The civitas capital of the Batavians was Ulpia Noviomagus Batavorum (Nijmegen), and it was the third most important city in Germania Inferior. In Nijmegen a castra was built around 19 BC as part of the Augustan offensive in northern Germany. It was probably abandoned on the death of Drusus in 9 BC, but a new fortress, with a more irregular layout, was built on its eastern side. This new fortress stood until the Batavian revolt of 69/70 AD. A small civilian settlement in the area to the west, in the present center of Nijmegen, was the oppidum Bavatorum, dated between ~15 BC and AD 69/70.
After the Batavian Revolt of 69-70 AD, a stone fortress was built on the earlier site of the castra and occupied by the Legio X Gemina from 70-103/104. A new Roman town, later upgraded to municipium Ulpia Noviomagus Bavorum by emperor Traianus (or Trajan), was built 1.5 kilometers (about 1 mile) west of the destroyed civilian settlement. It included baths, two Romano-Celtic temples and a town wall, encompassing an area of 35-45 hectares (~85-110 acres). The cemetery for the Roman town contained about 12,500 burials, suggesting a population of around 5,000.
