Editing Chatti

{{short description|Ancient Germanic tribe}}
{{About|the ancient Germanic tribe|the village in Pakistan|Chathi|the ancient Egyptian office sometimes transcribed as "chatti"|Vizier (Ancient Egypt)}}
[[File:1st century Germani.png|thumb|350px|The approximate positions of some [[Germanic peoples]] reported by Graeco-Roman authors in the first century.]]
The '''Chatti''' (also '''Chatthi''' or '''Catti''') were an ancient [[Germanic peoples|Germanic tribe]]<ref name="Ford">
{{cite book |last1=Ford |first1=Simon Samuel |date=2018 |chapter=Chatti |chapter-url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198662778.001.0001/acref-9780198662778-e-992? |editor1-last=Nicholson |editor1-first=Oliver |title=The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=9780191744457 |access-date=January 26, 2020 |quote=Chatti. Germanic *tribe who lived in modern Hesse (west central Germany). }}</ref><ref name="Thompson">{{cite book |last1=Thompson |first1=Edward Arthur |author-link1=Edward Arthur Thompson |last2=Drinkwater |first2=John Frederick |author-link2=John Frederick Drinkwater |date=2012 |chapter=Chatti |chapter-url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199545568.001.0001/acref-9780199545568-e-1533? |editor1-last=Hornblower |editor1-first=Simon |editor1-link=Simon Hornblower |editor2-last=Spawforth |editor2-first=Antony |editor3-last=Eidinow |editor3-first=Esther |editor3-link=Esther Eidinow |title=[[The Oxford Classical Dictionary]] |edition=4 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=9780191735257 |access-date=January 26, 2020 |quote=Chatti, a Germanic people, who lived in the neighbourhood of the upper Weser and the Diemel. }}
</ref> whose homeland was near the upper [[Weser]] (''Visurgis'') river.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Chatti|title=Chatti &#124; people|website=Encyclopedia Britannica}}</ref><ref name="WaldmanMason2006">{{cite book|author1=Carl Waldman|author2=Catherine Mason|title=Encyclopedia of European Peoples|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kfv6HKXErqAC&pg=PA170|year=2006|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=978-1-4381-2918-1|pages=170–}}</ref> They lived in central and northern [[Hesse]] and southern [[Lower Saxony]], along the upper reaches of that river and in the valleys and mountains of the [[Eder (Fulda)|Eder]] and [[Fulda]] regions, a district approximately corresponding to [[Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel|Hesse-Kassel]], though probably somewhat more extensive. They settled within the region in the first century BC. According to [[Tacitus]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://classics.mit.edu/Tacitus/histories.4.iv.html|title=The Internet Classics Archive &#124; The Histories by Tacitus|website=classics.mit.edu}}</ref> the [[Batavians]] and [[Cananefates]] of his time, tribes living within the [[Roman Empire]], were descended from part of the Chatti, who left their homeland after an internal quarrel drove them out, to take up new lands at the mouth of the [[Rhine river|Rhine]].

==Sources==
While [[Julius Caesar]] (100–44 BC) was well informed about the regions and tribes on the eastern banks of the Rhine, he never mentioned the Chatti by name. In the same large geographical region he clearly named the [[Suebi]] as the residents in his time, suggesting that they had recently driven out [[Celt]]s, and were in his time still threatening the regions around them.<ref name="Prichard1841">{{cite book|author=James Cowles Prichard|title=Researches Into the Physical History of Mankind: Researches into the ethnography of Europe|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qL86AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA352|access-date=17 November 2012|year=1841|publisher=Sherwood, Gilbert, and Piper|pages=352–}}</ref> Strabo (64/63 BC – c. 24 AD), however, mentioned both the Suevi, who he describes as a considerable nation made up of many tribes, and the Chatti, who he described as one of the smaller Germanic tribes, and did not list among the Suevi.<ref>Strabo 7.1 https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0239:book=7:chapter=1&highlight=chatti</ref>

A century later, [[Pliny the Elder]], in his ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]'' (written 77–79 <small>AD</small>) distinguished the Chatti and Suebi but grouped them together with the [[Hermunduri]] and the [[Cherusci]], calling this group the [[Hermiones]], which is a nation of Germanic tribes also mentioned by Tacitus as living in inland Germany.<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0137:book=4:chapter=28&highlight=chatti Plin. Nat. 4.28]</ref> Some commentators believe that Caesar's Suebi were therefore possibly the same as the later Chatti, a branch of the Suebian movement of people who had become more clearly identifiable.<ref>{{citation|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0062:entry=catti-harpers&highlight=chatti| last= Peck| title=Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities |year=1898 }}</ref> If not, then the Chatti may represent a survival of an older tribal name, as opposed to the [[Tencteri]], [[Usipetes]], and [[Ubii]] who were all were forced from homelands in the same region by the Suebic incursions.

