Mattiaci

The Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography suggests that the name is derived from a combination of 'matte', meaning 'a meadow', and 'ach' (pronounced with the 'ch' as in 'loch'), signifying water or a bath.

[1] The Mattiaci were settled on border of the Roman Empire on the right side of the Rhine in the area of present-day Wiesbaden (Aquae Mattiacorum), the southern Taunus, and the Wetterau.

Free from all impositions and payments, and only set apart for the purposes of fighting, they are reserved wholly for the wars, in the same manner as a magazine of weapons and armour.

Thus the Mattiacians, living upon the opposite banks, enjoy a settlement and limits of their own; yet in spirit and inclination are attached to us: in other things resembling the Batavians, save that as they still breathe their original air, still possess their primitive soil, they are thence inspired with superior vigour and keenness.

[4] In the late 1st century AD, Valerius Martialis mentions a kind of soap that was named for the Mattiaci and may have been a local product: Sapo: Si mutare paras longaevos cana capillos, Accipe Mattiacas - quo tibi calva?

Rhine frontier of the Roman empire, 70 AD, showing the location of the Mattiaci in Germania Magna near the Rhine. Roman territory is shaded dark