In Holder's Altceltischer Sprachschatz LL. veredus "posthorse" is marked down as of Celtic origin. But the Romans derived the institution of the posts from Central Asia, specifically referred to by Herodotus as of Persian origin. (1) Indeed, Persian barid "veredus, courier, messenger, running footman, a measure of two parasangs of twelve miles," baridan "to send a messenger" is unquestionably older than Lat. veredus, for it is based on Assyr. paradu "to hasten, impetuous," puridu "messenger, posthaste," which are enormously older than Persian barid or Lat. veredus. (2) Our interest lies in the vicissitudes of veredus in Europe. (3)

The provincials, hence also the German colonists in Roman territory, were heavily taxed for the maintenance of highways by being obliged to furnish certain numbers of veredi, swift horses, and paraveredi, heavy draught horses carrying military supplies and other fiscal property. References in the Theodosian Code show that in the fifth century and possibly earlier the obligation to furnish veredi was commuted in the provinces to a pecuniary contribution, while the heavier draught horses seem to have been supplied for a long period afterwards. In and about Rome, possibly through all of Italy, a similar exchange took place by substituting fodder for the older veredi, so that we get references in Cassiodorus to paraveredi et annonae, (4) and it seems from the context that certain emoluments of the judges, called pulveratica, possibly traveling expenses, were in Italy in the sixth century abolished in favor of a supply of fodder for the paraveredi. (5) Indeed, we have not only here, but also in another passage, the specific statement that according to an old law a three days' supply of provision is supplied to the judges and nothing more. (6) This annonae is included in the common technical term apparatus, (7) which in the Frankish immunities quoted farther below is referred to as parata. The veredi were still in use for rapid communication, but the ordinary Goths and Romans were not permitted to use them for private purposes, (8) and these horses were apparently supplied by the state, for the Spaniards, who furnished the fast horses to the Roman government, were provoked when they were asked also to supply the usual paraveredi. (9) It was, indeed, Spain where the fast horses had been procured since the fourth century, (10) and even as late as the ninth century the Spaniards were expected to supply veredi. (11) Hence the highways are in Spain called via de vereda. (12)

Louis I of Germany, apparently influenced by the contemporaneous revival of the Spanish supply of horses to his brother, uses the expression veredi aut veredarii in a German formula of a document, (13) but this formula is not used in any other document that has come down to us. But the combination "veredos vel paraveredos exigere" occurs sufficiently often, to show that the old Roman distinction between the swift and draught horses was not entirely forgotten. (14) We find, however, here freda, as well as veredos, and this form appears as freda, frida, fridda, fretus, etc., in the formula "freda exigere" in hundreds of Frankish immunities from the seventh century on. (15) That the Frankish immunity is based on the Roman immunities is proved not only by their identity in spirit, but also in phraseology, for where the Roman law "De immunitate concessa" of 365 speaks of "vectigalia vel caetera eiusmodi quae inferri fisco moris est, sibi adserant esse concessa" (16) the Merovingian documents have the equivalent fredi concessi. (17) Freda is not derived from inferre, the technical term for "paying the tax or revenue," because both in Italy and in France inferendum had the meaning of "a special tax not included in the immunity," (18) hence it may be found in the same document with freda. (19) This inferendum was distinctly a yearly tribute and as such might be abolished, (20) and yet the influence of inferenda on vereda, so as to change it to freda (which, however, is not a yearly tribute but a special tax) is not excluded, for it occurs already in a document of the year 562, where it has distinctly the meaning of any revenue that may be included in the immunity. (21)

In the Lex romana raetica curiensis the Lat. "mulcta" and "sumtus vel expensae litis" of the Interpretatio of the Theodosian Code are translated by fretum, (22) i.e., here fretum has the meaning of "judicial fee, fine." But there are two passages where fretum refers to the "principale negotium" of the Code, (23) and these demand a special investigation. We find in one of these passages a reference to two kinds of judges, one called "publicus," the other "privatus." As the public judge is invariably mentioned in the Frankish immunities as the one who is not to exact the fredum, nor demand other contributions, it is evident that his usual function is that of collecting or causing to collect such revenues for the state. This is borne out by the specific statement in the Raetian laws that the public judges are those who sit in fiscal cases and exact the revenue, (24) where the corresponding Interpretatio speaks of "exactores." They also attend to criminal cases, (25) even of churchmen. (26) In the beginning of the sixth century this judge was still called by the old name rector provinciae, (27) whose functions had previously been identical with those of the iudex publicus. This latter name was appropriate for him even at that time for he was called "iudex" and also had the supervision of "opera publica." (28)

