attempt to put together what has hitherto been brought to light on the subject from the fragments of the Roman annals or of the Roman strongholds. [Sidenote: Mogontiacum.] [Sidenote: Mattiaci.] On the right bank, not far from the northern end of the province, there stretches in front of the level or hilly country of the lower Rhine, in a direction from west to east, the range of the Taunus, which abuts on the Rhine opposite to Bingen. Parallel to this mountain-range, shut off on the other side by the spurs of the Odenwald, stretches the plain of the lower Main-valley, the true access to the interior of Germany, dominated by the key of the position at the point where the Main falls into the Rhine, Mogontiacum or Mentz, from the time of Drusus down to the end of Rome the stronghold out of which the Romans sallied to attack Germany from Gaul,[72] as it is at the present day the true barrier of Germany against France. Here the Romans, even after they had abandoned their rule in the region of the upper Rhine generally, retained not merely the _tête-de-pont_ on the other bank, the _castellum Mogontiacense_ (Castel), but also that plain of the Main itself in their possession; and in this region a Roman civilisation might establish itself. This land originally belonged to the Chatti, and a Chattan tribe, the Mattiaci, remained settled here even under Roman rule; but, after the Chatti were compelled to cede this district to Drusus, it remained a part of the empire. The hot springs in the immediate neighbourhood of Mentz (aquae Mattiacae, Wiesbaden) were used by the Romans demonstrably in Vespasian's time, and doubtless long before: silver was worked here under Claudius; the Mattiaci already furnished troops to the army at an early date like other subject districts. They took part in the general rising of the Germans under Civilis; but, after they were vanquished, the earlier relations were re-established. From the end of the second century we find the community of the Taunensian Mattiaci under authorities organised after the Roman model.[73] [Sidenote: Chatti.]