¹ The literature is vast and controversial: see nn. 2–5, 7–10, below. Recent standard accounts proceeding from a Carolingian perspective and available in English are Ganshof, F. L., Frankish Institutions under Charlemagne, trans. Bryce, and Lyon, Mary (New York 1970) 32–33, and Perroy, Edouard, ‘Carolingian Administration,’ in Early Medieval Society, ed. Thrupp, Sylvia L. (New York 1967) 142–43; both ignore the claims of modern German scholarship. A sound earlier and more detailed account of Carolingian institutions is Cam, Helen M., Local Government in Francia and England (Cambridge 1912) 26–31.Google Scholar

² The most comprehensive review of the older literature is Dannenbauer, Heinrich, ‘Hundertschaft, Centena und Huntari’ (see n. 5 below) 155–61. Cf. Gudian, G., ‘Centena,’ Handwörterbuch zur deutschen Rechtsgeschichte 1, edd. Erler, Adalbert et al. (Berlin 1971) cols. 603–606. Google Scholar

In Tacitus the centeni comites were a group of legal assessors attending the principes: ‘eliguntur in isdem conciliis et principes qui iura per pagos vicosque reddunt; centeni singulis ex plebe comites consilium simul et auctoritas adsunt’ (De Origine et situ Germanorum , ed. Anderson, J. G. C. [Oxford 1938] c. 12). The centeni pedites were select infantry assisting the cavalry: ‘in universum aestimanti plus penes peditem roboris; eoque mixti proeliantur, apta et congruente ad equestrem pugnam velocitate peditum quos ex omni iuventute delectos ante aciem locant. Definitur et numerus: centeni ex singulis pagis sunt, idque ipsum inter suos vocantur et quod primo numerus fuit iam nomen et honor est’ (ibid. c. 6). Anderson (pp. lviii–lxi) discusses the role of these passages in traditional interpretations of the hundred; and cf. Dannenbauer, , ‘Hundertschaft’ 162. The centeni comites still have an important place in modern attempts to explain the police institutions of the Merovingian kingdom: see below, pp. 75–76. For a recent interpretation of the centeni comites and pedites as equivalent to the retinue (comitatus) of the Germania c. 13, see Kristensen, Anne K. G., Tacitus' germanische Gefolgschaft (Copenhagen 1983); and cf. my review in Scandinavian Studies 57 no. 2 (1985) 194–95.Google Scholar

³ The old views still appear in Bloch, Marc, Feudal Society, trans. Manyon, A. L. (London 1961; orig. French ed. 1939–40) 363; Sayles, G. O., The Medieval Foundations of England (New York 1961; 1st ed. 1948) 183; and even more recently, Morris, John, The Age of Arthur: A History of the British Isles from 350–650 (New York 1973) 491–95.Google Scholar

⁴ Fustel de Coulanges, N.-D., La Monarchic franque, 2nd ed. (Histoire des Institutions Politique de l'Ancienne France; Paris 1905) 224–29.Google Scholar

⁵ The fundamental works for the early Middle Ages are: Dannenbauer, Heinrich, ‘Adel, Burg und Herrschaft bei den Germanen,’ Historisches Jahrbuch 61 (1941), repr. and expanded in Herrschaft und Staat im Mittelalter (Wege der Forschung 2; Darmstadt 1956) 60–134; ‘Hundertschaft, Centena und Huntari,’ Historisches Jahrbuch 62–69 (1949) 155–219; and ‘Die Freien im karolingischen Heer,’ in Verfassungs- und Landesgeschichte. Festschrift Theodor Mayer (Lindau 1954) 1.49–65. Also Mayer, Theodor, articles in part repr. in his Mittelalterliche Studien (Lindau 1959); and Schlesinger, Walter, Die Entstehung der Landesherrschaft (1941; but cf. preface to repr., Darmstadt 1964) and ‘Herrschaft und Gefolgschaft in der germanisch-deutschen Verfassungsgeschichte,’ Historische Zeitschrift 176 (1953) 225–75, trans. in part as ‘Lord and Follower in Germanic Institutional History,’ in Lordship and Community in Medieval Europe , ed. Cheyette, F. L. (New York 1968) 64–99. The literature is briefly surveyed by Kroeschell, Karl, Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte (Reinbek 1972) 1.104–106. For a significant critique, see Schultze, H. K., ‘Rodungsfreiheit und Königsfreiheit,’ Historische Zeitschrift 219 (1974) 529–50 and Die Grafschaftsverfassung der Karolingerzeit in den Gebieten östlich des Rheins (Schriften zur Verfassungsgeschichte 19; Berlin 1973); see also, among other works, Schmitt, Johannes, Untersuchungen zu den Liberi Homines der Karolingerzeit (Frankfurt 1977). The most recent discussion seems to be Schneider, Reinhard, Das Frankenreich (Oldenburg Grundriss der Geschichte 5; Munich 1982) 126–33. An English-language summary of the new history is given by Kristensen, Anne K. G., ‘Danelaw Institutions and Danish Society in the Viking Age,’ Mediaeval Scandinavia 8 (1975) 33–42.Google Scholar

