Mattium

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈmat.ti.ũː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈmat̪.t̪i.um]

Mattium n sg (genitive Mattiī or Mattī); second declension

1. a city on the Eder in Germania, capital of the Chatti. Further details are uncertain. Possibilities include:
   • c. 117 CE, Tacitus, Annales 1.56:

     Igitur Germanicus quattuor legiones, quinque auxiliarium milia et tumultuarias catervas Germanorum cis Rhenum colentium Caecinae tradit; totidem legiones, duplicem sociorum numerum ipse ducit, positoque castello super vestigia paterni praesidii in monte Tauno expeditum exercitum in Chattos rapit, L. Apronio ad munitiones viarum et fluminum relicto. nam (rarum illi caelo) siccitate et amnibus modicis inoffensum iter properaverat, imbresque et fluminum auctus regredienti metuebantur. sed Chattis adeo inprovisus advenit, ut quod imbecillum aetate ac sexu statim captum aut trucidatum sit. iuventus flumen Adranam nando tramiserat, Romanosque pontem coeptantis arcebant. dein tormentis sagittisque pulsi, temptatis frustra condicionibus pacis, cum quidam ad Germanicum perfugissent, reliqui omissis pagis vicisque in silvas disperguntur. Caesar incenso Mattio (id genti caput) aperta populatus vertit ad Rhenum, non auso hoste terga abeuntium lacessere, quod illi moris, quotiens astu magis quam per formidinem cessit. fuerat animus Cheruscis iuvare Chattos, sed exterruit Caecina huc illuc ferens arma; et Marsos congredi ausos prospero proelio cohibuit.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   1. Marburg (an university town, the district capital of Landkreis Marburg-Biedenkopf, State of Hesse, Germany)
   2. Maden (a village, a Stadtteil of Gudensberg, Schwalm-Eder-Kreis, State of Hesse, Germany)

Second-declension noun (neuter), with locative, singular only.

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

• “Mattĭum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “Mattium”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “MATTIUM”, in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly
• Mattĭum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette, page 955/1.
• Mattium in Georges, Karl Ernst, Georges, Heinrich (1913–1918) Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th edition, volume 2, Hahnsche Buchhandlung, column 831