The first ancient writer to mention the Chatti is Velleius Paterculus. He mentioned them in 6 AD in his book 2, 109 (5): “Sentius Saturninus received the order to march with his legions through the area of the Chatti to Boiohaemum, which is the name of the area occupied by Maroboduus, cutting a passage through the Hercynian forest which bounded the region."

The second ancient writer to mention the Chatti is [[Strabo]], some time after 16 <small>AD</small>, who includes the Chatti in a listing of conquered Germanic tribes who were more settled and agricultural, but also poorer, than the nomadic tribes in central and eastern Germania such as the Suebi. They were poor because they had fought the Romans, and had been defeated and plundered.<ref>Strabo, 7.1.3–4.</ref> In his second book of ''[[Epigrams]]'', [[Martial]] credited the emperor [[Domitian]] (51–96 <small>AD</small>) as having overcome the Chatti:

{|
|[https://la.wikisource.org/wiki/Epigrammaton_liber_II#IIǀ Martial: ''Epigrams.'' Book ll, No. 2]
|-
|<poem>
  "Creta dedit magnum, maius dedit Africa nomen,
    Scipio quod uictor quodque Metellus habet;
  nobilius domito tribuit Germania Rheno,
    et puer hoc dignus nomine, Caesar, eras.
  frater Idumaeos meruit cum patre triumphos,
    quae datur ex Chattis laurea, tota tua est.
</poem>
|<poem>
  "Crete gave a great name, Africa a greater one:
    Scipio the victor has one, and Metellus has the other.
  Germany granted a nobler name when the Rhine had been subdued,
    and even as a boy, Caesar, you were worthy of this name.
  Your brother earned Idumaean triumphs together with your father,
    but the laurel given for the Chatti is totally yours."
</poem>
|}

For the first century <small>AD</small>, [[Tacitus]] provides important information about the Chatti's part in the Germanic wars and certain elements of their culture. He says that:<blockquote>[The Chatti's] settlements begin at the [[Hercynian forest]], where the country is not so open and marshy as in the other cantons into which Germany stretches. They are found where there are hills, and with them grow less frequent, for the Hercynian forest keeps close till it has seen the last of its native Chatti. Hardy frames, close-knit limbs, fierce countenances, and a peculiarly vigorous courage, mark the tribe. For Germans, they have much intelligence and sagacity; they promote their picked men to power, and obey those whom they promote; they keep their ranks, note their opportunities, check their impulses, portion out the day, intrench themselves by night, regard fortune as a doubtful, valour as an unfailing, resource; and what is most unusual, and only given to systematic discipline, they rely more on the general than on the army. Their whole strength is in their infantry, which, in addition to its arms, is laden with iron tools and provisions. Other tribes you see going to battle, the Chatti to a campaign. Seldom do they engage in mere raids and casual encounters. It is indeed the peculiarity of a cavalry force quickly to win and as quickly to yield a victory. Fleetness and timidity go together; deliberateness is more akin to steady courage.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0083:chapter=30|title=Cornelius Tacitus, Germany and its Tribes, chapter 30|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref></blockquote>

Tacitus also notes that like other Germanic tribes, the Chatti took an interest in traditions concerning haircuts and beards.<blockquote>A practice, rare among the other German tribes, and simply characteristic of individual prowess, has become general among the Chatti, of letting the hair and beard grow as soon as they have attained manhood, and not till they have slain a foe laying aside that peculiar aspect which devotes and pledges them to valour. Over the spoiled and bleeding enemy they show their faces once more; then, and not till then, proclaiming that they have discharged the obligations of their birth, and proved themselves worthy of their country and of their parents. The coward and the unwarlike remain unshorn. The bravest of them also wear an iron ring (which otherwise is a mark of disgrace among the people) until they have released themselves by the slaughter of a foe. Most of the Chatti delight in these fashions. Even hoary-headed men are distinguished by them, and are thus conspicuous alike to enemies and to fellow-countrymen. To begin the battle always rests with them; they form the first line, an unusual spectacle. Nor even in peace do they assume a more civilised aspect. They have no home or land or occupation; they are supported by whomsoever they visit, as lavish of the property of others as they are regardless of their own, till at length the feebleness of age makes them unequal to so stern a valour.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0083:chapter=31|title=Cornelius Tacitus, Germany and its Tribes, chapter 31|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref></blockquote>

Between the Rhine and the Chatti, Tacitus places the [[Tencteres]] and [[Usipetes]], who apparently had been moved since the time of Caesar into the old homeland of the [[Ubii]], who had in turn settled in [[Cologne]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0083:chapter=32|title=Cornelius Tacitus, Germany and its Tribes, chapter 32|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref> (Caesar had described these three tribes as under pressure from Suebi to their east, and attempting to move across the Rhine.) To the south, Tacitus also says that the Chatti's land is beyond the questionable lands, the so-called [[tithe]] lands, or [[agri decumates]], that adventurers from the Roman sides of the Rhine and Danube had been trying to settle.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0083:chapter=29|title=Cornelius Tacitus, Germany and its Tribes, chapter 29|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref> It is possible that at first the Chatti moved into place on the Rhine, in the old territory of the Ubii. [[Cassius Dio]] describes [[Nero Claudius Drusus|Drusus]] establishing a fort in Chatti territory on the Rhine in 11 <small>BC</small>, and that in 10 <small>BC</small> they moved out of an area where the Romans had permitted them.<ref name=palaeo>{{citation|journal=Palaeohistoria|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6HCeJU_7SFwC |volume=51/52| year=2010| title=De <sup>14</sup>C-chronologie van de Nederlandse Pre- en Protohistorie VI: Romeinse tijd en Merovingische periode, deel A: historische bronnen en chronologische schema's|last1=Lanting |last2=van der Plicht| page=52|isbn = 9789077922736}}</ref>

To the north of the Chatti, Tacitus places the large area of the [[Chauci]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0083:chapter=35|title=Cornelius Tacitus, Germany and its Tribes, chapter 35|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref> To the east, the neighbours of the Chatti and Chauci were the [[Cherusci]], who Tacitus describes as excessively peace-loving in his time.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0083:chapter=36|title=Cornelius Tacitus, Germany and its Tribes, chapter 36|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref> (Caesar had described the Suevi, not the Chatti, as living between the Ubii on the Rhine and a forest called the Bacenis, which separated them from the Cherusci. This is why Caesar's Suevi are sometimes thought to be Chatti.)

The Chatti successfully resisted incorporation into the [[Roman Empire]], joining the [[Cherusci|Cheruscan]] war leader [[Arminius]]' coalition of tribes that annihilated [[Publius Quinctilius Varus|Varus]]' legions in 9 AD in the [[Battle of the Teutoburg Forest]]. [[Germanicus]] later, in 15,<ref>Tacitus, The Annals [[s:The Annals (Tacitus)/Book 1#55|1.55]]</ref> raided their lands in revenge, but Rome eventually responded to the Chatti's belligerent defense of their independence by building the [[Limes (Roman Empire)|limes]] border fortifications along the southern boundary of their lands in central Hesse during the early years of the first century. A major raid by the Chatti into [[Germania Superior]] was defeated decisively by the legions in 50 AD.<ref>Tacitus, The Annals [[s:The Annals (Tacitus)/Book 12#27|12.27]]</ref> In 58 AD the Chatti were [[Battle between the Hermunduri and the Chatti|defeated]] by the Hermunduri in a border dispute over a religiously significant river.

Roman sources identify the fabled [[Mattium]], beyond the Eder, as the capital of the Chatti.  Destroyed by Germanicus, its location is not known today, but generally is assumed to be in the wider neighbourhood of [[Fritzlar]] north of the river [[Eder (Fulda)|Eder]].<ref name="rga">Armin Becker: ''Mattium''. In: ''Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde'' (RGA). 2. edition, volume 19, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin – New York 2001, p. 443–444. ({{Google books|d1URMz8B36oC|restricted online copy|page=443}}) (German)</ref>

The Chatti were opponents of the emperor [[Domitian]] in 84 CE, and were allies of [[Lucius Antonius Saturninus]] in his revolt of 89 CE.<ref>{{cite book | last = Jones | first = Brian W. | title = The Emperor Domitian | publisher = Routledge | year = 1992 | location = London | isbn = 978-0-415-10195-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LxeIAgAAQBAJ}}</ref>

They appear again during the build up to the [[Marcomannic wars]], first attacking southwards towards [[Germania superior]] and [[Raitia]] in what is now southern Germany, in 162, and then while the bigger battles were being fought they were repulsed together with the [[Hermunduri]] from the Rhine by [[Didius Julianus]] in 175.

After the early third century <small>AD</small>, however, the Chatti virtually disappear from the sources and are only called upon as a topical element or when writing about events of the first century. [[Cassius Dio]] is most likely not only the first author to mention the [[Alamanni]] but also the last one to record a historical appearance of the Chatti. Writing about the Germanic war of [[Caracalla]] in 213 <small>AD</small>, he has the emperor fight "''Κέννους, Kελτικòν ἔθνος''" ("the Kenni, a Celtic people").<ref>[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/78*.html Cassius Dio, 78.14.1f]; [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0385.tlg001.perseus-grc1:78.14.1 Greek].</ref> This is taken from an excerpt of Dio in the writings of [[John Xiphilinus (historian)|Joannes Xiphilinus]], however, whereas the [[Fragmenta Valesiana]] refer to the same people as "Chattoi".<ref>Fragmenta Valesiana 377.</ref> The usage of "Kελτικός" for Germanic peoples was an archaic tradition among Greek writers.

After Cassius Dio, the name "Chattus" appears among others in a [[panegyric]] by [[Sidonius Apollinaris]] in the late fifth century, now as a poetic synonym for "Germanus".<ref>Sidonius, Carmina 7.388ff. In this poem honouring [[Avitus]], the "Chatt"<!--"Chatti" ?--> is restricted by the swampy water of the river [[Elbe]]. Cf. [[Ludwig Rübekeil]], ''Diachrone Studien zur Kontaktzone zwischen Kelten und Germanen'', ÖAW, Vienna 2002, pp. 45f.</ref> The last ancient source to mention the Chatti, if only in a quotation of [[Sulpicius Alexander]] describing events of the late fourth century, was [[Gregory of Tours]].<ref>Gregorius Turonenesis, [[Historia Francorum]], 2.9.55.</ref>

Allegedly the Chatti were associated with the legendary "First King of the Franks". The story is told of the election of the first Frankish king.<ref>''Liber Historiæ Francorum'' 4–5, MGH Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum II, ed. B. Krusch, Hanover, 1888, pp. 245–246</ref> The much later ''Liber Historiæ Francorum'' says that after the death of [[Sunno]], his brother [[Marcomer]], leader of the [[Ampsivarii]] and Chatti, proposed to the Franks that they should have one single king, contrary to their tradition. The ''Liber'' adds that [[Pharamond]], named as Marcomer's son, was chosen as this first king (thus beginning the tradition of long-haired kings of the Franks), and then states that when he died, his son [[Chlodio]] [428 AD] was raised up as the next king. The work says no more of him.

The Chatti eventually may in any case have become a branch of the much larger neighboring [[Franks]] and their region was incorporated in the kingdom of [[Clovis I]], probably with the [[Ripuarian Franks|Ripuarians]], at the beginning of the sixth century.

The Chatti name is apparently preserved in the medieval and modern name of [[Hesse]] in Germany, which is a name that already appears early. In 723 for example, the Anglo-Saxon missionary [[Winfrid]]—subsequently called [[St. Boniface]], Apostle of the Germans—proselytizing among the Hessians (Hessorum), felled their sacred tree, [[Thor's Oak]], near [[Fritzlar]], as part of his efforts to convert them and other Germanic tribes to Christianity.

==19th Century usage==

At the [[Congress of Vienna]] the [[Elector of Hesse]], restored with the fall of [[Napoleon]], unsuccessfully attempted to get recognized as "King of the Chatti" - though by then the Chatti had long since ceased to exist as a distinct ethnic group <ref name="satow1932">{{cite book |last1=Satow |first1=Ernest Mason |title=A Guide to Diplomatic Practice |url=https://archive.org/details/guidetodiplomati00satouoft |date=1932 |publisher=Longmans |location=London}}</ref>

==Chasuarii and Chattuarii==
Two tribes in northern Germany have names that are sometimes compared to the Chatti. The [[Chattuarii]], whose name appears to mean that they are dwellers upon the Chatti lands, or else Chatti people, lived near the Rhine, probably between [[IJssel]] and [[Lippe]]. They came to be seen as [[Franks]] and apparently moved over the Rhine as a Frankish people, to settle into the corner of land between the Rhine and Maas rivers.<ref name=palaeo/>