⁶ This perception affected interpretations not just of the centenarius and centena but also of the count and county: see Schultze, , Grafschaftsverfassung, esp. pp. 1–32.Google Scholar

⁷ Dannenbauer, Heinrich, ‘Hundertschaft, Centena und Huntari’ (above n. 5); Mayer, Theodor, ‘Staat und Hundertschaft in fränkischer Zeit,’ in his Mittelalterliche Studien 98–138.Google Scholar

⁸ Ewig, Eugen, ‘Das Fortleben römischer Institutionen in Gallien und Germanien,’ X. Congresso Internazionale di Scienze Storice, Relazioni 6 (Florence 1955); repr. in Spätantikes und fränkisches Gallien. Gesammelte Schriften (Munich 1976) 1.412–13. The basic work on the domesticus is still Carlot, Armand, Étude sur le domesticus franc (Bibliothèque de la Faculté de Philosophic et Lettres 13; Paris 1903). His conclusions are largely sound but a re-examination of the domesticus' late Roman precedents is needed, as is consideration of the Merovingian evidence in light of recent constitutional theories, distinguishing genuine and spurious charters.Google Scholar

⁹ E.g., Bosl, Karl, ‘Hundertschaft,’ Sachwörterbuch zur deutschen Geschichte, edd. Rössler, Helmuth and Franz, Günther (Munich 1958) 443–44; Ewig, Eugen in Handbuch der europäischen Geschichte , ed. Schieffer, Theodor (Stuttgart 1976) 1.421, 426. Schneider, Reinhard, Das Frankenreich 45–46; and see Krug, (n. 10 below). Cf. also Beyerle, Franz, ‘Das legislative Werk Chilperichs I.,’ Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte, Germanistische Abt. 78 (1961) 30–31; this has come to be cited as proof of Neustrian military colonization, but all it offers are questionable interpretations of laws from Lex Salica. In English, the new teaching on the centena appears in Wallace-Hadrill, J. M., The Long-Haired Kings (London 1962) 193 n. 1 and Bachrach, B., Merovingian Military Organization (Minneapolis 1972) 32–33; some reservation seems to be expressed in the glossary of The Settlement of Disputes in Early Medieval Europe , edd. Davies, Wendy and Fouracre, Paul (Cambridge 1986), where the centena is described as ‘possibly derived from the organization of the Roman fisc’ French scholarship, like most English, seems to ignore the question (cf. n. 1 above).Google Scholar

¹⁰ Krug, H. J., ‘Untersuchungen zum Amt des “centenarius”–Schultheiss,’ Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte, Germanistische Abt. 87 (1970) 10, accepting fiscality; and cf. Schultze, , Grafschaftsverfassung 326 denying it.Google Scholar

¹¹ Jones, A. H. M., The Later Roman Empire 284–602 (Oxford 1964) 8, 530, 584. On the procuratores of the early Empire see von Domazewski, A., Die Rangordnung des römischen Heeres, 2nd ed. by Dobson, Brian (Cologne 1967) pp. xxxvi–lv: 141–71. Those interested in the military centenarius have not been well served by the term's appearance in this great handbook only in a financial context. But cf. Pauly–Wissowa, , RE 3.2 s.v. Google Scholar

¹² The literature on the centurionate of the Principate is large and on some issues contentious: see Dobson–Domazewski, , Die Rangordnung des römischen Heeres 80–112. On the army of the Principate in general see Watson, G. R., The Roman Soldier (London 1969) and Webster, Graham, The Roman Imperial Army (London 1969). Classification of the centurionate in modern terms is a case of neither fish nor fowl, since the usual English-language twofold category of non-commissioned and commissioned officers inadequately expresses the distinctiveness of the centurion's position. Jones (LRE 634) groups it with the NCO ranks, a practice I have followed, but other scholars prefer to emphasize its officer character. The centurion's military importance does transcend the modern understanding of the NCO, and the centurionate might be filled by equestrians through direct commission. On the other hand, it largely remained a plebeian post, filled mainly from the ranks, usually, though not always, marking the end of a successful career and not a stepping stone to command. In the high Empire it still needs to be distinguished from the commissioned ranks of the senatorial and equestrian cursus, and in the late Empire from the products of the imperial staff (protectores) and the unit and regimental commands of tribunes and prefects. On the protectores, see Jones, , LRE 53–54, 129–30, 636–40; Frank, R. I., Scholae Palatinae: The Palace Guards of the Later Roman Empire, Papers and Monographs of the American Academy in Rome 23 (Rome 1969); and Babut, E.-C., ‘Recherches sur la Garde Imperiale et sur le corps d'officiers de l'armée Romaine au iv et v siècles,’ Revue historique 114 (1913) 225–60; 116 (1914) 225–93. Babut's view that the old centurions were all promoted to the protectorate in the late Empire is mistaken.Google Scholar

¹³ Numerus could be applied to varous kinds of unit though it has become a scholarly term for small ethnic or barbarian regiments of the Principate: see Speidel, M., Roman Army Studies (Amsterdam 1984) 117–31.Google Scholar

