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They developed the system of retainers, that is, the privilege of the nobility to surround themselves with a number of hired mounted servants the -ambacti- as they were called and thereby to form a state within the state; and, resting on the support of these troops of their own, they defied the legal authorities and the common levy and practically broke up the commonwealth.
If thus the system of -ambacti- among the Celts was not an ancient and national, but a comparatively recent institution, it is looking to the relation which had subsisted for centuries between the Celts and Germans, and which is to be explained farther on not merely possible but even probable that the Celts, in Italy as in Gaul, employed Germans chiefly as those hired servants-at- arms.
This chief was styled Senior, Lord, and the like terms, which marked out a superiority in age and merit; the followers were called Ambacti, Comites, Leudes, Vassals, and other terms, marking submission and dependence.
These the ancient Gauls, who nearly resembled the Germans in their customs, called Ambacti; the Romans called them Comites. Over these their chief had a considerable power, and the more considerable because it depended upon influence rather than institution: influence among so free a people being the principal source of power.
If thus the system of -ambacti- among the Celts was not an ancient and national, but a comparatively recent institution, it is looking to the relation which had subsisted for centuries between the Celts and Germans, and which is to be explained farther on not merely possible but even probable that the Celts, in Italy as in Gaul, employed Germans chiefly as those hired servants-at- arms.
According to all analogy the right to keep -ambacti-, that is, doouloi misthotoi , cannot have belonged to the Celtic nobility from the outset, but must only have developed itself gradually in antagonism to the older monarchy and to the equality of the free commons.
According to all analogy the right to keep -ambacti-, that is, doouloi misthotoi , cannot have belonged to the Celtic nobility from the outset, but must only have developed itself gradually in antagonism to the older monarchy and to the equality of the free commons.
They developed the system of retainers, that is, the privilege of the nobility to surround themselves with a number of hired mounted servants the -ambacti- as they were called and thereby to form a state within the state; and, resting on the support of these troops of their own, they defied the legal authorities and the common levy and practically broke up the commonwealth.
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