From: dgkilday57
Message: 66162
Date: 2010-05-28
>The name Mettius goes well back into the Roman annalistic tradition. According to Livy, Mettius Fufetius the Alban king was torn in half by teams of horses as punishment for his vacillation, on the order of Tullus Hostilius. I cannot believe that Mettius has anything to do with *matt-. The place-name Mettis (now Metz) occurs in a 6th-century poem, late enough for /i/-umlaut of *Matti-(k)-, probably identical with Mattium. I have been trying to cobble together a posting on Mattium, Mattiacum, and Mettis/Metz for several months.
> Caesar's negotiators to Ariovistus were Gaius Valerius Troucillus,
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaius_Valerius_Troucillus
> who was a Helvian
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helvii
> and Marcus Mettius,
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Mettius
> whose ethnicity is unresolved.
> I think he might have been ChatticPace Kuhn, I think the -tt- in Chatti and Chattuarii can be explained by Kluge's Law, but the -tt- in Mattium comes from substrate. The fact that Mattium happened to be the capital of the Chatti is in this view a misleading historical coincidence. I will try to work this into my forthcoming detailed posting.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatti
> http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/55551
>
> cf.
> http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/56468
>
> Part of Kuhn's article at
> http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/46155
> I haven't got around to translating the article yet.