¹⁴ The standard works on the late army are Grosse, R., Römische Militärgeschichte von Gallienus bis zum Beginn der byzantinischen Themenverfassung (Berlin 1920); Maspero, J., Organisation militaire de l'Egypte byzantine (Paris 1921); van Berchem, D., L'armée de Diocletian et la réforme constantinienne (Paris 1952); Jones, , LRE 607–86; and Hoffmann, D., Das spätrömische Bewegungsheer und die Notitia Dignitatum = Epigraphische Studien 7.1 & 2 (1969). See also works by Babut and Frank (n. 12).Google Scholar

¹⁵ Jerome, , Contra Joannem Hierosolymitanum 19, PL 23.386–87. The other evidence for the various ranks is considered by Grosse, , Römische Militärgeschichte 112–24, and Jones LRE 1263.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Renatus, Flavius Vegetius, Epitoma rei militaris, ed. Lang, C. (1885; repr. Stuttgart 1967). The precise date is controversial, the termini being 383–450. The case for the reign of Valentinian III, first made by Seeck, O., ‘Die Zeit des Vegetius,’ Hermes 2 (1876) 61–83, has recently fallen on hard times; but now see Goffart, Walter, ‘The Date and Purpose of Vegetius’ De re militari,' Traditio 33 (1977) 65–100, which is also a striking antidote to the modern tendency to disparage the work as inane antiquarianism.Google Scholar

¹⁷ ‘Item primus hastatus duas centurias, id est CC homines, ducebat in acie secunda, quem nunc ducenarium uocant…. Erant etiam centuriones qui singulas centurias curabant; qui nunc centenarii nominantur’ (2.7). And cf. 2.13: ‘centuriones … qui nunc centenarii uocantur.’ Google Scholar

¹⁸ Speidel, M., Roman Army Studies 716.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Jones, , LRE 634, 1263–64.Google Scholar

²⁰ RE 3.2, s.vv. ‘ad Centuriones.’ Cf. Grosse, , Militärgeschichte 117.Google Scholar

²¹ On the centenaria, see van Berchem, , L'Armée de Dioclétian et la réforme constantinienne 46–48. In what sense do these forts consist of, or pertain to, ‘one-hundred’? A ballista centenaria throwing shot of a hundred weight (Lewis and Short, s.v. centenarius, with other examples) should remind us of the possibly wide application of the term.Google Scholar

²² Jones, , LRE 674–75.Google Scholar

²³ For centurio see Lex Alamannorum 27.4 (and cf. centenarius in c. 36), in Leges Alamannorum, ed. Lehmann, K., 2nd ed. Eckhardt, K. A., MGH LL 5/1; Lex Baiwariorum 2.5, ed. Ernst von Schwind, MGH LL 5/2. And in the Merovingian kingdom, the so-called treatise on offices: centurio 'sub qui C' or ‘qui super centum est’ (Beyerle, Franz, ‘Das frühmittelalterliche Schulheft vom Ämterwesen,’ Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte, Germanistische Abt. 69 [1952] 6); for literature, Schlosser, H., ‘Ämtertraktat,’ Handwörterbuch zur deutschen Rechtsgeschichte 1.154–55.Google Scholar

²⁴ See Mason, Hugh J., Greek Terms for Roman Institutions (American Studies in Papyrology 13; Toronto 1974) s. vv. And cf. Liddel, H. G. and Scott, R., A Greek–English Lexicon (9th ed.; Oxford 1940) s.vv.; Lot, Ferdinand, L'Art militaire et les armées au moyen âge (Paris 1946) 45.Google Scholar

²⁵ The one hundred is notional because centuries rarely, if ever, amounted to one hundred men; even in the Principate sixty- to eighty-odd appears to be standard. Troops of cavalry, in which the new ranking system was widespread, were even smaller. Jerome's imaginary unit (n. 15, above) is of cavalry.Google Scholar

²⁶ For the ranks discussed here, see Grosse, , Militärgeschichte 107–91; Jones, , LRE 608–10, 633–46. The great central military office of magister militum makes no appearance in the Frankish kingdom; the term in the Angers formulae, if accurate, refers to a municipal officer, possibly the commander of militia or of the iuvenes (Formulae Merowingici et Karolini aevi , ed. Zeumer, K., MGH LL, Formulae, p. 4). The place of magister in the Frankish hierarchy seems to be taken by patricius, an honorific created by Constantine and eventually applied in the West to the supreme commander; see Jones, , LRE 106, 176, 262 and cf. below, n. 83.Google Scholar

²⁷ Vegetius 3.10. For protectores see n. 12, above.Google Scholar

²⁸ Merovingian officeholding has frequently been surveyed in the older literature, sometimes with quite divergent conclusions: cf., e.g., de Coulanges, Fustel, La Monarchic franque 183–242, and Brunner, Heinrich and von Schwerin, Cl. Frhr., Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte (2nd ed.; Systematisches Handbuch der deutschen Rechtswissenschaft 2.1; Leipzig, 1928) 2.201–69 (henceforth DRG). More recently see Ewig, , ‘Das Fortleben römischer Institutionen,’ 409–13, who generally stresses Roman continuity; and see below, n. 30.Google Scholar

