The Batavi and Traditional Japanese Swimming

[Robert]

As long as it still has a firm purchase, it will indeed just plow on across. It is only in the deepest parts, where the horse loses its footing, that the rider would have to slide off and be dragged next to the horse. The Rhenus at the time was a totaly different river to what it is today, meandering in a wide bedding as any lowland river does, often dividing in several different streams. The Romans have had to put in a dam (Moles) to guide more water into the Rhenus to allow for navigation. Plus the ships then only had a draft of 50 cm (the recently built freighter in Millingen a case in point) A horse can cope very well with a depth of over a meter without swimming (Moi's pictures are great, it shows them crossing water chest high!). So a ford would not really hinder navigation in most seasons, but would be passable for horses and carts and the odd peasant not minding getting wet.

I am looking forward to Jurjen's viewpoints, there are stretches of the old Rhenus left near Rijnwaarden :-)