Pagus

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Pagus (lat., "Flur, Gau ", pl. Pagi ), in ancient Roman times added to the name of the rural districts into which the Roman area was divided by Numa Pompilius or, according to other sources, by Servius Tullius . Since the latter they formed subdivisions of the tribes (electoral districts) and had their own chiefs (magistri pagi), who kept the land registers, directed the paganalia and had to provide services in levies and tribute distribution.

The Romans also transferred the name to foreign peoples, such as the Teutons and the Helvetii .

Franconian Empire

After the Merovingians took power in the former Gallic and Germanic provinces of the Roman Empire, some of which were depopulated and thus no longer had any late Roman administrative structures (especially in the northern Gallic area and along the former Rhine provinces), these new pagi introduced , which usually lacked a main town in the form of a former civitas and whose center could also be a vicus or a fort .

The official in such a pagus was a grafio , from which counts later emerged.

France

In France, the term pagus has survived in today's pays . Many of the pays are still (largely) congruent with the old pagi , for example the Ponthieu and Comminges . The republic took up the term in its regional planning legislation and defined a pays first in 1995, then changed from 1999 onwards as a voluntary planning region without the quality of an independent regional authority.

At the beginning of the 5th century, the Provincia Gallia Lugdunensis Secunda, today's Normandy, was canonically identical with the Diocese of Rouen , to which six suffragan dioceses belonged. Under civil law, however, Lugdunensis Secunda was divided into pagi :

etymology

Pays is derived from the Latin pagus and this in turn from the verb pangere (strike, fasten, meet). So Pagus initially referred to a z. B. territory marked by pegs or stones. Related words are pactum (French pacte , pact, contract) and pax (French paix , peace), but also English the pagans (the pagans, originally the inhabitants of rural areas away from the cities that were not yet covered by the new faith) .

literature

Roman times

  • Michel Tarpin: Vici et pagi dans l'Occident romain (=  Collection de l'École française de Rome . No. 299 ). École française de Rome, Rome 2002, ISBN 2-7283-0582-X (French).

middle Ages

  • Thomas Bauer: The medieval Gaue (= Franz Irsigler [Hrsg.]: Historical Atlas of the Rhineland . Supplement IV / 9). Rheinland-Verlag, Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-7927-1818-9 ( mgh-bibliothek.de [PDF; 8.4 MB ; accessed on July 29, 2017]).
  • Stefan Esders: On the development of the political division of space in the transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages - the example of the pagus . In: Ortwin Dally, Friederike Fless, Rudolf Haensch, Felix Pirson, Susanne Sievers (eds.): Political spaces in premodern societies. Design, perception, function . VML Verlag Marie Leidorf, Rahden / Westfalen 2013, ISBN 3-86757-386-7 , p. 185-201 .
  • Alois Gerlich: Historical regional studies of the Middle Ages . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1986, ISBN 3-534-06743-6 , chap. Gau research, p. 247–254 (abstract on the history and status of Gau research).
  • Wilhelm Niemeyer: The "Pagus" of the early Middle Ages in Hessen . Zugl. Diss. Marburg 1964 (=  publications of the Hessian State Office for Historical Regional Studies . Volume 30 ). Elwert, Marburg 1968, ISBN 978-3-942760-03-4 (with extensive research history).
  • Ulrich Nonn: From the Roman pagus to the Germanic Gau . In: Sebastian Brather, Hans Ulrich Nuber, Heiko Steuer, Thomas Zotz (eds.): Antiquity in the Middle Ages. Persistence - aftermath - perception (=  archeology and history . Volume 21 ). Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Ostfildern 2014, ISBN 978-3-7995-7371-9 , pp. 287-298 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Eugen Ewig: The Merovingians and the Franconian Empire, 6th edition; Stuttgart 2012. Page 97ff. ISBN 978-3-17-022160-4
  2. Loi Pasqua (LOADDT), June 25, 1999
  3. Corresponding entries in various etymological dictionaries and portals for French, Italian and English