²⁹ Grosse, , Militärgeschichte 153–61, and see below p. 85.Google Scholar

³⁰ Continuity in the Merovingian ducal and comital offices has recently been the subject of debate: see Sprandel, Rolf, ‘Dux und Comes in der Merowingerzeit,’ Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte, Germanistische Abt. 74 (1957) 41–84; ‘Bemerkungen zum frühfränkischen Comitat,’ ibid. 82 (1965) 288–91; and Claude, Dietrich, ‘Untersuchungen zum frühfränkischen Comitat,’ ibid. 81 (1964) 1–79; ‘Zu Fragen frühfränkischer Verfassungsgeschichte,’ ibid. 83 (1966) 273–80. Aspects of the problem of the count are dealt with in my ‘The Position of the Grafio in the Constitutional History of Merovingian Gaul,’ Speculum 64/4 (1986) 787–805.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

³¹ The Merovingian sources are discussed by Fustel, , Monarchic franque 222–24 and Brunner–v. Schwerin, , DRG 2.241–44, with much the same results. For the association of tribunes with cities in the East, see Grosse, , Militärgeschichte 148.Google Scholar

³² ‘Hic requies data Hloderici membra sepu[l]crum / qui capus [= caput] in nomero vicarii nomine sum[p]sit. / Fuit in pupulo gratus et in suo genere pr[i]mus. / Cui uxor nobilis pro amore tetolum fie[ri] iussit.’ Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum XIII, 1/2 (Berlin 1904) no. 3683, p. 596. On the date, see Ewig, Eugen, Trier im Merowingerreich (Trier 1954) 80 n. 103.Google Scholar

³³ Krug, , ‘Untersuchungen zum Amt des “centenarius”–Schultheiss,’ 6–7.Google Scholar

³⁴ On military vicars see Jones, , LRE 675, 1279, with sources; Vegetius, 3.4, 3.6 (but cf. 2.4, 2.7, 3.7); and Mauricius, , Strategikon ed. Mihaescu, H. (Bucharest 1970) 12.8.8.Google Scholar

³⁵ Novellae 117.11, edd. Schoell, R. and Kroll, G. (Berlin 1895); and Jones, , LRE 675, 1279. Ewig, , Trier 80, sees the vicar of the Frankish inscription as a deputy count; this is possible.Google Scholar

³⁶ Vita Corbiniani 1.10, edd. Krusch, Bruno and Levison, Wilhelm, MGH SRM 6; the tribune and centenarii command a troop charged with executing a brigand. Cf. Schwerin, Brunner–v., DRG 2.242–43. For security functions see below, pp. 75, 90. Lex Visigothorum 9.2, ed. Zeumer, K., MGH LL 1; Lex Baiwariorum 2.5.Google Scholar

³⁷ Notitia Dignitatum, ed. Seeck, O. (Berlin 1876) 216–19.Google Scholar

³⁸ Gregory of Tours, Opera, edd. Krusch, Bruno et al., MGH SRM 1, 2 vols. (Hanover 1937–51, 1885); for references to the officials, see Weidemann, Margarete, Kulturgeschichte der Merowingerzeit nach den Werken Gregors von Tours 1 (Mainz 1982) 24–106. Fortunatus, , Opera poetica , ed. Leo, Friedrich, MGH AA 4/2 (Munich 1881). Fortunatus was for a time at the courts of Sigibert I of Austrasia and Charibert I and Chilperic I of Neustria. He mentions the great posts of dux, rector, maior domus, domesticus, comes, referendarius, and lesser positions such as those of tribunus and defensor, all of which have Roman military and civil antecedents. For Fortunatus' life, see Brennan, Brian, ‘The Career of Venantius Fortunatus,’ Traditio 41 (1985) 49–78. The Roman-based system of the treatise on offices is very difficult to date: see n. 23.Google Scholar

³⁹ For some of the problems with grafio and thunginus of Lex Salica, see my ‘Position of the Grafio,’ 787–805. The other distinctive officials mentioned in Lex Salca are sagibarones; they invite comparison with the pueri regis ‘qui multam per pagos exigunt’ of Lex Burgundionum 49.4, 76, ed. von Salis, L. R., MGH LL 2/1; see Brunner–v. Schwerin, , DRG 2.207.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Krug, , ‘Untersuchungen zum Amt des centenarius,’ 5.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Texts below, nn. 56, 61.Google Scholar

⁴² Steinbach, Franz, ‘Hundertschar, Centena und Zentgericht,’ Rheinische Vierteljahrsblätter 15/16 (1950/1951) 121–38; repr. in Collectanea Franz Steinbach (Bonn 1967) 707–21.Google Scholar

