The Romans under Cerealis Defeat Claudius Civilis and the Batavians following betrayal from within

The penultimate episode in van Veen's 1606 Batavian cycle depicts the Roman counter-offensive led by Quintus Petillius Cerealis, who defeated Civilis in several engagements thanks partly to internal betrayal within the Batavian coalition. Tacitus records that some Germanic allies defected back to Rome as the military balance shifted, and it was this betrayal as much as Roman military superiority that ended the revolt. The emphasis on betrayal from within carries a melancholy moral for Dutch audiences who were navigating the complex politics of the Twelve Years' Truce: loyalty and treachery among allies was a live political concern. Van Veen does not celebrate the Roman victory — the panel's subject is framed as a defeat caused by treachery rather than legitimate Roman military virtue — implicitly sustaining sympathy for the Batavian cause even in its failure.

Panel with a battle composition that must communicate both military defeat and the narrative of internal betrayal as causal factor. The Roman advance is shown as disciplined and organized while Batavian forces show signs of disorder caused by defection. Individual figures at the edges may represent the betraying allies, their turned-away postures encoding treachery visually. The landscape opens behind the defeat to suggest the scale of the territorial reversal.