TheChattuarii, also spelledAttuarii, were aGermanic tribe who eventually became a part of theFranks.
They lived to the east of theRhine delta, north of theLippe, outside theRoman empire, but close. In the area which is now the border betweenGermany and theNetherlands. In the 4th century they were described asFranks tribe living at the Rhine itself in this area. Their name survived as the name of a FrankishGau (territory), (Latin:pagus), thepagus Hattuariensis orpagus Hetterun.
The Chattuarri are believed to have spoken aGermanic language, and their Germanic name has been reconstructed as*Chattwarijiz by Günter Neumann.Neumann 1981, p. 391
Modern scholars note that theChattuarii name transparently means something like "Chatti dwellers". The second element in the name is common among Germanic peoples, especially in this region, such asChasuarii “dwellers on the riverHase”,Ampsivarii "dwellers on the riverEms", and theAngrivarii. Scholars generally believe the name of the Chattuari can be interpreted as "inhabitants of the Chatti-lands", in parallel with the post-Roman names of the "Baiuvarii", which is typically interpreted as a name indicating that this people had once been inhabitants of the old homeland of theBoii, and the Boructuarii, who are believed to have been living where theBructeri once lived.[1]
Wagner and Rübekeil note that the name has a Germanic ending, and is always spelled with "-tt-", not "-tth-", unlike the name of the Chatti. They therefore propose that these were Germanic speaking newcomers to the region, probablySuebi, and without the same Celtic heritage.[2] Petrikovits sees this name as evidence that Chatti had also originally lived in a more northerly region, east of the Rhine delta.[3] He noted how Dio Cassius described how the Chatti, like their offshoots the Batavi, Cananefates and Mattiaci, were assigned land by the Romans shortly before they first appear in the historical records.[4]
According toVelleius Paterculus, in 4 AD, the emperorTiberius crossed the Rhine, first attacking a tribe which commentators interpret variously as theCananefates orChamavi, both being in the area of the modernNetherlands, then the Chattuari, and then theBructeri betweenEms andLippe, in what is now Germany, somewhere in the west ofWestphalia.[5]
In about 23 ADStrabo mentioned the Chattuari as one of the non-nomadic northern Germanic tribes in a group along with theCherusci, theChatti, and theGamabrivii. He also contrasted them with other non-nomadic tribes supposedly near the Ocean, the Sugambri, the "Chaubi", the Bructeri, and theCimbri, "and also theCauci, the Caülci, the Campsiani". Strabo listed them among the tribes who allied under theCherusci, and were made poor after being defeated byGermanicus. They apparently appeared at histriumph in 17 AD along with the Caülci, Campsani, Bructeri,Usipi, Cherusci, Chatti, Landi, andTubanti.
Gallienus reigned solo from 260 to 268 AD, and during this period the document known as theLaterculus Veronensis, which was made about 314 AD, notes that the Romans lost fivecivitates (cities, and the countries around them) on the other side of the Rhine. The three which are legible are those of theUsipii,Tubantes, and "Gallovari". The last are generally believed to be the Chattuarii.[6]
360 AD, the Chattuari appear again in the historical record again, living on the Rhine, and one of the first tribes to be known asFranks.Ammianus Marcellinus reports thatEmperor Julian, crossed the Rhine border from the Roman base atXanten and...
...entered the district belonging to a Frank tribe, called the Attuarii, men of a turbulent character, who at that very moment were licentiously plundering the districts of Gaul. He attacked them unexpectedly while they were apprehensive of no hostile measures, but were reposing in fancied security, relying on the ruggedness and difficulty of the roads which led into their country, and which no prince within their recollection had ever penetrated.[7]
Under theFranks, the name of the Chattuari was used for what became two early medievalgaus on either side of the Rhine, north of theRipuarian Franks, whose capital was inCologne. On the eastern side, they were near theRuhr river, and across the Rhine they settled near theNiers river, between the Maas and the Rhine, where the Romans had much earlier settled the GermanicCugerni. This western gau (Dutch:Hettergouw, German:Hattuarien) is mentioned in theTreaty of Meerssen, in the year 870 AD.[8]
Some of them were also settled in France aslaeti, lending their name to thepagus attuariorum (FrenchAtuyer, comprisingOscheret at that time) south ofLangres in the 3rd century.
The Chattuarii may also appear in the Old English poemBeowulf as "Hetwaras" where they appear to form a league together with the Hugas (who may be theChauci) and theFrisians to fight against a Geatish raiding force from what is now Sweden. TheGeats are defeated and their kingHygelac is killed. Beowulf the hero of the story is the only person to escape. According toWidsith, theHætwera had a ruler named Hun.[9]