⁴³ Grahn-Hoek, Heike, Die fränkische Oberschicht im 6. Jahrhundert: Studien zu ihrer rechtlichen und politischen Stellung (Vorträge und Forschungen / Konstanzer Arbeitskreis für mittelalterliche Geschichte, Sonderbd. 21; Sigmaringen 1976) 276–99. She thinks the centenarius replaced the thunginus of Lex Salica as the leader of the trustis. This view owes a lot to the dubious interpretation of the thunginus as a king by Wenskus, R., ‘Bemerkungen zum thunginus in der Lex Salica,’ in Festschrift P. E. Schramm (Wiesbaden 1964) 217–36; on which see my ‘Position of the Grafio,’ 795.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Wallace-Hadrill, J. M., The Long-Haired Kings 192–93. Goebel, Julius, Felony and Misdemeanor: A Study in the History of English Criminal Procedure (New York 1937) 66–73. These views presuppose that feud, compensation, and kin groups were the starting point of primitive Germanic criminal law.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ For the contrast between the so-called ‘Germanic’ restitutive model based on compensation and the Roman, afflictive, state law model in European history, see the otherwise excellent Lenman, Bruce and Parker, Geoffrey, ‘The State, the Community and the Criminal Law in Early Modern Europe,’ in Crime and the Law, ed. Gattrell, V. A. C. (London 1980) 11–48; and cf. in the same volume, Lamer, Christina, ‘Crimen Exceptum? The Crime of Witchcraft in Europe,’ 68. In view of the secondary literature, their conclusion is not surprising, but the distinction is false. Compensation is as Roman as it is Germanic; see Levy, Ernst, Weströmisches Vulgarrecht: Das Obligationenrecht (Forschungen zum römischen Recht 7; Weimar 1956) 301–50.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ For Roman police measures in general see MacMullen, Ramsay, Soldier and Civilian in the Later Roman Empire (Cambridge, Mass. 1963) 50–65 and 132–40, and Enemies of the Roman Order (Cambridge, Mass. 1966) 255–68; Mommsen, Theodor, Römisches Strafrecht (Leipzig 1899) 305–22; Hirschfeld, Otto, Kleine Schriften (Berlin 1913) 576–623; and n. 53, below. And see Jones, , LRE 725–26, 1298; and for stationarii, 521 and 1219.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ In general, see Rostovtzeff, M., The Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire (2nd ed.; Oxford 1957) 1.380–91. The old standard work for Egypt, where the evidence is richest, is Oertel, F., Die Liturgie: Studien zur Ptolemäischen und Kaiserlichen Verwaltung Ägyptens (Leipzig 1917), but now also see Lewis, Naphtali, The Compulsory Public Services of Roman Egypt (Papyrologica Florentina 11; Florence 1982). Classification and origins are briefly discussed by David Thomas, J., ‘Compulsory Public Services in Roman Egypt,’ Das römisch-byzantinische Ägypten (Aegyptica Treverensia 2, edd. Grimm, G., Heinen, H., and Winter, E.; Mainz 1983) 35–39.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Macmullen, , Soldier and Civilian 51; Robert, L., Études anatoliennes: Recherches sur les inscriptions grecques de l'Asie Mineure (Amsterdam 1970) 96; Rostovtzeff, M., The Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire 2.739.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ MacMullen, , Soldier and Civilian 134; Jones, , LRE 725. Western conditions are discussed by MacMullen 134–38 and an attempt made to link some rather difficult epigraphic evidence to peacekeeping; the main candidates for police recruitment are the guilds and especially the iuvenes. But again the best example of the latter is in the East: see Robert, , Études 106–108.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ In addition to works in n. 46 above, see the inventory in Lewis, Naphtali, The Compulsory Public Services of Roman Egypt, s.v. φvλa a/φvλaξ, with cross references to numerous compounds; see also aχφoδo, εβ/εβváχβ/εaχo, λστoπaστ, vτoστáτηγo πá o and Oertel, , Die Liturgie 263–86. For Antioch, see Liebeschuetz, J. H. W. G., Antioch: City and Imperial Administration in the Later Roman Empire (Oxford 1972) 124–25; for Asia Minor, Robert, Etudes 96–110, 323, 339–40; and see n. 53 below.Google Scholar

⁵¹ Codex Theodosianus (henceforth CT) 12.14.1, a. 409, ed. Theodor Mommsen (Berlin 1905): ‘Irenarcharum vocabula, quae assimulata provincialium tutela quietis ac pacis per singula territoria haud sinunt stare concordiam, radicitus amputanda sunt. Cesset igitur genus perniciosum rei publicam; cesset rescriptorum irenarchas circiter inconvulsa simplicitas, et celsitudinis tuae sedes provinciarum defendenda suscipiat pacis huiusmodi, locupletioribus commissura, praesidia.’ = Codex Justinianus 10.77, ed. Krueger, Paul (Berlin 1915): ‘Irenarchae, qui ad provinciarum tutelam quietis ac pacis per singula territoria faciunt stare concordiam, a decurionibus iudicio praesidum provinciarum idonei nominentur.’ Irenarchs are mentioned in CT 11.24.6.7, a. 415; 10.1.17, a. 420; 8.7.21, a. 426. CT 12.14.1 did not intend to privatize peacekeeping, as has been claimed (Lecrivain, C., ‘Études sur le Bas-Empire,’ Mélanges d'archéologie et d'histoire de l'École française de Rome 10 [1890] 269–70, and cf. MacMullen, , Soldier and Civilian 133, 138), but to recruit wealthier liturgists under imperial supervision. Abuses by local police are noted by Robert, , Études 104; the son of a village irenarch is named in one of the petitions of complaint in the Abinnaeus archive (no. 48), below n. 65. Minor police officials like irenarchs might exercise rudimentary judicial functions. This no doubt accounts for mention in West Roman sources of an assertor pacis — a rough linguistic equivalent of the eastern irenarch — among the mediocres iudices of the Visigothic kingdom (interpretatio to CT 2.1.8; in the mid-seventh-century Lex Visigothorum 2.1.15, the post is a royal appointment).Google Scholar

