Veleda
Veleda was a virginal holy woman of the Germanic tribe of the Bructeri who achieved some prominence during the Batavian rebellion of 69 - 70 CE that was headed by the Romanized Batavian chieftain Civilis, when she correctly predicted the initial successes of the rebels against Roman legions. When the Batavian leader Civilis captured the legionary base at Castra Vetera (near modern Xanten in Niederrhein, Germany), the commander of the Roman garrison, Munius Lupercus, was being sent to Veleda when he was killed en route. When the pretorian trireme was captured, it was rowed upriver as a gift to Veleda. The name may actually be a generic title for a prophetess. Tacitus (in Germania books iv and v) mentioned a previous seeress, whose name he translated as Aurinia. Veleda enjoyed wide influence over the tribe of the Bructeri and beyond, for the inhabitants of the Roman settlement at Cologne accepted her arbitration in a conflict with the Tencteri, an unfederated tribe in Germany. Later the Romans took her, perhaps as hostage, and perhaps kept her
at Ardea, south of Rome, for a Greek epigram found there satirizes her prophetic powers.
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