The various immunities from the iudex publicus are immunities against the competency of his court. Thus, in addition to those mentioned above by Cassiodorus, we may cite the immunity from maintaining the court house, from the mansionaticum, which was subject to his jurisdiction by a law of the year 369. (29) If we now turn to the first of the two passages in the Raetian laws, we find that it is not permissible to pay the fretum to the junior judge, because the iudex publicus, with whom the "principale negotium" lies, is alone entitled to collect the fretum. We have already observed that in Italy the annonae had taken the place of the older contribution of veredi, and that these were used for the judge's fees. This is distinctly implied in a law of 383, where the judges are not permitted to exact from the provincials anything more than food and fodder. (30) In spite of the prohibition to exact horses, the Merovingians, as the documents show, not only exacted them, but also the pecuniary commutation, the fredum, for the veredi, or the annonae of the Italians, nay, the Carolingians found it possible to tax the Spaniards, not only with the ancient veredi, but also with the fredum. (31)

In the Lex ribuaria it is the judex fiscalis, that is, again the judex publicus, who collects the fretum, of which one third is paid over to the fiscus, "in order that the peace may be lasting." (32) The same reference to the maintenance of peace is found in the composition of the fredum in the Lex Baiuwariorum, (33) but here the fredum includes surety, fideiussor, and pay, so that it is obvious that pro fredo means "for the keeping of the peace," hence a surety alone may be a fredum. (34) Wherever, therefore, the combination pro fredo occurs, nearly always to be paid "in fisco" or "in publico," (35) we have a reference to the maintenance of peace, a duty which in the fifth and following centuries was left to the great body of judges, immediately below the rectores provinciae, who were known as defensores or assertores pacis (36) and who were by special regal authority invested among the Visigoths with the right of "making peace." (37)

The Visigothic laws, as codified, have undergone considerable modifications from their Roman origin in the fifth century, but even through all the changes it is possible to notice that the old evectio veredorum, the furnishing of horses for the judges and bailiffs, lay at the foundation of at least a part of their fees. In Theudis' law of 546 the bailiffs are supposed to furnish their own horses while executing orders, that is, summoning a party, but they reimburse themselves from the person in whose interest they travel, by charging a solidus for each horse, four being the maximum allowed. (38) The Lex Visigothorum seems to have here an older text, for while there is the same reference to the bailiff's horses, nothing whatsoever is said about the pecuniary commutation. The interesting part of this latter law is the one which says that these horses are "for the road and dignity," so that where in the east the reference is to the maintenance of the peace, we have here a similar provision for the maintenance of dignity. (39) If we now go back to the fifth century we come to an intermediate time when the Visigoths, whether in Spain or in southern France, must have considered the commutation of the older veredus as intended for the maintenance of peace or dignity. Indeed, the judges are specifically referred to by Cassiodorus as dignitates. (40) This designation is apparently not older than the end of the fifth century, whereas the use of annonae or apparatus for the judge's fees dates at least from the end of the fourth century.