⁵² MacMullen, , Soldier and Civilian 52–54; Mommsen, , Strafrecht 312.Google Scholar

⁵³ Rostovtzeff, M., ‘Die Domänenpolizei in dem römischen Kaiserreiche,’ Philologus 64 (1905) 297–307.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ Rouillard, Germaine, L'Administration civile de l'Égypte byzantine (2nd ed.; Paris 1928) 167, 190.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ The text, which is in some disarray, can best be seen in Hessels, J. H., Lex Salica: The Ten Texts with Glosses and the Lex Emendata (London 1880) 415–19. There are critical editions by Boretius, A., Capitularia regum Francorum, MGH Capitularia 1.3–7; and Eckhardt, K. A., Pactus Legis Salicae 11.2: Kapitulieren und 70 Titel-Text (Germanenrechte, n.f.; Göttingen 1956) 394–408 (henceforth GR). The GR text, without apparatus, appears in Eckhardt's Pactus Legis Salicae, MGH LL 4/1.250–52. MS numeration and paragraphing can be ignored. The text as found in n. 56 below is based on Boretius and Eckhardt and corresponds to Boretius cc. 9, 16–18, and Eckhardt cc. 84, 91–93.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ ‘[Decree of King Clothar.] Decretum est ut qui ad vigilias constitutas nocturnas fures non caperent eo quod per diversa intercedente conludio, scelera sua praetermissa, custodias exercerent, centenas fierent. In cuius centena aliquid perierit, capitale qui eum perdiderit recipiat. Et latro insequatur uel, si in alterius centena appareat, deduxerit et ad hoc admonitus, si neglexerit, quinos solidos condemnetur. Capitale, tamen, qui perdiderat a centena illa accipiat absque dubio, hoc est de secunda vel tertia. Si vestigius conprobatur latronis tamen praesentia aut longe multandus. Et si persequens latronem suum comprehenderit, integram sibi conpositionem recipiat. Quod si per truste inuenitur, medietatem conpositionis trustis adquirat et capitalem exigat ad latronem…. [Joint Statement] Pro tenore pacis iubemus et in truste electi centenarii ponantur per quorum fidem atque sollicitudinem pax praedicta obseruetur. Et quia, propiciante Deo, inter nos germanitatis caritas indisruptum uinculum custoditur, centenarii inter communes prouintias licentiam habeant latrones persequere uel uestigia adsignata minare, et in truste qua defecerit, sicut dictum est, causa remaneat, ita ut continuo capitalem ei, qui perdiderit, reformare festinet, ita tamen ut latronem perquirat. Quem si in truste per(in)uenerit, medietatem sibi uindicet, uel dilatura, si fuerit, de facultate latronis ei qui damnum pertulit sarciatur. Nam si persequens latronem coeperit, integram sibi conpositionem simul et solutionem, uel quicquid dispendii fuerit, reuocabit; fredus, tamen, iudici in cuius prouintia est latro reseruetur. Si quis ad uestigium uel latronem persequendum admonitus uenire noluerit, v solidos iudice condemnetur. Et quae in Dei nomine pro pacis tenore constituimus, in perpetuum uolumus custodire, hoc statuentes, ut si quis ex iudicibus hunc decretum uiolare praesumpserit, uitae periculum se subiacere cognoscat.’ For dispendium = dilatura cf. Brunner–v. Schwerin, DRG 2.809–12.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ ‘Decretum est … centenas fierent’ = ‘iubemus ut in truste electi centenarii ponantur.’ Google Scholar

⁵⁸ ‘et ad hoc admonitus, si neglexerit, quintos solidos condemnetur’ = ‘Si quis ad vestigium uel latronem persequendum admonitus uenire noluerit, V solidos iudice condemnetur.’ And cf. Decretio Childeberti II 3 § 2 (below n. 61).Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Cf.: ‘Capitale … a centena illa accipiat’ and ‘in truste … causa remaneat, ita ut continuo capitalem ei qui perdiderit reformare festinet.’ Cf also n. 57, and ‘centenarii … licentiam habere latrones persequere … et in truste … causa remaneat.’ Google Scholar

