Thiufa

Last updated

The thiufa was the highest division of the Visigothic army in Hispania. Based on the known decimal structure of the rest of the army, it seems likely that it was nominally composed of one thousand men. Its commander was called a thiufadus (also tiuphadus). [1] [2]

Contents

Structure

It is unknown if the thiufae were ever actually called into service or if they existed only on paper. Perhaps smaller or larger units formed the actual basis of the Visigothic army.[ citation needed ]

Etymology

The term thiufadus derives from either the Latin devotus or the Germanic thusundifaths. The mechanism of the transmission via the latter is, however, considered impossible by some. [3] The Latin devotus was generally applied by the Ostrogoths and Visigoths to high-ranking Goths in the Gothic language as thiwadus. [3]

Thiufadus

A class of officials called the confiscatores or exactores in the Codex Theodosianus , Lex Salica , and Edictum Chilperici are referred to in the early Visigothic laws of Theudis as compulsares vel executores. In the later Visigothic laws, like the Liber Iudiciorum , they go by various titles: compulsor exercitus , servus dominicus, or thiufadus. [3] The thiufadus was elsewhere called a vassus regis (vassal of the king) and agente in rebus. [3]

The thiufadus, however, was both a military and judicial official. [3] His position is immediately below that of the comes (count) or vicarius (vicar): a position the same as that of the Frankish thunginus or Late Roman ducenarius . [3] Their position in the army was above that of the centenarius (commander of a hundred), but it cannot be positively identified with the position of millenarius (commander of a thousand). [3]

The Liber Iudiciorum augmented the powers of the thiufadi. In their double capacity as general and judge they were assisted by sayos. The thiufadus, who controlled the countryside, seems to have been weaker than the counts who controlled the civitates, city districts.

Notes

  1. ↑ Thompson, E. A. (1969). The Goths in Spain. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
  2. ↑ Contamine, Phillippe; trans. Michael Jones (1984). War in the Middle Ages. Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd., page 20.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Wiener, Leo (1915). Commentary to the Germanic Laws and Mediaeval Documents. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Sources

Related Research Articles

Ostrogoths

The Ostrogoths were the eastern branch of the older Goths. The Ostrogoths traced their origins to the Greutungi – a branch of the Goths who had migrated southward from the Baltic Sea and established a kingdom north of the Black Sea, during the 3rd and 4th centuries. They built an empire stretching from the Black Sea to the Baltic. The Ostrogoths were probably literate in the 3rd century, and their trade with the Romans was highly developed. Their Danubian kingdom reached its zenith under King Ermanaric, who is said to have committed suicide at an old age when the Huns attacked his people and subjugated them in about 370.

Visigoths Gothic tribe

The Visigoths were the western branches of the nomadic tribes of Germanic peoples referred to collectively as the Goths. These tribes flourished and spread throughout the late Roman Empire in Late Antiquity, or what is known as the Migration Period. The Visigoths emerged from earlier Gothic groups who had invaded the Roman Empire beginning in 376 and had defeated the Romans at the Battle of Adrianople in 378. Relations between the Romans and the Visigoths were variable, alternately warring with one another and making treaties when convenient. The Visigoths invaded Italy under Alaric I and sacked Rome in 410. After the Visigoths sacked Rome, they began settling down, first in southern Gaul and eventually in Hispania, where they founded the Visigothic Kingdom and maintained a presence from the 5th to the 8th centuries AD.

Visigothic Code

The Visigothic Code, also called Lex Visigothorum, is a set of laws first promulgated by king Chindasuinth of the Visigothic Kingdom in his second year of rule (642–643) that survives only in fragments. In 654 his son, king Recceswinth (649–672), published the enlarged law code, which was the first law code that applied equally to the conquering Goths and the general population, of which the majority had Roman roots, and had lived under Roman laws.

Erwig Visigoth king

Erwig was a king of the Visigoths in Hispania (680–687).

Recceswinth King of the Visigoths

Recceswinth, also known as Reccesuinth, Recceswint, Reccaswinth, Recesvinto, Recceswinthus, Reccesvinthus, and Recesvindus (Latin), was the Visigothic King of Hispania, Septimania and Galicia in 649–672. He ruled jointly with his father Chindaswinth until his father's death in 653.

