Vidrus

The Vidrus fluvius, Greek Ouidros potamos, is a river of Ptolemy's Geographia (2.10) located in greater Germany. Its exact location is not known for certain, but it must be in the lowlands.

Ptolemy places the mouth of the Vidrus next to the mouth of the Rhine. Next in order follows a port, Marnamanis, and then the mouth of the Amisius, or Ems. The next river in that direction is the Visurgis, which has to be the Weser River. Based on the similarity of the name, some have identified the Vidrus with the Weser. The evidence, however, is all to the contrary. The two words are probably not related.

By mouth of the Rhine, Ptolemy probably meant the mouth of the IJssel, which flows from the Rhine near Arnhem. The Romans knew it as the Flevus. It did not originally connect to the Rhine, but the Romans themselves joined the two with a canal. This waterway gave them an outlet to the IJsselmeer, formerly the Zuider Zee, which the Romans called Flevus Lacus. They maintained a fleet on it.

That the Vidrus was between the Rhine and the Ems is indicated by a touching story in Book I of the Annals of Tacitus. In 9 AD the Romans had lost 3 legions in the Teutoburg Forest at what is now Bramsche east of the Ems. The commander, Publius Quinctilius Varus, was lured into the swamps by his friend and former ally of Rome, Arminius (Hermann). Not having a place to stand, and caught by surprise, the Romans were massacred.

Six years later, Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus, as consul, was conducting further operations against the Germans with the commander of the army of lower Rhine, Aulus Caecina. Augustus was gone and Tiberius, Germanicus' brother, was emperor. Deciding to forestall a new Germanic conspiracy, Germanicus sent Caecina to the Ems from further up the Rhine, through the country of the Bructeri, which Caecina devastated. Germanicus embarked more troops and sailed from Flevus up the Ems to join forces.

While on the Ems they decided visit the site of the famous battle, the first Roman forces to do so. They found the scene just as Arminius had left it, with the bones of thousands of men piled around and in their former camp. In an emotional scene they buried the remains in a mass grave, on which Germanicus himself placed the first clod. They were prevented from further operations by Arminius, who was dogging them with a new army. Not being able to fight in the swamp, Germanicus sent Caecina back through it to repair the causeway. He embarked the rest of the troops. Caecina was ambushed by Arminius in the swamp but this time the Romans were victorious.

While in the IJsselmeer, Germanicus found the water too shallow for the heavily laden troop ships, so he disembarked many of them to walk back to the Flevus along the beach. A storm came up and inundated the entire region through which they were passing. Many drowned. The next day the land was exposed again and they came to the Vidrus River. The only river that fits this story is the Vecht. Most scholars (including Smith, Van der Aa, Bruijnesteijn and Anthon) equate Vecht and Vidrus.

There is a sort of partial confirmation in the map and commentary of Ortelius, which was published in a number of editions, 1570 on. In the commentary on the map of Friesland, he points out that the Zuider Zee was not there in ancient times, but was created by a storm subsequently, perhaps of the sort that drowned Germanicus' men. Their route along the then beach along with the harbor of Marnamanis must be under the waves, unless we are to dig for them under the polders.

Ortelius says that the Vidrus was the old name for the Regge, a tributary of the Vecht. However, Germanicus' men could not have walked the beach to the Regge. Vidrus must have applied to the whole river.

Etymologically Vidrus is close to Indo-European *wod-or, which becomes Germanic *watar by Grimm's Law. The d stays on for Germanic *wed-, becoming wet, and there is an –sk- form as well, *wat-skan, "to wash", which might account for the Vecht form. A derivation from "water" is consistent with Ortelius' statement that parts of Holland were called "Waterland."

References

• Sir William Smith (1851). A New Classical Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography, Mythology and Geography. Harper & brothers. p. 935. 
• Abraham Jacob van der Aa (1839). Aardrijkskundig woordenboek der Nederlanden. J. Noorduyn. p. 675. 
• W. Bruijnesteijn van Coppenraet (May 1998). "Delahaye en Ptolemæus". In Albert Delahaye. Bulletin 4. http://www.brucop.com/millennium/nederlands/ptolemeus/. 
• Schoo, J. (1931). "Welke Hollandsche zeegaten zijn door Ptolemaeus met de namen Vidrus en Mararmanis aangeduid?". Koninklijk Nederlands Aardrijkskundig Genootschap (Amsterdam) XLVIII: 7. 
• Karl Müller. "Apparatus and Notes to Ptolemy, Book II, Chapter 10: Germania Magna". http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Periods/Roman/_Texts/Ptolemy/2/10/Mueller*.htm.