⁶⁰ Cf. ‘Si vestigius conprobatur’ and ‘vestigia adsignata.’ Google Scholar

⁶¹ There are editions of the Decretio by Boretius, , Capitularia, pp. 15–17 and Eckhardt in the GR series, pp. 440–49 = MGH, pp. 267–69 (see n. 55, above), and Lex Salica, MGH LL 4/2.174–89. The following is based on the GR text: ‘3 § 2: Si quis centenarium aut cuilibet iudice noluerit ad malefactorem persequando adiuuare, LX solidos omnis modis condempnetur…. § 4. Similiter conuenit, ut si furtus fuerit, capitalem de praesenti centena restituat, et causa centenariu(s) cum centena requirat, eorum usibus proficiscat. § 5. Pari conditione conuenit, ut si centena, posita in uestigio, in alia centena aut quos fidelium nostrorum ipsum uestigium miserit, et eum in alia centena minime expellere potuerit, aut conuinctum reddat latronem aut capitalem de praesenti restituat et XII personas se ex hoc sacramentis exuat innocentem.’ Se in § 5 is from ms A 17. The variant of ‘centena … miserit’ §5 in the E redaction ('si una centena in alia centena uestigium secuta fuerit et inuenerit uel in quibuscumque fidelium nostrorum terminos uestigium miserit') is not of independent value but is an attempt to resolve the present text.Google Scholar

⁶² Variae 8.33, ed. Mommsen, Theodor, MGH AA 12.Google Scholar

⁶³ Rostovtzeff, , Social and Economic History 488, 745; Hirschfeld, , Kleine Schriften 614; Oertel, , Liturgie 270.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ Goebel's argument (Felony and Misdemeanor 67 n. 5) that pax in the Pactus means international, not domestic peace, derives from his apparent need to deny the old Germanist ‘peace theory.’ The term in fact is part of the Roman vocabulary of public order (cf., e.g., in n. 51 above, tutela quietis ac pacis, and the etymology of irenarch).Google Scholar

⁶⁵ The Abinnaeus Archive: Papers of a Roman Officer in the Reign of Constantius I I, edd. Bell, H. I., Martin, V., Turner, E. G., van Berchem, D. (Oxford 1962) nos. 45, 47.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ Rostovtzeff, , Social and Economic History 488, 745.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Pactus legis Salicae, MGH LL 4/1 (henceforth LS) c. 102.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ Trustis: ‘Si quis truste dum uestigio minant detenere aut battere praesumpserit …’ (LS 94). Trustis dominica: LS 41.5, 42.1 & 2, 63.1 & 2; trustis regis: Lex Ribuaria 11.1, edd. Beyerle, Franz and Buchner, Rudolf, MGH LL 3/2.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ Cf. Eckhardt's ‘Glossar’ s.v. ‘Gefolgschaft’; and Schwerin, Brunner–v., DRG 2.134–36, who accept a connection with protectores, an institution believed by them to be influenced by the Germanic comitatus; and cf. Niermeyer s.v. 3.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ On trustis the old work by Deloche, Maximin, La Trustis et l'antrustion royal sous les deux premières race (Paris 1873), still has value and surveys early scholarship. Modern scholars are agreed the word is a Latinized Frankish term, in OHG trost, meaning auxilium, solatium. Kern, Fritz, ‘Notes on the Frankish Words in Lex Salica,’ in Hessels, , Lex Salica, § 215 cols. 527–28; Eckhart, Uwe, Untersuchungen zu Form und Funktion der Treueidleistung im merowingischen Frankenreich (Marburg 1976) 36. The late gloss adjutorium for trustis in Lex Ribuaria (MGH LL [folio series] 5.277) is correct. A rather one-sided account of the word is given by Green, D. H., The Carolingian Lord (Cambridge 1965) 126–40, 191–96.Google Scholar

⁷¹ Gregory of Tours describes the troops leading Merovech into exile at the command of his father as a small solacium (Historiae 5.14); and Gundovald's troops investing Comminges as a large solacium (Historiae 7.34): neither context fits the meaning ‘retinue’ in the institutional sense of modern historiography or the local police troops of the Pactus pro tenore pacis. Google Scholar

⁷² II § 2: ‘… ille iudex collectum solacium ipsum raptorem occidat.’ On solacium = trustis see also Boretius, , Capitularia p. 16 n. 8. Centena is used in another set of provisions issued the same year by Childebert for the troop under the command of the centenarius (n. 61, above).Google Scholar

⁷³ ‘Agentes igitur episcoporum aut potentum per potestatem nullius res, collecta solacia, nec auferant nec cuiuscumque contemptum per se facere praesumant.’ Boretius, , Capitularia, c 20, p. 23; cf. p. 16 n. 8.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ Rouillard, , L'Administration civile de l'Égypte byzantine 52, 164 n. 10, 165 nn. 3, 6.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ Kern, , ‘Notes on the Frankish Words in Lex Salica,’ col. 528.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ CT 8.4.3; 10.20.1; 12.1.5: perfectissimatus vel ducenae vel centenae vel egregiatus dignitas. The sequence of military ranks was used in the agentes in rebus, where centena means office or rank: ‘ad ducenam etiam et centenam et biarchiam nemo suffragio sed per laborem unusquisque perveniat’ (CT 1.9.1 a. 359 = CJ 1.29.1).Google Scholar