We have accordingly two groups of derivatives in the Gothic language, from veredus towards the end of the fifth century. The first, in accordance with the designations assertor pacis and dignitas, current at the time, produces Goth. ga-wairthi "peace," wairths "worthy, dignified, worth, price," and from these are derived ONorse verðr, AS. weorð, OFrisian werth "worth," Welsh gwerth "price," Lithuanian vertas, OPrussian werths "worthy," OBulgarian vrêd "harm," originally, as still in Croatian, etc., "worth." The Roman reda was originally a light carriage, especially adapted for the use of couriers (41) and it is not at all improbable that as such it was really of Gallic origin, as surmised by Roman writers. But veredus was already known to Martial in the year 101 as a fast hunting horse, hence the use of veredus, though not recorded, must popularly be much older, to have lost its original meaning of "posthorse." Now Rostowzew and Preisigke have shown conclusively that the Persian post existed uninterruptedly in the east from the time of Herodotus and Xenophon, (42) and the document of the year 259 BC, which gives an account of the post in Ptolemaic Egypt shows that the Persian terms for various parts of the service introduced into Egypt during the Persian domination, have reached Rome and the West through a Greek transformation of the vocabulary. This explains at once why we meet in the cursus publicus of the fourth century AD with what otherwise would seem to be hybrid words, such as paraveredus and parangaria. If then veredus could have entered the Latin language only through the Greek, we at once get the Greek beredoj or beraidoj as a much older term, which through an intermediary bredoj would produce the recorded redh, redion hence Latin reda "chariot," and through a form eredoj the other forms eridia, erwdia "chariot," actually recorded by Hesychius. That bredoj, that is, #redoj actually existed cannot, as is generally done, be referred to the Semito-Egyptian marka buthah, but is a transformation of bredoj to breoj, bereoj, which again are not hypothetical forms, for berrhj "runner," berreuei "he runs" are recorded by Hesychius. Therefore there is absolutely no reason for deriving reda from the Celtic, for which there is no other authority than Quintilian's but we must consider it as directly derived from the Greek of Ptolemaic Egypt.

While all the languages have derivatives from this red- distinctly referring to the postroads, the Gothic has no other meaning for this group than that of the current substitute for the supply of posthorses by the apparatus or parata, (43) which, however, the other languages also record. While the Gothic has raidjan, ga-raidjan "to arrange, prepare," ga-raideins "arrangement," ga-raiths "arranged, determined," OHG. has reita "vereda, (44) reda, chariot," rîtari, ritari "horseman, rider," rîtan "ride," reiti "paratus," gareiti "biga, falera, quadriga," AS rád "riding, journey, way," rad "cart, chariot," rídan "to ride," ridda "knight, rider," raed, hraed, geraed "swift, quick, ready," ONorse rîða "to ride," greiða "to make ready," etc., OIrish riadaim "I drive," reid, OWelsh ruid, OBreton roed "plain, smooth." From this group cannot be separated Goth. ga-redan "to have a mind to," for in the compounds ur-redan, faura-ga-redan this redan has the meaning "arrange, determine." This at once connects ONorse ráða, AS. ráedan, OHG. râtan "advice," etc., with it. In the German gerät "advice, tool, harness" we have the two meanings connected. In the Slavic languages we have two series, rad- and rend- , which belong here. The first, giving Russian rad "prepared, glad," Polish rada "advice," etc., is obviously derived from the German. The nasalised form, which, however, in Lithuanian and Lettish also occurs unnasalised, is unquestionably older. We have OBulgarian redu, Bulg. red, Pol. rzad "order," Lith. rinda "row," redas "order," Let. redit, rinda, rist, ridu "to arrange."

The positive proof of the relation of this group of words to veredus in the sense of "apparatus, parata" is given by its presence in the Romance languages exclusively in the sense of "apparatus, parata," that is, of "equipage, harness, supply or horses for work," etc. We find here the LLatin forms corredum and arredum and its many derivatives. We have arredio "apparatus bellicus" recorded by Ducange in the 14 century, but the Italian arredare, Spanish arrear, OFrench arréer, Provençal arredar, arrezar "to equip, adorn" prove the existence of the word before. Arezamentum "equipment" is recorded in the 13. cent. (45) It is this arez-, more properly arrez-, which has produced arnes "baggage, equipment, household goods," etc., (46) more especially "equipment of a horse, harness." (47) Similarly corredum is a close translation of "apparatus" and more especially refers to the contribution in kind due to the sovereign when passing through the country, provender, fodder, (48) but the Spanish correo has best preserved the original meaning of "post." There is a very large number of variations of these words, (49) and the OFrench conroi, corroi has preserved the original meaning of "apparatus."




Endnotes