Wittiza Visigoth King of Hispania

Wittiza was the Visigothic King of Hispania from 694 until his death, co-ruling with his father, Egica, until 702 or 703.

Reccared II Visigothic King

Reccared II, was Visigothic King of Hispania, Septimania and Galicia briefly in 621. His father and predecessor was Sisebut and his mother was his second wife, the bastard daughter of Reccared I by Floresinda. He was but a child when placed on the throne and as with most Visigothic attempts to establish a royal dynasty, Sisebut's was opposed by the nobility and ultimately failed.

Sack of Rome (410) Visigoth siege and looting of Rome in 410

The Sack of Rome occurred on 24 August 410 AD. The city was attacked by the Visigoths led by King Alaric. At that time, Rome was no longer the capital of the Western Roman Empire, having been replaced in that position first by Mediolanum in 286 and then by Ravenna in 402. Nevertheless, the city of Rome retained a paramount position as "the eternal city" and a spiritual center of the Empire. The sack was a major shock to contemporaries, friends and foes of the Empire alike.

Arnold Wycombe Gomme was a British classical scholar, lecturer in ancient Greek and Greek history (1911–1945), professor of ancient Greek, University of Glasgow (1946–1957), Fellow of the British Academy (1947).

Visigothic Kingdom State that emerged after the Visigothic invasion of the Iberian Peninsula

The Visigothic Kingdom or Kingdom of the Visigoths was a kingdom that occupied what is now southwestern France and the Iberian Peninsula from the 5th to the 8th centuries. One of the Germanic successor states to the Western Roman Empire, it was originally created by the settlement of the Visigoths under King Wallia in the province of Gallia Aquitania in southwest Gaul by the Roman government and then extended by conquest over all of Hispania. The Kingdom maintained independence from the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire, whose attempts to re-establish Roman authority in Hispania were only partially successful and short-lived.

Gunderic was the Archbishop of Toledo briefly between Felix and Sindered from about 701. He was a Visigoth and is highly praised in the Chronicle of 754, according to which he was a holy man who performed many miracles. Though certainly a man of learning, none of his writings are preserved.

Fidelis was the Bishop of Mérida flourishing probably in the 550s and 560s.

Paul was the metropolitan bishop of Mérida in the mid-sixth century. He was a Greek physician who had travelled to Mérida, where there may have been a Greek expatriate community. Certainly enough Greek clergy were travelling to Spain in the early sixth century that Pope Hormisdas wrote to the Spanish bishops in 518 explaining what to do if Greeks still adhering to the Acacian heresy desired to enter communion with the local church.

Athaloc was the Visigothic Arian Archbishop of Narbonne at the time of the Third Council of Toledo in 589. He was the metropolitan of his province in parallel with the Catholic hierarchy.

Claudius was a Hispano-Roman Catholic dux (duke) of Lusitania in the late sixth century. He was one of the most successful generals of Reccared I.

Quiricus was the metropolitan bishop of Toledo from about 667 until his death. He may be identical to Bishop Quiricus of Barcelona, who does not appear as bishop there after 667. If so, his transfer to Toledo was contrary to canon law, but would demonstrate the growing importance of Toledo in the Visigothic church.

Segga was a Visigothic usurper who briefly claimed the kingship in 587 before being put down by the legitimate sovereign, Reccared I.

Chindasuinth King of the Visigoths

Chindasuinth (also spelled Chindaswinth, Chindaswind, Chindasuinto, Chindasvindo, or Khindaswinth was Visigothic King of Hispania, from 642 until his death in 653. He succeeded Tulga, from whom he took the throne in a coup. He was elected by the nobles and anointed by the bishops on April 30th, 642.

Early Germanic law was the form of law followed by the early Germanic peoples. It was an important element of early Germanic culture.

Quiricus, a churchman and well-connected man of letters, was the bishop of Barcelona from 648 until about 667 during the Visigothic period.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.