This name first appears on a milestone discovered in Kastel in 1896. However, Pliny the Elder's Naturalis historia, published around 77, already mentions the hot Mattiac springs ("Sunt et Mattiaci in Germania fontes calidi trans Rhenum").

Incidentally, the poet Martial wrote two epigrams around 85/86 about the use of the ochre-colored sinter from these springs in the form of "Mattiac balls" to dye "the grey hair of old age" - instead of pulling it out or shaving his head, as was customary at the time.