ambactus

ambactus or ambactos ( Celtic * ambaχtos , * ambiaχtos , "the one sent around") is the Gaulish word for " servant " or " henchman ".

etymology

The Roman poet Quintus Ennius and Caesar ( Bellum Gallicum 6:15: ambacti clientesque , " followers and servants ") mentioned ambactus for the first time in the above-mentioned meaning. The Roman grammarian Sextus Pompeius Festus explains ambactus as "the one who moved around (around the Lord)" ( ambactus id es circumactus ), composed of * amb- "(around") and * ag- ("to move"). In Cymric , amaeth means " farmer ", "farmer" (see Amaethon ).

According to Reinhard Wenskus , the Greek word συμπεριφερομένους ( symperipheroménous , "behave", for followers) is apparently the rendering of the Gallic ambactos .

In Germanic , ambactus is a Celtic loan word in the form ambaht , * ambaχtaz (" servant ", "servant") ( Gothic andbahts , " bailiff ", " Büttel "). From this word and the derivation ambahti , * ambaχtįa ("service"), New High German "office" emerged. The French ambassade , the Italian ambasciata and the English embassy (all meaning "message") come from the same root.

history

Polybios emphasizes ( Historíai II, 17,12) that the one who had the greatest importance among the Gauls was who had the greatest number of followers or " clients " (έταιρείας, étaireías , "society"). When the influential Helvetian Orgetorix was summoned to the tribal court for his claims to sole rule - the attempt to reintroduce royal dignity was considered a crime worthy of death - he appeared with a crowd of around 10,000 ambacti and thus prevented the verdict.

The relationship between the nobility , who always went to war on horseback, and the servants on foot is illustrated by the example of the Nervi soldiers in the fight against the Romans. According to Caesar, they provided 600 equites (knights) and 60,000 foot fighters, which results in a ratio of 1: 100. The example of Orgetorix shows, however, that individual people could sometimes have far more ambacti . The Haedu prince Dumnorix had a private army and was therefore more powerful than the Vergobretes, who changed annually (the highest magistrate among the Gauls, comparable to the Roman consuls ).

literature

Helmut Birkhan : Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-7001-2609-3 .
Bernhard Maier : Lexicon of Celtic Religion and Culture (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 466). Kröner, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-520-46601-5 .
Bernhard Maier: Small lexicon of names and words of Celtic origin. CH Beck OHG, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-406-49470-6 , p. 66 (keyword "followers").
Wolfgang Meid : The Celts. Reclams Universal Library , Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-15-017053-3 .

Individual evidence

↑ Reinhard Wenskus: Tribal formation and constitution. The emergence of the early medieval gentes. Böhlau, Cologne 1977, ISBN 978-3-412-00177-3 , p. 360.
↑ Helmut Birkhan: Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. P. 1041. (for the entire paragraph "Etymology")
^ Bernhard Maier: Lexicon of the Celtic religion and culture . P. 17. (for the entire "Etymology" section)
↑ Wolfgang Meid: The Celts. Pp. 97-100. (for the entire "History" section)

[1] Reinhard Wenskus: Tribal formation and constitution. The emergence of the early medieval gentes. Böhlau, Cologne 1977, ISBN 978-3-412-00177-3 , p. 360.

[2] Helmut Birkhan: Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. P. 1041. (for the entire paragraph "Etymology")

[3] Bernhard Maier: Lexicon of the Celtic religion and culture . P. 17. (for the entire "Etymology" section)

[4] Wolfgang Meid: The Celts. Pp. 97-100. (for the entire "History" section)