Civitas

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Cívitas (plural: Civitates), literally “citizenship”, is the Latin word for a semi-autonomous administrative unit of the middle level. The civitates always consisted of an urban center and surrounding area and were mostly named after their main town or the associated tribe.

Civitas can also generally mean “citizenship”; the most important was the civitas Romana , i.e. Roman citizenship, which was finally granted to all free residents of the empire in 212 AD by the Emperor Caracalla through the Constitutio Antoniniana .

Characteristics and shapes

Representative public buildings such as the forum, basilica (administration building at the forum), theaters, temples, baths, water pipes and rest stations (mansiones) are typical of the main Civitas locations . The civitas usually had a city council ( curia ) and its own officials (especially the duumvirn , who acted as "mayors" in many places) who were responsible for local administration and contact persons for the Roman central authority. In the border regions, important military units, such as cavalry units ( Alen ), were often stationed in such places, at least when they were built. Some of the main civitas places, such as the Roman Rottweil ( Arae Flaviae ), were at the same time Municipia , some were even colonies , although the difference between these two forms cannot always be precisely determined, at least during the imperial era. In the western part of the empire in particular, the Romans often specifically founded urban settlements, as their rule was based on urban structures (in the east, the existing poleis , which were organized in a similar way, were mostly used for this purpose ).

The civitates were divided into three large subgroups, although here too the exact characteristics are not always clear and often can be traced back to the respective initial phase of the relationship with Rome. One differentiated:

  • civitas stipendiaria (taxable municipality)
  • civitas foederata (allied community)
  • civitas libera (free community)
  • civitas sine foedere (without "sworn" alliance)

Late Roman period

Since 212 AD, almost all Roman cities had at least the rank of Municipium; From the point of view of late Roman authors like Augustine , there was basically only one civitas left , namely Rome. In fact, the term civitas remained a synonym for city or municipality , especially since the people also had that of their home municipality in addition to Roman citizenship.

From the 4th century onwards, the emperors withdrew fiscal self-government from most cities in order to be able to better control tax revenue. In the following two centuries the character of the civitates gradually changed and they lost their old autonomy; Thus, Emperor Constantius II withdrew most of the cities from managing their surrounding areas. In late antiquity , the main civitas towns often became bishoprics, as the church hierarchy in the west often followed state structures after the end of the persecution of Christians in the early 4th century. In this way, the borders of the dioceses have partially preserved the old civitas borders over the storms of the migration period . An example of this in Germany is the relatively small (and finally dissolved in the early 19th century) diocese of Worms (Latin: Borbetomagus ), the area of ​​which apparently corresponded to that of the old Worms civitas . In the 6th century there were still numerous civitates in Gaul, Hispania and Italy , although their character and function had evidently changed many times.

Well-known civitates in the province of Germania superior

Basically, it can be assumed that there were other civitates . It is not known to which civitas the provincial capital Mainz ( Mogontiacum in Latin ) belonged. It can be speculated whether the Aresaces (a sub-tribe of the Treveri ) who settled in the area managed an independent civitas or whether the area around Mainz was directed more militarily or directly by the governor. How the areas in the northernmost part of the Germania superior - the area around Confluentes (Koblenz) - were structured is also unknown.

CS Sommer also considers the Swiss Schleitheim ( Iuliomagus ) near Schaffhausen on the south-north road coming from Windisch AG (Vindonissa) as the center of a civitas. The main argument for this is the geographical location, unambiguous finds are missing there so far, but a quite large Roman bath proves the importance of the settlement, which was at least one vicus (small town or camp village).

Also Strasbourg was once called civitas referred.

After the discovery of a representative administrative building in Heidenheim an der Brenz ( Civitas Aquileia ) at the end of the 1990s, it was discussed whether this city also had the status of a civitas . For this it is stated:

  1. the location at a junction of five Roman roads,
  2. the size of the settlement of at least 15, more likely 20 hectares,
  3. the important garrison of the ala II flavia milliaria , a unit with over 1000 horses, which was then moved to what is now Aalen around 159 AD , and
  4. the spatial distance to other main Civitas locations.

An administrative center at this point would have been logical and useful.

The Roman town of Pforzheim (Latin portus ) may also have been the capital of a civitas for a time. Representative buildings were erected here in the 3rd century, and there is no other Civitas capital in the vicinity.

There were probably a few other civitates in what is now Baden-Württemberg , especially in the Upper Rhine region and in Upper Swabia , whose Roman past has been less well researched than that of the areas closer to the Limes further north. If there were no further civitates there , very wide and less harmonious boundaries would have to be assumed for the known civitates .

Civitates of the Western Slavs

The term civitas was also used by German medieval ethnography to describe settlement units of the Slavs (e.g. Bavarian geographer ). It is often unclear with what meaning the medieval scribe used the term. There are several interpretations in the scientific discussion:

  • a settlement area in which a gentile-organized group of Slavic settlers has settled
  • an early feudal settlement area with a political and military center in the form of a main castle
  • an early urban settlement, often fortified, in which a population who is not primarily active in agriculture lives
  • Border districts of Slavic tribal areas that enclose the central region and primarily perform military tasks
  • central castle complex, possibly with associated outer bailey settlement

The scribes of the High Middle Ages also use the term civitas for non-Slavic cities . The terminology changes over the centuries, depending on the region and the urban development processes there ("from the castle to the city ").

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karl Bartsch : Chrestomathie de l'ancien Français (VIIIe – XVe siècles) ... 1866, 7th edition, ed. by Adolf Hornung, Leipzig 1901, column 3 f. ( Les serments de Strasbourg de 842 )