Gallo-Roman senate nobility

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Gallic or Gallo-Roman senate nobility describes a high-ranking social group in late antique Gaul or in the early Merovingian period . The development of this group is largely based on the social history studies by Karl Friedrich Stroheker , which are relevant to this day.

In this context, Gallo-Romans , whose ancestors held higher (western) Roman state offices in the 4th or 5th century , are counted among the so-called senatorial nobility. The prestigious and respected, albeit hardly politically influential Roman senatorial class ( ordo senatorius ) expanded considerably in late antiquity, but at the same time broadened into several rank classes ( viri clarissimi , spectabiles and illustres ). Only a small part of the senators (the viri illustres ) sat in the Roman Senate, which is why a distinction must be made between members of the Senate and Senate members in the true sense.

Several senatorial climbers owed their ranking to the dynamic development since the time of Constantine , when the higher civil service enabled people - regardless of their previous position - to rise to the social elite and formed a “new nobility”, which was characterized by the favor of the ruler and the imperial civil service. In the 5th century these people included Sidonius Apollinaris , Emperor Avitus and several bishops, for example Avitus of Vienne and Ruricius of Limoges . Heredity of class, of possessions and privileges, extensive land ownership, representative lifestyle, personal connections, classical education and privileges (tax and legal) characterized this group, which exerted particular influence in Gaul and Italy. At the same time, however, the senatorial nobility became provincial. Since the early 5th century, all local officials in Gaul came only from the local senatorial nobility.

While the Gallic senatorial elite had considerable political influence on the imperial level in the 4th century, they could hardly influence imperial politics in the 5th century. The attempt to stop this process failed with the overthrow of the emperor Avitus in 456. The imperial court and later finally the imperial level as a political point of reference ceased to exist. At the local level, on the other hand, the senatorial elite hardly lost any power - on the contrary. Gaulish landowners acted rather as cartridges for small farmers and other workers, tied them to their person in return and gained additional property.

Politically, several members of the Gallo-Roman elite, which by no means formed a solid unit, behaved quite flexibly. Some of them made contact with Germanic leaders who invaded Gaul in the course of the end of the migration of the peoples and formed independent empires there in the late 5th century ( Visigoths , Burgundy and Franks ). In the second half of the fifth century, instead of the secular, the spiritual career became increasingly attractive for the Gallic upper class. The office of bishop became a new point of reference for the self-image of Gallic aristocrats, whereby they used this actually spiritual office for political purposes and upgraded it in a representative way.

Numerous representatives of the Gallic senate nobility continued to hold important positions in administration and the church from the late 5th century until the following Merovingian era, especially in central and southern Gaul, where their influence was most pronounced. In doing so, they relied not least on their own (sometimes very significant) possessions and privileges as well as on family networks. The members of the Gallic elite managed to exert political influence and give cultural impulses for a long time. The Gallic senatorial nobility was of considerable importance with regard to the formation of early medieval society in Gaul: "The senatorial upper class provided Merovingian Gaul with the strongest strands of continuity in spiritual culture, administration and church."

The Gallo-Roman bishop and historian Gregor von Tours , who himself came from a well-connected senatorial family (with Gregor von Langres' ancestor ), continued to see himself as a subject of the (Eastern) Roman emperor and still used the word senator in his works around 590 as a high honorary title for a special group of distinguished Gallo-Romans, whose members he accorded a prominent social rank. These were descendants of officials of the old empire, which was still important in the early Merovingian times. According to Stroheker, the term senator in Gregory of Tours was not defined by reputation, power or wealth, but rather by descent from one of these older senatorial families. Frank Gilliard, on the other hand, expressed himself more critically, who assumed that there were other climbers who joined the group of "Senators of Gregory" in post-Roman times.

It should be noted that members of the senatorial nobility of Gaul tried in the 5th and 6th centuries to maintain their social position by exercising high local, especially ecclesiastical posts. However, one should perhaps not overestimate the role of senatorial persons: In recent times Steffen Patzold has tried to revise the previous research opinion that the senatorial families have virtually monopolized the episcopal offices for their members. According to Patzold, the source base in this regard is rather thin and often too ambiguous. The corresponding research discussion is currently still in motion.

literature

  • Hendrik Hess: The self-image of the Gallo-Roman upper class . De Gruyter, Berlin 2019.
  • Bernhard Jussen : About 'episcopal rule' and the procedures of political-social rearrangement in Gaul between antiquity and the Middle Ages . In: Historische Zeitschrift 260, 1995, pp. 673-718.
  • Reinhold Kaiser : The Roman heritage and the Merovingian Empire (= Encyclopedia of German History. Vol. 26). 3rd revised and expanded edition. Oldenbourg, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-486-56722-5 .
  • Karl Friedrich Stroheker : The senatorial nobility in late antique Gaul. Alma Mater Verlag, Tübingen 1948 (reprint Darmstadt 1970).

Remarks

  1. ↑ Cf. generally Dirk Schlinkert: Ordo senatorius and nobilitas. The constitution of the senate nobility in late antiquity. Stuttgart 1996.
  2. ^ Karl Friedrich Stroheker: The senatorial nobility in late antique Gaul. Tübingen 1948 (reprint Darmstadt 1970), p. 14ff.
  3. ↑ Cf. Reinhold Kaiser: The Roman Heritage and the Merovingian Empire. 3rd revised and expanded edition. Munich 2004, p. 5f.
  4. ↑ Sebastian Scholz : The Merovingians. Stuttgart 2015, p. 23f.
  5. ↑ Sebastian Scholz: The Merovingians. Stuttgart 2015, p. 22.
  6. ↑ In summary Sebastian Scholz: The Merovingians. Stuttgart 2015, pp. 24–26. See in more detail the overview with Bernhard Jussen: About 'bishopric rule' and the procedures of political and social reorganization in Gaul between antiquity and the Middle Ages . In: Historische Zeitschrift 260, 1995, pp. 673-718.
  7. ^ Quote from Reinhold Kaiser: The Roman legacy and the Merovingian empire. 3rd revised and expanded edition. Munich 2004, p. 70.
  8. ^ Karl Friedrich Stroheker: The senatorial nobility in late antique Gaul. Tübingen 1948 (reprint Darmstadt 1970), p. 112ff.
  9. ^ Frank D. Gilliard: The Senators of Sixth-Century Gaul , in: Speculum 54, 1979, pp. 685-697.
  10. ↑ Cf. for example Martin Heinzelmann : Bischofsherrschaft in Gallien. On the continuity of the Roman leadership from the 4th to 7th centuries. Zurich / Munich 1976; Bernhard Jussen: About 'episcopal rule' and the procedures of political-social rearrangement in Gaul between antiquity and the Middle Ages . In: Historische Zeitschrift 260, 1995, pp. 673-718.
  11. ↑ Steffen Patzold: Bishops, social origins and the organization of local rule around 500. In: Mischa Meier , Steffen Patzold (ed.): Chlodwigs Welt. Organization of rule around 500. Stuttgart 2014, pp. 523–543.
  12. ↑ See also Sebastian Scholz: The Merovingians. Stuttgart 2015, p. 26f.