Matilo

Matilo or Matilone was once a Roman fort (castellum) in modern-day Leiden. Positioned on the southern banks of the Oude Rijn, it served to protect the Roman borders in the province of Germania inferior (Limes Germanicus). On the Peutinger map, it lies between the encampments of Albaniana (Alphen aan den Rijn) and Praetorium Agrippinae (Valkenburg). The seventh-century Ravenna Cosmography gives its name as Matellionem.

Matilo probably derives its name from a body of water near which it was situated, as is usually the case with Roman place-names ending in -on, -one, -an or -ane. This particular water body had most likely already received its name before Roman settlement along the Oude Rijn. It is therefore of Celtic or Germanic origin and its meaning remains unclear.

Due to lack of any evidence predating Roman finds, archaeologists usually conclude that the Romans were the first to settle in this particular location. Before their arrival, people mostly lived further from the river.

The first Romans arrived at the site in 47 AD as part of a larger operation to reinforce the Germanic limes. In order to increase the efficiency of supply chains and communication lines within his army, general Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo had a canal built (known as the Fossa Corbulonis, or Corbulo's Canal), connecting the Meuse and Rhine. Matilo was erected there, at the meeting place of the Oude Rijn and the newly dug canal, because of its strategic importance.

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