebelling against the new emperor Vitellius and that he attacked the Roman armies near the Rhine because they functioned under his command, the Roman commander did not like the new emperor Vitellius either and fell for it; he deliberately delayed the countermeasures he had to take against the rebellion which gave the rebels the time to wait for the reinforcements they had called in.
This reinforcements were 8 Roman cohorts consisting of Batavian mercenaries that the Romans had positioned near Mogutiacum (Mainz) to avoid them from defecting to the Batavian side, the Batavian leaders of those cohorts knew darn well that their tribe was rebelling against Roman rule and decided to go there and join them; this was very difficult since they were under Roman command in Roman held territory.
The Batavian cohorts left Mainz and travelled along the Rhine to the north, they were attacked by a Roman garrison near Castra Bonnensia (Bonn) but they quickly defeated it and moved onwards, they broke through the Roman lines and crossed the Rhine where they were greeted by their cheering tribesmen, they joined Civilis' forces who now had 8 well-trained and well-equipped cohorts at his disposal.
Because of the recent Germanic victories the Celts and Germans in northern Gaul gained new hope and some tribes decided to take the chance; they joined the rebellion too which expanded the uprising to northern Gaul south of the Rhine, and even to some other places in Gaul and the Alpes, in the meanwhile the newly installed Roman emperor Vitellius could do nothing because he was attacked from the east by his competitor Vespasianus and could not spare any of his troops.
The men of Julius Civilis travelled from city to city to convince the people to join the rebellion and the Batavian seeress Velleda also used her influence to aid Civilis' cause, the attempts paid off; the Roman cities of Colonia Agrippina (Cologne/Köln) and Augusta Treverorum (Trier) joined the rebellion and later the tribe of the Treverians followed their example; Julius Civilis had now united most of the Germanic and Celtic tribes in the Rhinedelta and northern Gaul and had an army that could match the Roman one.
The turning point:
In the meanwhile Vespasianus had defeated Vitellius and became the new Roman emperor, he quickly sent and army to the north under general Cerealis to quell the rebellion.
Instead of preparing themselves for the upcoming attack the rebels suffered a setback; some warlords did not trust Civilis enough and became obstructive, when Civilis finally managed to end the mutiny and reforged the coalition he had lost precious time.
The Roman army advanced and reached northern Italy, the Celts became insecure and did nothing to seal off the mountain passes through the Alps, which would have stopped the Roman army from reaching the Rhine; this allowed the Roman army to cross the Alps without any problems.
When the Roman army entered northern Gaul the fearful Celts quickly abandoned Civilis' rebellion and chose the Roman side again, only the Germanic tribe of the Treverians resisted but they were defeated and forced to reinstate their alliance with the Romans, northern Gaul had fallen.
The Roman army advanced further and reached the city of Augusta Treverorum (Trier) that surrendered to them without a fight.
Further developements:
In most places the rebellion had failed, only the Batavians, Cananafatians, Frisians, and other Germanic tribes were still loyal to Civilis; together they marched towards the advancing Roman army, they carried light equipment, had coloured their hair red and worn it loose over their heads, and as soon as they came near the Romans they silenced and carefully approached them.
When it got dark they attacked the Roman camp completely by surprise, before the Romans knew what was happening the Germans had caused a carnage, but before the actual victory was gained they started plundering the Roman camp which allowed the Romans to regroup and fight off the attack.
Because of the Roman successes the population of the rebelling city of Colonia Agrippina (Cologne/Köln) feared that the rebellion would be lost because they knew that in that case the Romans would revenge themselves on the city, but they could not simply surrender the city because it was defended by Germanic soldiers who would prevent the city from falling into Roman hands, therefor the people of Cologne thought out a plan; they organized a party to celebrate their new freedom and gave their defenders loads of beer and wine, at night when they were are all drunk or asleep they stabbed them to death and opened the city gates to the Romans, who spared the city in return for this treacherous act.
The Romans crossed the Rhine and advanced northwards but were stopped by impenetrable marshes, a Batavian traitor who knew the area showed them a path that allowed them to cross the marshes and attack Civilis in the back, during the heavy battle that followed Civilis fell off his horse, which made his warriors believe that he was dead; without their leader they lost their courage and retreated.
The end of the rebellion:
The victorious Romans advanced further into the difficult terrain and burned every village they came across, Julius Civilis had survived the battle and had escaped into Germanic held territory where he had started attacking several Roman fortresses near the river Waal with the remnants of his army.
In the meantime the Roman army had reached the land of the Batavians and their general Cerealis proposed a meeting; Civilis, who knew that he had no other choice, accepted and the two men met on a bridge above the river Nabalia(?), their men watched the negotiations from both river banks.
Cerealis proposed to sign a peace treaty; the Batavians were allowed to keep their own culture and religion, would become Roman allies again and they would be free to join the Roman army, but no longer in their own territory or under their own leaders, this terms were very reasonable and Civilis chose to accept them to prevent further harm to his people.
The seeress Velleda was captured by the Romans and was led in triumph through the city streets of Rome where the population shouted and spat at her, according to Roman custom she was probably strangled in the victory parade.
Julius Civilis disappeared from history, the brave man most likely died somewhere in a Roman prison.
Conclusion:
While the Batavian rebellion did not succeed in its initial goal it did had a psychological effect; after the defeat at the forest of Teutoburg and the enormous problems the Romans experienced during the Batavian rebellion they decided not to expand their borders beyond the river Rhine, which changed the course of history.
Centuries later the tribes of the Batavians and Cananefatians joined a coalition of tribes that would eventually become a new powerful tribe; the Franconians, they crossed the Rhine into Roman territory and succeeded in what Civilis could not achieve centuries earlier; liberating the Rhinedelta and northern Gaul and establishing a free and independant Germanic kingdom.
Gaining reinforcements:
The end of the rebellion: