- Chapter Thirty-One -
because it yields evidence of peaceful Roman occupation and interchange in the years
before and during Drusus's campaigns. There was an important Roman supply base
at Rodgen, and at Bad Nauheim, just 2.5 km away across the valley, the extensive La
Tene settlement around the saline springs not only continued to be occupied
throughout and beyond the period when Rodgen was in use, but had access to
Roman coins and artefacts, probably obtained by trade.
The La Tene settlement at Bad Nauheim was, however, abandoned later in the
Augustan period, probably before Germanicus fortified the strong defensive position
at Friedberg which blocks the route south out of the Wetterau, by which time
'German' finds have entered the area, and in this area and to the north of it at the
time of Germanicus's campaigns in AD 14-16 we find the Chatti, whose very name
is absent from Caesar's account.^25 The main settlement of the Mattiaci may originally
have been on the Altenburg at Niedenstein, where the culture can be described as
'impoverished La Tene'.26 It suits all the evidence if we assume that in the distur-
bances that followed the Varian Disaster, when Rome lost three legions, her prestige,
and the territory and bases between the Rhine and the Elbe, the Celtic or celticized
Mattiaci, peaceful allies of Rome, were attacked and driven southwards by the Chatti,
hostile 'northerners', 'Germans' in the later sense of the term. The Cherusci are
another tribe of 'northerners' with the initial Ch-characteristic of the way in which
the Romans spelled that typical Germanic sound.^27 It is notable that they too, though
prominent in Germanicus's campaigns, appear only once in Caesar, as remoter
neighbours of the Suebi.^28 The evidence for a massive shift of population since
Caesar's day seems unmistakable, even if we disregard the archaeological evidence.
Apart from the Mattiaci, other Celtic or celticized tribes on the right bank of the
middle Rhine before the Romans came probably included the Usipetes, Tencteri and
Ubii. The first two, like the Treveri, and quite unlike the Suebi, were notable for their
cavalry, and the name of the Usipetes in Celtic actually means 'good horsemen' or
'well-horsed', cognate with the Greek eu and hippos, and though Caesar specifically
describes them as 'German', we might wonder in what sense the term is used. The
Ubii were notable farmers, and Caesar's account makes it clear that all three tribes
are by choice settled agriculturalists, and none migrates except under pressure from
the Suebi, who are themselves in a state of perpetual migration.^29 The Ubii moreover
are 'accustomed to Gaulish manners' and have oppida which are refuges in time of
danger, whereas the Suebi abandon their settlements when attacked to take refuge in
the forests.3o Harassed by the Suebi, the Usipetes and Tencteri tried to cross over to
the left bank in 55 BC, but Caesar drove them off and they took refuge with the
Sugambri, their right-bank neighbours. The Ubii put themselves under Caesar's
protection, but some time between Caesar's departure from Gaul and Marcus
Agrippa's arrival as governor in 39/38, they successfully crossed the river and
Agrippa confirmed them in the lands on which they had settled around the site of
what was to become Cologne (Oppidum Ubiorum, later Colonia Claudia Ara
Agrippinensium).31 The Usipetes and the Sugambri were still on the right bank when
Drusus's campaigns started in 12 BC, but four years later the Sugambri were forcibly
resettled on the left bank, and sometime between that date and AD 9, a cult of
Augustus was established at Cologne with a Cheruscan priest.^32 This stretch of the
right bank of the Rhine also belongs firmly to the La nne world.^33
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