Arimanni

In the early medieval kingdom of the Lombards in Italy, the Arimanni ( Middle Latin: arimannos ) were initially the free land - owning class of warriors who were subject to the king's duty of arms and court . In the sources (including in legal texts such as the Edictum Rothari ) this social class is referred to synonymously as exercitales and liberi homines .

The status was continued under the Carolingian rule , but was subject to change over time and was never uniform, but showed regional differences in social development. The Carolingian upper Italian state settlements in the 9th and 10th centuries were called Armannien , in which the Arimannes were subsequently subject to church taxation through donations to the clergy. The associations of the Arimannes formed in the Arimannia became an important factor in the development of the (Upper) Italian communities.

In high medieval Italy, the term Arimannie referred to a transfer of a municipality or city - for example, for encumbered property - to the king, as requested by Frederick I Barbarossa at the Italian Diet of 1158 ( laws of Roncaglia ).

The vulgar Latin term is derived from the Germanic * Hari-man "Heermann" for the simple unspecific designation of a warrior such as Old High German hari- or heriman and Old Norse hermaðr .

literature

• Heinrich Beck , Reinhard Wenskus :  arimanni. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 1, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1973, ISBN 3-11-004489-7 , pp. 405-406.
• Gerhard Dilcher : Arimannia. In: Concise dictionary on German legal history . 2nd edition, Volume 1, Schmidt, Berlin 2004-2008, Col. 220-223.
• Jörg Jarnut : Observations on the Longobard arimanni and exercitales. In: Journal of the Savigny Foundation for Legal History - German Department . Volume 88, 1971, pp. 1-28.
• Gabriele von Ohlberg: The term for social classes, strata and groups in the Leges Barbarorum (= work on early medieval research. Volume 11). Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1991, ISBN 978-3-11-085006-2 , pp. 90-95 ( Google book search ).
• Giovanni Tabacco: Arimannia, Arimannen . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 1, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1980, ISBN 3-7608-8901-8 , Sp. 932 f.
• Chris Wickham : Early medieval Italy. Central Power and Local Society 400-1000. The MacMillan Press, London 1981, ISBN 0-333-26671-4 .