⁷⁷ The meanings of comitatus with examples are outlined by Niermeyer, s.v.; for discussion see Fustel, , La Monarchie 200–201.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ It would be translated: ‘We have decreed this with regard to fiscal slaves (or estates) as well as those of all private lords.’ The statement is a complete sentence and is not grammatically connected to the passage of the joint statement beginning ‘Pro tenore pacis iubemus’ (see n. 56 above). Boretius, , Capitularia p. 7 reads domibus; Eckhardt, GR p. 404 (with apparatus) = MGH p. 252 reads dominorum. On Boretius' earlier view, see Eckhardt, GR p. 404 and Hessels, , Lex Salica p. 418. For discussion of the textual problems and arguments rejecting its association with the joint statement, see Grahn-Hoek, , Die fränkische Oberschicht im 6. Jahrhundert 289–1.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ Dannenbauer did not follow Boretius' edition; without comment about the variety of text forms, he gave the following version: ‘De fiscalibus vel omnium domos censuimus pro tenore pacis (ut) in truste electi centenarii ponantur’ and quoted the rubric ‘ut fiscales in trustem eant.’ Both text and rubric come from Hessels, cod. 3 (= Eckhardt A 3; Boretius, cod. 4) and belong clearly to a late reworking undertaken to rationalize the disturbed transition between the clauses on fugitive slaves and the joint statement; ut is supplied by Dannenbauer from other mss. Eckhardt prints the peculiarities of cod. 3 as secondary additions in the GR edition and as apparatus in the MGH; Boretius, even though he accepted the connection between the De fiscalibus text and the joint statement, rightly consigned cod. 3 to the apparatus.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ CT 2.1.11 = LRV 2.1.11; interpretatio: ‘Si quis in domibus dominicis criminosus potuerit inveniri, provinciae iudex praesentiam non expectet actoris sed mox reum comprehensum, ne aliquo colludio effugiat, subdi iubeat publicae disciplinae’; and CT 1.11.2.Google Scholar

⁸¹ For the immunity of fiscal officials from municipal liturgies: CT 10.4.2 = LRV 10.3.2. For Cassiodorus, above, p. 84 and n. 62.Google Scholar

⁸² Formulae Merowingici et Karolini aevi 241–5.Google Scholar

⁸³ Lex Ribuaria 50.1: ‘Si quis testis ad mallo ante centenario vel comite seu ante duce, patricio vel regi necesse habuerit ut donent testimonium….’ For the Decretio Childeberti see n. 61: the ambiguity of aut also permits an interpretation separating centenarii from iudices. For the Lex Salica texts, see below n. 87. The centena as a judicial unit and the centenarius as a judge also appear in Lex Alamannorum 36, dated 722–30.Google Scholar

⁸⁴ See also Bosl, , ‘Hundertschaft’ 443.Google Scholar

⁸⁵ Much of Mayer's argument is based on the silence of Merovingian texts, a hazardous expedient given the paucity and distribution of charter and formulae evidence. References to centenarii in Lex Ribvaria and Lex Alamannorum are also explained as Carolingian interpolations. Early centenae, he suggests, refer to police, not judicial districts.Google Scholar

⁸⁶ For a survey of the text classes, with literature, see Schmidt-Wiegand, Ruth, ‘Lex Salica,’ Handwörterbuch zur deutschen Rechtsgeschichte 2 cols. 1949–2.Google Scholar

⁸⁷ LS 44, 46, 54 (only thunginus), 60 (centenarius only in C redaction).Google Scholar

⁸⁸ Mommsen, , Strafrecht 313–5; MacMullen, , Soldier and Civilian 54, 59, 62; and esp. Campbell, J. B., The Emperor and the Roman Army 31 B.C.–A.D. 235 (Oxford 1984) 256–57, 262–63, 431–35.Google Scholar

⁸⁹ Juvenal (16.7–34) gives an imaginary example in which a centurion, appointed index, hears a case brought by a civilian against a soldier in the military camp with other soldiers as his consilium. A real example from a first-century Egyptian papyrus in which a centurion is appointed to adjudicate the disputed inheritance of a deceased soldier is printed in Fontes Iuris Romani Antejustiniani, ed. Ariangio-Ruiz, V. (Florence 1943) 3.190–91. Cf. Cambell, , The Emperor and the Roman Army 256, 431.Google Scholar

⁹⁰ For iudices pedanei see CT 1.16.8; 11.31.3; 13.4.4 (a grant of immunity from petty judges), CJ 3.3; and cf CT 2.1.8 with mediocres iudices in the interpretatio, and 1.29.2. The possibility that military jurisdictions over civilians were delegated seems to be excluded by the strictures of the edict of the Prefect Statian a.d. 367–370: Oxyrynchus Papyri, ed. Hunt, A. S. (London 1911) 8 no. 1101; also translated in Johnson, A. C. et al., Ancient Roman Statutes (Austin 1961) 250.Google Scholar

⁹¹ For ranks in various officia see the appropriate entries in the Notitia Dignitatum (above, n. 37); centuriones as apparitors are mentioned in CT 1.16.7, a. 331. For the new ranks in Justinian's African offices, see CJ 1.27.2.20–34, a. 534. And cf. Jones, , LRE 563–601, who stresses that, despite the terminology, apparitors were civil servants, not soldiers.Google Scholar

⁹² Murray, , ‘Position of the Grafio’ 796–97.Google Scholar

⁹³ Ibid. 792–98.Google Scholar

⁹⁴ Cf. pp. 81–83.Google Scholar