The name of the Chattuarii is in turn, sometimes compared to another people called the [[Chasuarii]] mentioned by several classical authors. The Chasuarii were a Germanic tribe mentioned by [[Tacitus]] in the ''[[Germania (book)|Germania]]''. According to him, they dwelt to the north of the [[Chamavi]] and [[Angrivarii]], who dwelt in turn to the north of the Bructeri, between Ems and Weser, however the name of the Chasuarii most often is interpreted to mean "dwellers on the [[Hase]] [river]", a tributary to the [[Ems (river)|Ems]]. The second century geographer [[Claudius Ptolemy]] mentions that the Kasouarioi lived to the east of the Abnoba mountains, in the vicinity of [[Hesse]], but this account of northern Europe is thought to contain confusions derived from using different sources.<ref>{{citation|last=Schütte|title=Ptolemy's Maps of Northern Europe|year=1917| page=119|publisher=Kjøbenhavn, H. Hagerup|url=https://archive.org/stream/ptolemysmapsofno00schrich#page/118/mode/2up/search/angles}}</ref>

== Places named after the Chatti ==
* [[Hesse]]: probably derived from "Chatti" through the [[High German consonant shift]]s.<ref>[http://www.travelgermanyinenglish.com/hessehistoryintro.html A Brief Introduction to the History of Hesse (Hessen)] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717093356/http://www.travelgermanyinenglish.com/hessehistoryintro.html |date=July 17, 2011 }}</ref><ref>[http://www.historyfiles.co.uk/KingListsEurope/GermanyHesse.htm The History Files: Hesse]</ref>
* [[Kassel]]: derived from the ancient ''Castellum Cattorum'', a castle of the Chatti<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kessler |first=P. L. |title=Kingdoms of Germany - Hesse |url=https://www.historyfiles.co.uk/KingListsEurope/GermanyHesse.htm |access-date=2024-05-06 |website=The History Files |language=en}}</ref>
* [[Katwijk]]: from Chatti and Dutch ''wijk'', "village/settlement"{{cn|date=August 2022}}
* [[Katzenelnbogen]]: historians speculated that the name derives from *''Cattimelibocus'', a combination of two words: the Chatti and ''[[Melibokus]]'', from ''Μηλίβοκον'' (Mēlíbokon), the name of a mountain range in [[Ptolemy]]'s ''[[Geography (Ptolemy)|Geography]]'' which has been (probably incorrectly) identified with the [[Melibokus|Malchen]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://susi.e-technik.uni-ulm.de:8080/Meyers2/seite/werk/meyers/band/9/seite/0623/meyers_b9_s0623.html |title=Meyers Konversationslexikon 1888, Vol. 9, Page 623 |access-date=2017-09-17 |archive-date=2007-06-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070612065022/http://susi.e-technik.uni-ulm.de:8080/Meyers2/seite/werk/meyers/band/9/seite/0623/meyers_b9_s0623.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url= http://susi.e-technik.uni-ulm.de:8080/Meyers2/seite/werk/meyers/band/11/seite/0449/meyers_b11_s0449.html | title= Meyers Konversationslexikon 1888, Vol. 11, Page 449 | access-date= 2017-09-17 | archive-date= 2007-06-11 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070611183949/http://susi.e-technik.uni-ulm.de:8080/Meyers2/seite/werk/meyers/band/11/seite/0449/meyers_b11_s0449.html | url-status= dead }}</ref> 
* [[Mont des Cats]]{{cn|date=August 2022}}

==In popular culture==
* ''[[The Light Bearer]]'' (1994), a historical novel by Donna Gillespie.
* ''[[Mark of the Lion Series]]'' (1993), a series of historical fiction novels by Francine Rivers.
* ''[[Barbarians (2020 TV series)|Barbarians]]'' (2020), one of the tribes that unites against the Romans prior to the [[Battle of the Teutoburg Forest]].

==See also==
*[[Adgandestrius]]
*[[Mattiaci]]
*[[Batavi (Germanic tribe)|Batavi]]
* In [[geology]], the [[Chattian]] Age of the [[Oligocene]] Epoch is named after the Chatti
*[[List of Germanic peoples]]
* [[Woman of the Chatti]]

==Notes==
{{reflist}}
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Chatti}}

==External links==
* {{Cite NIE|wstitle=Catti|short=x}}

{{Germanic peoples}}

[[Category:Chatti| ]]
[[Category:Early Germanic peoples]]
[[Category:Irminones]]
[[Category:Chattian| ]]