Note 18 — Chapter IV · A New Interpretation

Kornemann (Klio, IX, 1909, p. 436) regards the words of Tacitus, Ann., IV, 72: “haud spernanda illic civium sociorumque manus litora Oceani praesidebat,” as proving that “das Kastell eine starke Besatzung hatte.” On the other hand the inability of the garrison to do more than hold the fort against the uprising (IV, 73) would indicate that the force was rather small. A Roman fort was an easy thing to protect against the Germans; even the feeble garrison of Aliso held out easily against great numbers after the disaster to Varus (cf. Delbrück, Gesch. d. Kriegskunst, 2nd ed., 1909, II, p. 138). That Flevum was not established until the time of Germanicus, Kornemann (loc. cit., p. 437) has argued, in refusing to accept the plausible identification of Drusus’ naval base with Flevum, and locating Borma (Florus, II, 30, 26, a form which he very properly defends) between the Cannanefates and the Frisii (loc. cit., pp. 430 ff., especially 437-8). Our argument is not seriously affected thereby, for Borma must have been yet closer to the Rhine than Flevum (Kornemann, loc. cit., p. 437), and neither was so situated as to be a far flung outpost designed to hold conquests fast. At the very most they were merely starting points for hostile or commercial activity. To be sure, if Borma could be identified with the modern Borkum, as has been frequently attempted (cf. Kornemann, loc. cit., p. 433, n. 1), its foundation might, with a certain degree of plausibility, be regarded as a serious move looking towards conquest, but Kornemann’s localization of Borma seems unassailable, the philological obstacles are great, and the military difficulty of setting a naval base at this period so far away from the Rhine quite insuperable.