In 28 AD, Frisian warriors fought Roman legions in a tax revolt that shocked the empire. Centuries later, Frisian soldiers served in the Roman army across three continents. The story of Frisians and Rome is one of resistance, recruitment, and an unlikely connection between a North Sea marshland people and the greatest empire of the ancient world.
The Revolt of 28 AD
The first major encounter between Frisians and Rome didn’t go well for the Romans. The Roman historian Tacitus recorded that in 28 AD, the Frisians revolted against a Roman tax collector named Olennius who had raised the tribute (paid in ox hides) to unreasonable levels. The Frisians rose up, killed Roman soldiers, and besieged a Roman fort. The revolt was serious enough that the Roman general Lucius Apronius had to march north with his legions. Even then, the Frisians inflicted heavy losses — Tacitus mentions that roughly 1,300 Roman soldiers were killed in the fighting. The emperor Tiberius quietly decided not to pursue the matter further, and the Frisians effectively won their independence for a generation.
Frisian Soldiers in the Roman Army
Despite this rocky start, Frisians later served extensively in the Roman military as auxiliary troops. Roman military diplomas and inscriptions show that Frisian units (cunei Frisiorum) were stationed across the empire. Frisian soldiers served at Hadrian’s Wall in Britain, along the Rhine frontier, and as far away as the Danube region. One particularly well-documented unit, the Cuneus Frisiorum, was stationed at the fort of Housesteads on Hadrian’s Wall. Inscriptions found there confirm that Frisian warriors lived, served, and died in what is now northern England.
Frisians at the Colosseum
One remarkable anecdote comes from the Roman author Suetonius and is also mentioned by other sources. Around 58 AD, a group of Frisians visited Rome itself. According to the account, these Frisian envoys were given seats in the theater (likely the Theater of Pompey), where they noticed that Parthian and Armenian ambassadors had been placed in the senators’ seats as a mark of honor. The Frisians, declaring that no people surpassed them in arms or loyalty, walked down from their assigned seats and sat themselves among the senators. The Roman audience apparently admired their boldness rather than being offended by it.
Trade and Contact
The relationship wasn’t only military. Roman goods have been found extensively in Frisian archaeological sites. Pottery, coins, glassware, and even Roman jewelry turned up in terp (mound) settlements across Friesland. The Frisians traded cattle hides, salt, and amber southward through Roman trade networks. The Roman-era terp settlement at Feddersen Wierde (in what is now Germany) shows how deeply integrated the Frisian coastal communities were with the wider Roman economic world, even if they lived far from the empire’s core.
After Rome
When the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the 5th century, the Frisians were among the peoples who filled the power vacuum in northwestern Europe. Freed from Roman influence, they expanded their territory and eventually built their own trading network that dominated the North Sea for centuries. But traces of the Roman connection remained — in place names, in archaeological finds, and in the memory of a small North Sea tribe that once walked into a Roman theater and sat wherever it pleased.
