CHATTI
Eth.
CHATTI or
CATTI (Eth.
Χάττοι, Eth.
Χάτται), one of the great tribes of Germany, which rose to great importance after the decay of the power of the Cherusci. Their name is still preserved in
Hessen (
Hassen). They were the chief tribe of the Hermiones (
Plin. Nat. 4.28), and are described by Caesar (
Caes. Gal. 4.19,
6.10) as belonging to the Suevi, although Tacitus (
Germ. 30, 31) clearly distinguishes them, and that justly, for no German tribe remained in its original locality more permanently than the Chatti. We first meet with their name in the campaigns of Drusus, when they acquired celebrity by their wars against the Romans, and against the Cheruscans who were their mortal enemies. (Tac.
Germ. 36,
Ann. 1.55, 12.27, 28;
D. C. 54.33,
36,
55.1,
67.4,
5;
Tac. Hist. 4.37,
Agr. 39, 41;
Flor. 4.12;
Liv. Epit. 140; Suet.
Domit. 6; Frontin.
Strat. 1.1; Plin.
Paneg. 20.) The Romans gained, indeed, many advantages over them, and under Germanicus even destroyed Mattium, their capital (
Tac. Ann. 1.56), but never succeeded in reducing them to permanent submission.
In the time of the war against the Marcomannians, they made predatory incursions into Upper Germany and Rhaetia (Capitol.
M. Anton. 8).
The last time they are mentioned is towards the end of the fourth century. (Greg. Tur. 2.9; Claud.
Bell. Get. 419.)
After this they disappear among the Franks. Their original habitations appear to have extended from the
Westerwald in the west to the
Saale in
Franconia, and from the river
Main in the south as far as the sources of the Elison and the
Weser, so that they occupied exactly the modern country of
Hessen, including, perhaps, a portion of the northwest of
Bavaria. Ptolemy (
2.11.22) places them more eastward, perhaps in consequence of their victories over the Cheruscans. The Batavi are said to have been a branch of the Chatti, who emigrated into Gaul. Some have supposed that the Cenni (
Κέννοι), with whom the Romans were at war under Caracalla, were no others than the Chatti (
D. C. 77.14); but this is more than doubtful. (Comp. Zeuss,
Die Deutschen u. die Nachbarstämme, p. 327, foll.; Wilhelm,
German. p. 181, foll.; Latham,
Tac. Germ. p. 105, foil.)
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